Hannes Wessels

A 14th generation white African Hannes Wessels was born in 1956 in what was then Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia. After leaving school he served and saw action with the Rhodesian Light Infantry before acquiring a law degree but chose not to practise. He hunted big game professionally in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania in a twenty year career. In 1994 he was severely gored by a wounded buffalo which almost cost him his life. He has published Strange Tales from Africa in America which is a collection of stories about people and places encountered by him in the course of his hunting days. His biography of PK van der Byl (former Rhodesian Defense Minister) includes a revised history of the Rhodesian political imbroglio. His book about the Rhodesian SAS titled A Handful of Hard Men was well received. He has recently published Guns, Golf and Glory which he co-wrote with friend and former world number one golfer, Nick Price. His second book on the Rhodesian SAS, We Dared to Win is now available. He is married to Mandy and has two daughters; Hope 19 and Jana 16 and lives in Darling in the Cape Province of South Africa. While no longer directly involved in hunting he retains business interests in this sector and remains keenly interested in all matters relating to African wildlife and conservation.

Misrule Britannia

Watching events unfold in England, as a dangerously polarized country edges ever closer to conflict, brings me no joy despite the fact I consider myself a victim of British political perfidy. Nothing that is happening there now surprises me; in fact, the only surprise is that it has taken the ...

After the “Palefaces”

If you have a heart in Africa it’s probably not a good idea to read Martin Meredith’s State of Africa because if you do, it will, in all likelihood, break it. In it, he covers, in gory detail, what has happened on the continent in the postcolonial era, and while it’s riveting, it is also ...

The Elizabethan Legacy

Like most people I did not know the Queen, but I did know her husband inasmuch as I spent an afternoon with Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace almost forty years ago. Being involved in the World Wildlife Fund and related associations, he wanted to know more about safari hunting and how it could be ...

Nowhere To Run To

Virtually all my life—well, since I could read, write, listen, and understand—I have looked respectfully to the Western democracies of the world as examples of how successful countries should be structured, governed, and led. As an African of European descent I have long longed for the day our ...

In Africa, Black Lives DON’T Matter

We are probably few in number, but for those of us Africans, of all races, who have long been hoping something would change for the better, the future may never have looked bleaker, in my humble opinion. Since independence, I think it is safe to say that the quality of governance in sub-Saharan ...

Come Back, America

Donald Trump got himself into terrible trouble for referring to some African countries as “s---holes.” The fact is, most people who live in those countries would probably agree with him, but the truth matters little these days. The Biden administration will probably revert to type, forgive all ...

Lessons From an Old Soldier

White people everywhere, including my own children, are being encouraged, in some cases compelled, to acknowledge guilt for the cardinal crime of being born white. An entire generation has been taught, nay, indoctrinated, to understand and believe that Europeans have done almost nothing throughout ...

Class Homicide

Beit Hall at Plumtree School is a beautiful old building built at considerable cost over 100 years ago by early Rhodesian settlers, through which future generations, involving hundreds of thousands of boys of all races, have passed on their way to acquiring the knowledge that would ready them for ...

Trump in the Crosshairs

Trying to understand the mindset and behavior of today’s liberals begins with trying to define this particular class of people. A liberal is someone who believes in a doctrine that emphasizes individual autonomy, equality of opportunity, intellectual liberty, and an acceptance of Christianity as ...

The Tragedy of Africa

It’s over sixty years since Ghana became independent from Britain. The world celebrated as the sun began to set on the imperial era. “African Nationalism,” in the form of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, entered the stage, and the world celebrated the breaking of a golden dawn bringing bright light ...