Out of Africa: How shop owner Ron left Zimbabwe and carved out a better life for himself and his family in Tywyn

August 16, 2026

Out of Africa: How shop owner Ron left Zimbabwe and carved out a better life for himself and his family in Tywyn

If you've ever wondered why the health and wholefood store on Tywyn High Street is called Flame Lily, here's the reason: it's named after a beautiful and delicate climbing plant with vibrant red and yellow petals that is native to southern Africa and was the official national flower of historical Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe, where it retains that national symbol status). And the man who runs the shop, Ron McCoo, grew up in Rhodesia.

Ron has, however, lived in Tywyn almost as long as he lived in Africa - 43 years - and as well as being a longstanding business owner, is also a past chairman of Tywyn & District Chamber of Tourism & Commerce, and has been a Tywyn town councillor for 20 years, holding the office of Mayor on two separate occasions.

Life in mid-Wales has been very different to the life he left behind in the new Zimbabwe in 1983. Three years on from the transition into an independent, black majority-ruled nation (following 15 years of rule by an internationally unrecognised white minority government led by Prime Minister Ian Smith, whose Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 severed links with Britain to prevent black majority rule), there was severe internal conflict and escalating security instability, including the murder of white farmers. This prompted many white former Rhodesians - including Ron - to emigrate.

"It was in the late 1970s that terrorists started coming over the border and burning farms," says Ron. "I was working in telecommunications and I used to do six weeks in my job and six weeks in the army, patrolling the borders. I was almost always armed. I'd carry a gun like you'd carry an umbrella here - it became a natural thing to do, although it was quite hairy on occasions.

Ron with son Adam on his landmine-proof work vehicle in Rhodesia

"By 1983, my children were aged three and four and the political situation still wasn't easy, so we decided to leave."

Many former Rhodesians fled to South Africa, but Ron chose to come to the UK - not least because his wife Maggie was British. They had met when they both worked for the General Post Office (GPO). "Maggie's uncle was a geologist who worked in Rhodesia, and she came over to visit him," he remembers. "She decided to stay on and started working at the GPO, in the postal sector, and that's how we met."

Although born in South Africa, Ron moved to Rhodesia in 1949 when he was six months old. His Irish father had left the shipyards of the Clyde in Scotland on an assisted passage to South Africa in search of a better life. He then moved the family to Rhodesia, and they settled in the capital, Salisbury (now Harare), where Ron attended Churchill School (still in existence), named after Sir Winston Churchill. "I remember the head boy went to Churchill's funeral in January 1965."

After leaving school, Ron joined the GPO as an apprentice telecoms technician.

"Then I moved to a little farming town towards the east of the country, called Rusape, which was about the size of Tywyn. The farms were very big and a long way from one another. The nearest was about 110 miles from the actual town on dirt roads. I worked in the Post Office exchange, building new phone lines, repairing phones: in an area like that, you did everything. In those days, in rural areas, there was no automation - if you wanted to telephone someone, you had to ring the exchange and they would connect you."

After a few years, Ron was made chief engineer for the area, covering four satellite telephone exchanges. Three years into the job, he made the decision to leave Zimbabwe. He, Maggie and their two children, Adam and Sarah, went to stay with Maggie's sister on the Wirral, and Ron immediately started looking for work.

"Nothing came up on the telecoms side, but there was a factory in Tywyn, on the Pendre Industrial Estate, that manufactured hardware components such as relays for the telecoms industry - this was when everything was still manual - and I was offered a job there."

So the family moved to Wales. After a year-and-a-half, Ron was made redundant - and it was then that he took the plunge and started his own business.

"Maggie's auntie used to have a little health food store, so perhaps that's why I chose to do the same. Also, in Rhodesia, we lived on whole foods: everything was brown flour and brown rice, and Maggie had worked in a pharmacy, so she had some knowledge of medicine and remedies. Luckily, it all fell into place when Joan Dixon - a well-known Tywyn shopkeeper who died very recently - was moving out of Market Hall, so I was able to rent her space."

Flame Lily took off right from the start. "I bought in bulk and did my own packaging, which helped to keep the prices down. My customers have always been mostly local. I enjoyed running my own business - and I still do. In the early days, Maggie worked with me, but she also had the children to look after."

In the late '80s, Ron was able to get a mortgage to buy his current premises, and the business continued to do well.

"Business was booming all along the high street up until 2008 when the banks crashed and everything changed," he recalls. "Things eventually started coming back, but then plateaued and never returned to how they were: the advent of the likes of Amazon and then Covid changed how people shopped."

Ron has "always been community-minded - I was in the the Lions Club in Rhodesia and president for a couple of years", and when he opened Flame Lily he joined the Tywyn & District Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, and was then invited to join the Rotary Club.

During his tenure as Chamber chairman, he came up with the idea of cross-street Christmas lights, as well as putting up flagpoles on the high street and on the seafront to display the Welsh dragon, placing flower planters around the town and landscaping the promenade.

"As a town councillor, I've also done quite a bit of work at Ynysymaengwyn, including getting the Victorian walled garden rebuilt and saving the potting shed."

Now, says Ron, there's a real need for young people to get involved if Tywyn is to evolve and flourish into the future. "I'm 78 later this year, so we need youngsters to get on board."

Meanwhile, Ron has no plants to retire - either as a town councillor or as a businessman.

"To be honest, I can't really afford to retire. On leaving Zimbabwe, I used to say that I was determined to make a success of my life. It was a standing joke that I was going to have my own business, my own house and a butler. I don't have the butler yet - but there's still time!"