Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe
Martin Meredith (Author)
Distressing Portrait of a Nation,
By Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME) This review is from: Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe (Hardcover)
Martin Meredith's "Our Votes, Our Guns" is a particlarly depressing work of jouralism covering the descent of post-Rhodesia Zimbabwe into a barbarous authoritarian kleptocracy thoroughly dominated by a corrupt leader who turned his back on ever principle he supposedly had before obtaining power. The world's attention (such as it is) has been focussed on the forcible removal of white farmers from their land with the explict support of the government. But as Meredith demonstrates, President Mugabe's racist policies toward whites is just one of many evils he has perpetrated on his country.
Meredith starts out by setting the historical stage, including telling about the horrific brutality of white rule in what was then Rhodesia before the 1979 "revolution" that brought Mugabe to power. Certainly, Zimbabwe's violent release from colonialism has a lot to do with the country's current situation.
Meredith then goes on to show the early promise that Mugabe showed as president, so willing for reconcilliation that he met with the last white Prime Minister, Ian Smith on numerous occasions to ask adbvice in the early years. Meredith then shows how as Mugabe became increasingly paranoid and obsessed with power his cronys became more and more corrupt. Anyone who believes that third world debts ought to be forgiven should read this book. Zimbabwe is in a state of financial collapse because its president and his associates bled the country dry, not because of IMF or World Bank financial imperialism. If anything, Western aid has helped serve as an enabler for Mugabe's destruction of Zimbabwe.
The book's main drawback is a lack of first hand reporting by Meredith. There is no indication in the narrative that the author has ever visited Zimbabwe and he seems to have relied mostly on second had accounts. Nevertheless, he is an excellent researcherr, and despite this flaw this is still a compelling read for those with an interest in current events beyond the headlines.
"A cartoon figure of the archetypical African dictator",
By "michaeleve" - See all my reviewsThis review is from: Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe (Hardcover)
So said Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Robert Mugabe. This is coming from a church leader about someone who often publicly boasts about being a devout christian. If the Archbishop's criticism doesn't bother Mugabe then maybe Nelson Mandela's dissmissive epithet - calling the man "Comrade Bob" hits more to home. Mandela throws cold water on Mugabe's previously illustrious reputation as a freedom fighter and liberator of his people.
Mentioning Mandela is an appropriate starting point for discussing OUR VOTES,OUR GUNS because the author - Martin Meredith - is best known for his authoritative biography of Mandela. Here he applies his writing skills and powers of observation with the same results - a thorough analysis with keen insights into the personality. So who is Robert Mugabe and how is it that from a position of world acclaim as a hero at Zimbabwe's independence in April, 1980 - inhereting "a jewel" as Meredith quotes another African leader as telling him - he has sunk to such a low position today? Meredith says that a lot of this can be explained by over optimism and excessive expectations. In the 1970's he was the guerilla leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union/Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) which wrested control of Rhodesia from the minority, white-ruled government of Ian Smith. Following independence Mugabe emerged as a statesman. He was committed to reconciliation with whites and Meredith refers to Mugabe's speech on Independence day. He promised to "draw a line through the past" and said "if yesterday I fought you as an enemy, today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest..." Meredith argues however that the hope in Mugabe as a model of the new African leader was badly misplaced. He says that Mugabe was never committed to democracy and his rule increasingly reflected his autocratic tendencies.
The book is very clear however in showing that Zimbabwe is not a one-party state. It is a functioning democracy with the required basics of regular elections, a free press and an independent judiciary. Mugabe also has achieved some notable successes. In keeping with their president's love of education (Mugabe has seven degrees) Zimbabwean's are generally very well educated and highly literate. The country has one of the highest rates of literacy in Africa (nearly 90%). Despite being an avowed marxist and thus seeking radical solutions to economic problems, and his very ugly attack on Matabeleland where his army killed thousands of civilians in an attempt to quash dissent, Mugabe could nevertheless always count on international and domestic support (especially in rural areas). In recent years his support both at home and abroad has evaporated, largely due to his increasingly violent land reform policies. 'Reconciliation' is no longer a word in Mugabe's vocabulary and he now calls Zimbabwe's white farmers racists and neocolonialists.
Meredith goes into all the social, economic, and political underpinnings of Mugabe's 22 year rule and the concomitant decline of Zimbabwe. One of the telling indicators of economic collapse is that this is a country that once had productive farms (albeit white-owned in a majority black country) and a booming agricultural sector. Today there are starving Zimbabweans. This book was no doubt published now because of its relevance in the lead-up to next week's electionsm - the most important in Zimbabwe's short history. As OUR VOTES, OUR GUNS clearly shows the events of March 9-1Oth will go a long way to deciding what kind of future Zimbabwe has and whether a line can in fact be drawn through the past.
Decline and Fall of Zimbabwe,
By A Customer
This review is from: Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe (Paperback)
This is a super-readable book about the career of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whose corruption, brutality, and paranoia have wrecked Zimbabwe's democratic institutions and have brought the country to the brink of economic ruin. The book is refreshingly free of cant, and the author has a sharp eye for political grotesqueries, which have abounded in post-independence Zimbabwe. My only complaint (and hence the rating of 4 stars) is the lack of footnotes or any real analysis of the social or economic currents underlying Zimbabwean politics. Instead, journalist Meredith is content to chronicle events newspaper-style.
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