52 pages • 1 hour read
Alexandra FullerDon't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 17-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Vacation”
After Olivia’s death, the Fullers embark on a road trip through war-torn Rhodesia, seeking refuge from their grief. The family encounters two hitchhikers and reluctantly accommodates the strangers into their already-crowded car.
Alexandra notices a stark contrast between the European-owned farms and impoverished African-owned ones. Her father blames the desolate state of the lands on the ethnicity of the inhabitants. He refers to Africans using a derogatory slur, implying that their race inherently makes them inferior farmers. Parroting her father’s views, Alexandra echoes the slur and claims that she will teach Africans how to farm properly.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Chimurenga: 1979”
One year before the Rhodesian Bush War ends, African farmers experience food scarcity as crops go untended and cattle stray. Nicola has 10-year-old Alexandra assist her in rounding up stray cattle that have wandered onto their farm from nearby villages. They navigate in relentless heat through dense bush near the Mozambican border.
Nicola leaves Alexandra alone briefly, and, frightened, she screams for her mother. The day-long ordeal is exhausting and leaves Alexandra thirsty and irritated, but both successfully corral the cattle back home. Her mother sells the rounded-up cattle and uses the money to send Vanessa to England and take the family on a camping trip to South Africa.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Violet”
The Fullers find their farm has been raided. Their possessions are gone, and their maid, Violet, is critically wounded. Nicola tends to Violet and calls for backup. Believing the cook, July, is responsible, Tim assembles a team of their most trusted laborers to help track him down, and they leave early the next day after medics arrive to take Violet away.
Led by a skilled tracker, Tim and his group eventually find July and his accomplice in hiding. They capture and brutally beat July before radioing home with the news. Back at the farm, an enraged Nicola confronts July, and the workers further beat the attacker. Rhodesian police take July and his accomplice into custody. Despite being handcuffed and tied to the back of the police vehicle, July jumps out in a desperate escape but is dragged back into the truck.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Selling”
Tim wakes Alexandra and Vanessa up for the yearly tobacco sale, which determines the family’s financial well-being. Tim secures a profitable sale, enabling them to splurge on new clothes, lavish meals, and a luxurious night at a friend’s townhouse. However, upon their return to the farm, they revert to their usual rationed lifestyle.
Chapter 21 Summary: “School”
Alexandra’s early education involves daily lessons with her mother, listening to educational radio programs, and playing with her nanny and children from the compound, whom she bosses around. Upon turning 8, she attends boarding school alongside her sister Vanessa. Both sisters attend a whites-only institution, boasting extensive academic and sports facilities, with strict disciplinary measures and a focus on supporting the segregationist minority government.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Independence”
Zimbabwe achieves independence, marking the end of the war. Conflict persists during the interim government period, but a ceasefire is established before the election of a new prime minister in 1980.
The white settlers‘ communities grapple with the reality of surrender. Demographic shifts occur at Alexandra’s school, with many white families departing the country and withdrawing their children from private schools. Black students from diverse backgrounds, including children of war heroes, enroll in Alexandra’s school. The formerly all-white staff gradually gives way to Black staff members. Increased student enrollment strains school facilities, exacerbated by challenges such as water shortages.
As one of the few remaining white students, Alexandra becomes a target for bullying, experiencing exclusion and isolation. Upon turning 12, she secures admission to a prestigious girls-only school in another city.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Losing Robandi”
The Fullers’ farm is targeted for acquisition by the new government. Nicola reacts with a mixture of fear and uncertainty to the changing political landscape, symbolizing the broader anxieties within the white community.
Tensions escalate when squatters occupy the land before it’s officially auctioned, and Nicola, determined to hold onto their farm, confronts them, stressing the farm belongs to her family. Zimbabwean soldiers come by the farm to warn the family about Nicola’s behavior. Ultimately, the Fuller farm is sold under the land redistribution program.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Devuli”
The Fuller family relocates to a remote ranch after losing their farm. They are tasked with managing a herd of feral cattle that have roamed freely during the war. The ranch, once deemed unsuitable for white habitation, is isolated, with only a manager and his wife as neighbors. Water scarcity is a significant issue, mainly sourced from a borehole with a limited supply. The family’s diet consists primarily of impala meat. The staff’s reactions to their arrival vary, with some expressing dismay at the desolate surroundings. Despite the challenges, the Fullers adapt to their new life, making the most of their meager resources.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Mutare General”
Nicola faces pregnancy complications with her fifth child. Tim expresses worries about the baby’s health, but Nicola remains determined to continue with the pregnancy. She is hospitalized in a nearby town where she witnesses the limited medical resources and care available, highlighting the challenges of the new healthcare system.
Chapters 17-25 Analysis
Building on the theme of The Impact of Colonialism and War, the author details the war’s devastation on the African populace. Fuller exposes the war’s brutality against civilians through the description of “over a million African villagers” (106) being forcibly relocated into guarded compounds. The government’s decision to relocate young children aims at controlling potential combatants by removing access to influences that lead them to join rebel movements. This cynical tactic dismantles the assumption of children’s innocence and highlights the racialized realities of the war in the region. Black children are seen not as innocent bystanders, as white children are, but as potential threats. Such treatment breeds animosity, exemplified in the stones African children throw at the Fullers’ vehicle —a tame version of more violent acts of rebellion, such as the attack on Violet.
As the tides of independence sweep across Rhodesia, the Fullers’ unshakeable claim to their land crumbles, exposing a deep-seated sense of entitlement within the white settler community. Land ownership, for the Fullers and other white settlers, represents more than just property: It is the foundation of their identity as Rhodesians. Nicola’s fury at land redistribution stems not just from the loss of wealth, but from the shattering of the illusion that Rhodesia belonged to them. Land became the means through which they constructed their African identity, and its loss exposes the artificiality of their claim. This sense of entitlement extends beyond the Fullers and connects to a broader reflection on Negotiating Identity in a Postcolonial Context. Following independence and the dismantling of colonial power structures, many white settlers reacted with indignation. The mass exodus of white settlers further underscores this point.
Despite the Fullers choosing to stay in the country after independence, land becomes a contentious issue for them when squatters take over the Fuller farm. The term “squatters“ itself is loaded, portraying the new occupants as trespassers rather than rightful owners of the colonized land. Their presence is met with fierce opposition, as their arrival represents the end of an era for the family and the shattering of their carefully constructed identity. Nicola’s heated reaction toward the families that settle on the farm stands in stark contrast to her protectiveness of Violet after the raid on their farm.
However, rather than exemplifying empathy that transcends racial prejudice, Nicola’s actions toward Violent highlight how loyalty and conformity to the colonial hierarchy were the true prerequisites for protection under the colonial system. Violet’s and other servants’ willingness to serve white settlers secured their place in society, while any who challenged their authority or claims to the land faced retaliation. Her casual depiction of some of the luxuries of her upbringing—multiple Black servants, a private school education, a large amount of land—also highlights the racial inequities of the colonial system, in which relatively poor white settlers could live far more privileged lives in African colonies than they could back in their European homelands. By weaving together the Fullers’ experience with the broader context of white flight in Rhodesia, Fuller exposes the self-serving nature of the white settlers’ claim to the land.
