Publisher: Africa Research Institute, London
Here is a timely work written (on the whole) by well-respected authorities on Zimbabwe. It is a book that explains a great deal about a tragic country’s past, its present and likely future – through a series of essays and articles that help readers recall what went wrong after April 18, 1980 and why.
It’s a book that will equip opponents of the tiresome dictator with the material they require to put up verbal barricades against any further advance by Mugabe’s stooges at Commonwealth meetings or – perhaps more important – at next month’s Africa-EU summit in Lisbon.
Respected and courageous opponents of the Mugabe regime mentioned include Morgan Tsvangirai, Brian Raftopoulos, Judith Todd, Diana Mitchell and Welshman Ncube.
Pro-Africa academics and journalists make valuable contributions, among them Stephen Chan, Richard Dowden, Derek Ingram, Michael Holman and George Bizos.
Professor A.C. Grayling provides insights into the nature of tyranny and indicates that Mugabe will take his place alongside some of mankind’s most appalling men – Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot.
But my eyebrows hit the ceiling when I saw that Jonathan Moyo – the man who did so much to help entrench the Mugabe dictatorship – stands alongside these people of value.
Anything written by the loathsome Moyo is an insult to the memory of the tens of thousands who have died at the hands of Mugabe and his time-serving acolytes, foremost among them Moyo and Nathan Shamuyarira.
Those who know Mugabe the best underscore, if needs be once again, his stubbornness and determination to hold onto power. -TREVOR GRUNDY
Post published in: Arts