An eyewitness account of a life's journey through the Winds of Change in Southern Africa, Eastern Europe and the United States.
Born into the fading twilight of the British Empire in Rhodesia, Ian Hume grew up in a world of sunlit farms, racial division, political uncertainty, and gathering revolution. What began as an idyllic childhood in colonial Africa would soon collide with the realities of war, nationalism, and the collapse of white minority rule. From those turbulent beginnings emerged a remarkable journey of reinvention, intellect, and global influence.
From the Edge of Empire is an extraordinary memoir that spans continents, ideologies, and historic transformations. Leaving school early to join the Rhodesian Federal Army, Hume was commissioned at Britain’s Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before eventually finding his way to the University of Cape Town and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in economics. Recruited to the World Bank in 1969, he went on to become a pioneering economist and senior executive during some of the most consequential political and economic transitions of the twentieth century.
Along the way, Hume became the World Bank’s first economist to study labor migration in Europe, helped pioneer the use of the Gini Ratio to measure income inequality, led the Bank’s first mission to Hungary, and later directed traumatic institutional restructuring within the Bank itself during a period of major downsizing. He served at the center of post-communist reform in Poland, witnessing and assisting firsthand the transformation from socialism to market economies in Eastern Europe while regretting the opposite transition in his homeland as Rhodesia’s market economy collapsed into modern socialist Zimbabwe.
Yet this memoir is far more than a distinguished professional history. At its heart lies a deeply personal story about family, courage, education, and moral independence. Hume writes openly about the contradictions of colonial Africa, the failures of political extremism on all sides, and the lifelong search for moral clarity in a world dominated by ideology, self-interest and group-think.
Rich in historical insight, emotional honesty, humor, and unforgettable characters, From the Edge of Empire offers readers a rare firsthand account of twentieth-century history as lived from the inside. It is a powerful memoir for anyone interested in African history, political change, economic development, leadership, resilience, and the enduring human capacity to adapt, persevere, and build a meaningful life against overwhelming odds.
