Dinner With Mugabe

Acknowledgements; Preface; Timeline: A chronology of key events in Robert Mugabe’s life; Introduction; 1 Brother in the background; 2 Mummy and Uncle Bob; 3 The prisoner’s friend; 4 Comrades in arms; 5 A surprise agreement; 6 Tea with Lady Soames; 7 I told you so; 8 Britain’s diplomatic blunder; 9 A reluctant politician; 10 The faithful priest; 11 In the eyes of God’s deputies; 12 The man in the elegant suit; 13 Two of a kind; 14 Yesterday’s heroes; 15 As it was in the beginning; 16 The good, the bad, and the reality; Postscript; Selected bibliography; Index

'I don't make enemies. Others make me an enemy of theirs.' Robert Mugabe, exclusive interview The man behind the monster . . . This penetrating, timely portrait of Robert Mugabe takes us into the mind of the man whose career began as the great hope for his nation - the man who would save it from the repressive regime of Ian Smith - and has resulted in Zimbabwe's destruction. Heidi Holland's tireless investigation begins with her having dinner with Magabe the freedom fighter and ends more than 30 years later in a searching interview with Mugabe the president. In between, she interviews those who have been closest to Mugabe at successive stages of his life, charting his gradual psychological deterioration and the devastation of his country, and uncovers the complicity of some of the most respectable international players in the Zimbabwe tragedy. 'By tracking down the key figures in Mugabe's life, Heidi Holland has come closer than anyone else to discovering what makes the old dictator tick.' - Mugabe biographer David Balir, Daily Telegraph 'The most intimate account yet published of Robert Mugabe's transformation from liberation hero to reviled despot.' – The Economist 'Compelling.' The Age

'I don't make enemies. Others make me an enemy of theirs.' Robert Mugabe, exclusive interview The man behind the monster . . . This penetrating, timely portrait of Robert Mugabe takes us into the mind of the man whose career began as the great hope for his nation - the man who would save it from the repressive regime of Ian Smith - and has resulted in Zimbabwe's destruction. Heidi Holland's tireless investigation begins with her having dinner with Magabe the freedom fighter and ends more than 30 years later in a searching interview with Mugabe the president. In between, she interviews those who have been closest to Mugabe at successive stages of his life, charting his gradual psychological deterioration and the devastation of his country, and uncovers the complicity of some of the most respectable international players in the Zimbabwe tragedy. 'By tracking down the key figures in Mugabe's life, Heidi Holland has come closer than anyone else to discovering what makes the old dictator tick.' - Mugabe biographer David Balir, Daily Telegraph 'The most intimate account yet published of Robert Mugabe's transformation from liberation hero to reviled despot.' – The Economist 'Compelling.' The Age

Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980 after a long civil war in Rhodesia. The white minority government had become an international outcast in refusing to give in to the inevitability of black majority rule. Finally the defiant white prime minister Ian Smith was forced to step down and Mugabe was elected president. Initially he promised reconciliation between white and blacks, encouraged Zimbabwe's economic and social development, and was admired throughout the world as one of the leaders of the emerging nations and as a model for a transition from colonial leadership. But as Martin Meredith shows in this history of Mugabe's rule, Mugabe from the beginning was sacrificing his purported ideals—and Zimbabwe's potential—to the goal of extending and cementing his autocratic leadership. Over time, Mugabe has become ever more dictatorial, and seemingly less and less interested in the welfare of his people, treating Zimbabwe's wealth and resources as spoils of war for his inner circle. In recent years he has unleashed a reign of terror and corruption in his country. Like the Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Zimbabwe has been on a steady slide to disaster. Now for the first time the whole story is told in detail by an expert. It is a riveting and tragic political story, a morality tale, and an essential text for understanding today's Africa.

An essential biographical record of General Solomon Mujuru, one of the most controversial figures within the history of African liberation politics.

In a world of rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the Middle East and Europe, Sunnis and Shiites, Islamism and liberalism, Turkey is at the epicentre. And at the heart of Turkey is its right-wing populist president, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. Since 2002, Erdo?an has consolidated his hold on domestic politics while using military and diplomatic means to solidify Turkey as a regional power. His crackdown has been brutal and consistent - scores of journalists arrested, academics officially banned from leaving the country, university deans fired and many of the highest-ranking military officers arrested. In some senses, the nefarious and failed 2016 coup has given Erdo?an the licence to make good on his repeated promise to bring order and stability under a 'strongman'. Here, leading Turkish expert Soner Cagaptay will look at Erdo?an's roots in Turkish history, what he believes in and how he has cemented his rule, as well as what this means for the world. The book will also unpick the 'threats' Erdogan has worked to combat - from the liberal Turks to the Gulen movement, from coup plotters to Kurdish nationalists - all of which have culminated in the crisis of modern Turkey.

This timely book reflects on discourses of identity that pervade local talk and texts in Zimbabwe, a nation beset by political and economic crisis. As she explores questions of culture that play out in broadly accessible local and foreign film and television, Katrina Daly Thompson shows how viewers interpret these media and how they impact everyday life, language use, and thinking about community. She offers a unique understanding of how media reflect and contribute to Zimbabwean culture, language, and ethnicity.

A journalist’s harrowing account of life in Zimbabwe—and the human rights atrocities perpetuated—under President Robert Mugabe’s despotic rule. Where We Have Hope is the gripping memoir of a young American journalist. In 1980, Andrew Meldrum arrived in a Zimbabwe flush with new independence, and he fell in love with the country and its optimism. But over the twenty years he lived there, Meldrum watched as President Robert Mugabe consolidated power and the government evolved into despotism. In May 2003, Meldrum, the last foreign journalist still working in the dangerous and chaotic nation, was illegally forced to leave his adopted home. Meldrum’s unflinching work describes the terror and intimidation Mugabe’s government exercised on both the press and citizens, and the resiliency of Zimbabweans determined to overturn Mugabe and demand the free society they were promised. “[A] remarkable odyssey . . . A compelling and, ultimately, heartbreaking story that demands to be read by anyone concerned about contemporary Africa.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review