Condemnatory biography of the now 84-year-old Zimbabwean dictator
who has made news - none good - since 1980 and regularly figures in
the headlines today for rigging elections and disappearing
opponents.Greeted as a liberator when his country, formerly
Southern Rhodesia, declared independence in 1980, Robert Mugabe
quickly embarked on a program of nationalization. Notable among his
targets, writes biographer Norman (Arthur Conan Doyle, 2007, etc.),
who lived in Southern Rhodesia in the late '50s, were the country's
white farmers. "At the beginning of the 1980s, Zimbabwe's economy
was booming," Norman writes. Those 6,000 farmers employed 300,000
black workers and produced vast exports, including two million tons
of corn per year. Zimbabwe now imports corn and most of its other
foodstuffs, and its people routinely suffer famine and malnutrition
- even as Mugabe is building a museum honoring his achievements at
whose center, Norman notes, will stand "a 16-foot-long stuffed Nile
crocodile - a recent birthday present from his loyal ministers and
officials." Plenty of dictators, tyrants and tinhorns have behaved
poorly throughout world history; Norman suggests that Mugabe stands
tall among them, if only because he apparently has no ideology
apart from himself. The author charges that Mugabe became a
Marxist, for instance, mostly out of convenience, since communism
seemed to assure the success of a cult of personality and since
communists seemed to rule indefinitely - or, as Mugabe put it,
"What appealed to us most over our induction into communism was the
firm instruction that: 'Once you had become the government, you
remain in government for ever.' " Mugabe retains power through
terror, writes Norman, and with the knowledge that the European
Union and the United States will not interfere with his misrule
"for fear of being branded imperialist."Well-written, though
doesn't offer much more than any recent edition of, say, the CIA
World Factbook - save that Norman's righteous indignation is joined
by some truly horrific photographs that provide more evidence of
the regime's brutality. (Kirkus Reviews)
A former guerrilla leader who headed the resistance movement
against white minority rule, Robert Mugabe was swept to power in
Zimbabwe in 1980 on a tide of national euphoria with promises of
peace, prosperity, and racial harmony. He then proceeded to preside
over the economic and political ruination of the country that he
himself had once described as the "Jewel of Africa." In his
desperate attempt to create and perpetuate a one-party state over
the past quarter century, he has thwarted the democratic process,
used torture against his own people, and deliberately obstructed
aid organizations when they offered assistance to the persecuted
and starving. This expansive study examines the private life and
political reign of this ruthless dictator and unveils new details
about Mugabe's life prior to 1980. Illustrated with a number of
photos secretly smuggled out of the country, this unique look at
Mugabe explains the ethos and the methods behind Africa's
unshakeable iron fist.
General
Imprint: |
Spellmount Publishers Ltd
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
July 2008 |
First published: |
October 2008 |
Authors: |
Andrew Norman
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 165 x 10mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
216 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-86227-491-4 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-86227-491-6 |
Barcode: |
9781862274914 |
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