The See-Saw Years offers a nostalgic look back at settler life in Rhodesia. As a film marking the end of both the Central African Film Unit and the Federation that the Unit sought to promote, it offers both a romantic celebration of traditional settler life and an appeal for constancy in the face of potential change.

From the outset, the film creates an idealised image of settler life – opening with a friendly cricket match at the local country club – and presents this story as representative of the settler experience. On spotting his old farmhouse, the commentator remarks that ‘there must be one of them on every farm on Rhodesia’, before adding that ‘really it’s full of memories for all of us’. These memories are then recalled through the flashback, which follows the experiences of the commentator, accompanied throughout by ‘good old Sammy’. The commentator speaks effusively of his childhood, emphasising the importance of the land and country – ‘but most of all it’s the countryside I remember, free for two small boys to run in’, ‘golden days in a golden land. They seemed as though they would never end’. As he does so, he and Sam fish and run together to the accompaniment of up-tempo music, reminiscent of Westerns.

Particular importance is also placed on family. Indeed, the film plays almost as a paean to a previous generation of settlers. ‘It was my idea of heaven to go around with Dad’ the commentator states. He acknowledges the hard work required – ‘it will never be an easy life, but it’s a good one for people like us’ – and repeatedly notes the ‘work’ and ‘worry’ put in by these early farmers to ensure that future generations had ‘our farm, our home’. Later, when noting the modern organisation of tobacco farmers, he remarks ‘if only Dad could have been there to see how right he and Bill Robson had been’. He also recalls the role of wives who, despite the difficulties, ‘never let it show’. ‘What a grand lot they were’ he concludes.

Through its flashback sequence, the film highlights the fluidity and continuation of this traditional life across generations. For example, upon building a dam ‘as Dad had planned’, the commentator watches his children play and remarks that ‘I went straight back to my childhood days’. Yet, in romanticising this bygone era – ‘terrific days those… everyone looking happy’, ‘what a way to grow up, what a beautiful country’ – the commentator also reacts against any modern changes, particularly in urban areas. ‘I’m really sorry for those people you read about today filled with complexes and inhibitions’, he remarks, over images of the farming families singing and dancing around the campfire. Upon visiting Salisbury, he explains that ‘we always used to meet in the old Grand Hotel at the end of the day, just as Mum and Dad used to’. Again, he follows the ways of his parents, but he complains here that ‘now they’ve closed that down too’. ‘So I suppose’, he concludes, ‘we will have to go to one of the new places, all air conditioning and modern furniture. Not a patch on the friendly old Grand’.

The film marks the end of an era, for both the Unit and the Federation, and this seems to be acknowledged in the nostalgic reminiscences of this traditional settler life. However, the film’s conclusion suggests that these farming traditions can continue for a new generation. In the final scene, the commentator takes his young son, but not his disappointed daughter, to help him with his work. ‘As Dad used to say this is a job for the men of the family’ he states, as father, son and his loyal African farm manager, Sam, all head off towards the camera. The scene, using the term ‘men of the family’ which was earlier used by his father, reiterates traditional gender, and racial, roles, and, in particular, this link across generations. The final words – ‘Marobi the same as ever, still the master of the Lawrence family’ – promote this unchanging existence, as the film, the Unit that produced it, and the Federation it represented, all fade out.

Tom Rice (March 2009)