This is a touching, warmly told story of a Zimbabwean family, as revealed through a mother's letters to her daughter, Zenzele, on Zenzele's immanent departure to study at Harvard. Through a mother's careful, vivid remembrances, we see Zenzele's past as well as her future, her difficulty in accepting her family's humble roots in a rural Zimbabwean village, and the wisdom of her culture, which some day she will come to embrace. In addition to this wonderful portrait of a family, the reader becomes acquainted with a voice not often heard in "mainstream" Western literature, the voice of the black African woman. Zenzele's mother tells her own story, that of a woman who, though not a foot soldier in the struggle against colonization, nevertheless plays a vital role in the fight for independence. An excellent book and an unusual opportunity for the American reading public

This is a touching, warmly told story of a Zimbabwean family, as revealed through a mother's letters to her daughter, Zenzele, on Zenzele's immanent departure to study at Harvard. Through a mother's careful, vivid remembrances, we see Zenzele's past as well as her future, her difficulty in accepting her family's humble roots in a rural Zimbabwean village, and the wisdom of her culture, which some day she will come to embrace. In addition to this wonderful portrait of a family, the reader becomes acquainted with a voice not often heard in "mainstream" Western literature, the voice of the black African woman. Zenzele's mother tells her own story, that of a woman who, though not a foot soldier in the struggle against colonization, nevertheless plays a vital role in the fight for independence. An excellent book and an unusual opportunity for the American reading public

A great book club book. This is one of my favorite books and I have found few women who have not loved this book. The language is poignant and full of warmth. It teaches us to maintain our roots, and the beauty in all humankind. I learn about the beauty inherent in places and people whom I can only know in stories. The stories touch your soul. Beauty is not what you own, whom you know, but what you bring to the world and who you are. How can you be a beautiful neurosurgeon and write this well. It is simply not fair !!!!

I learned some interesting things about Africa and indigineous vs. colonized society, and I felt like, after shutting the book, I had expanded my knowledge in an area I will never truly be able to understand.

As far as story goes within the novel, I felt like I was getting a little too much "tell" instead of "show," and that it was almost set up in vignettes as opposed to a whole novel. The last paragraph made me feel like the novel wasn't ending, but merely closing a chapter.

All in all, I would say read it, for it isn't a story one often hears, and it was very interesting, but read it more for expansion than story.

I think the other reviewers have covered everything that needs to be said about this novel - and quite well I might add. After having the novel on my bookshelf for 2 years, I finally got a chance to read it over the Christmas holiday - I regret that I waited so long. I was so touched by this story. I wasn't sure if I would be able to relate to the characters at all, because their world is very different from my own. But I found myself identifying strongly with Nyasha (sorry if I mispelled her name) and by the end of the book I was crying for both her and myself. This book is about (in my opinion) oppression of the self and I think that this is a topic that is accesible to a lot of different people. I think that for young women it is especially salient. This is a quick read and well worth any time that you spend on it - I highly recommend it.

"I was not sorry when my brother died." Who would want their brother to die or even feel that way about a sibling? Tsitsi Dangarembga starts "Nervous Conditions" that way to catch the attention of her readers, and she did a fine job in catching mine. All the characters of this novel have determination and overcome difficult obstacles. Babamukuru is the uncle in the novel who is an inspiration for his niece, Tambudzai. She admires him: "Babamukuru, I knew, was different. He hadn't cringed under the weight of his poverty. Boldly, Babamukuru had defied it." Tambudzai bases her decision to go to school on the fact that her uncle has come to be someone everyone admires and trusts. She not only proves to her family that she can get an education, but she proves to herself that she can get out of the pool of poverty and ignorance. She begins her mission to raise money for school after she convinces her father to give her a plot of land to plant her own crops. Dangarembga describes in her book the work that Tambudzai puts into her field. "By the time the sun rose I was in my field, in the first days hoeing and clearing; then digging holes thirty inches apart, with a single swing of the hoe, as we had been taught in our gardaen periods at school; then dropping the seeds into them, two or three at a time, and covering them with one or two sweeps of my foot; then waiting for the seeds to germinate and cultivating and waiting for the weeds to grow and cultivating again." Her brother, on the other hand, receives the opportunity to get an education without having to work. Unfortunately, because of health difficulties he dies, and as a result she gets the opportunity to prove to her uncle that she is capable of achieving in school as well as in life. Moving to the mission gives her the chance to learn about her uncle's family as well as learning to adapt to different environment that is beyond where she comes from. Learning that not all families are perfect, she is faced with her cousin's eating disorder and the fact that her uncle will not tolerate any of his children to rebel against him or do anything to give his family a gad name. He hits his own daughter because he does not stand for her to raise her voice. "Babamukuru, gathering himself within himself so that his whole weight was behind the blow he dealt Nyasha's face. 'Never,' he hissed. 'Never,' he repeated, striking her other cheek with the back of his hand, 'speak to me like that.'" Such conflict within a family she admired was hard for Tambudzai to deal with or understand. In reading "Nervous Conditions," I have come to understand that cultures may be different but at the same time similar. There were instances that I felt I understood what characters were feeling for a minute. Take for example when Tambudzai felt no one had confidence in her and in what she was doing for herself. Having no one believe in you can encourage you to do more for yourself. That's what having self-confidence is all about. I felt that Tambudzai demostrated that through out the book as she was faced with many obstacles she eventually overcame. I recommend this book to anyone who loves to read or does not like to read. It grabs your attention in the beginning and takes you along on every adventure the characters surpass.

Although brief, Hoffman describes the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Rhodesians in combating the counterinsurgencies. Although the Rhodesians lost the political war they did a superb job in containing the insurgency. Rhodesia--crippled by the lack of white men--was able to introduce innovative techniques to counter the insurgencies. These innovative techniques are what Hoffman highlights and recommends that Armies intreseted in low intensity conflicts (LIC) adopt. Rhodesia was able to beat the insurgency by denying it two prerequisites of guerilla warfare--freedom of mobility and a freindly population. The Rhodesians, through their Special Air Service--modeled afer the British model--and the Rhodesian Light Infantry, organized small units that could conduct quick lightning strikes. Hoffman points out how public relations and Selous Scotts, a special eight man unit made up of former "turned" rebels, the Rhodesians were able to track down insurgents. Of special note in Hoffman's study, is the appendicies, which offer an insight into mine countermeseasures adopted by the Rhodesians, and a chornology of special operations conducted thourout the war. The mine segment is particularly helpful for African nations dealing with the pleathora of mines left over after various wars.

This is a textbook for how to fight insurgents, full of practical information, it discusses how a tiny army of an embargoed and isolated country effectively defeated a long lasting marxist insurgent movement through innovation and adaptable tactics.

While the book (actually more of a booklet) is a low budget presnetation ( a couple of drawings, a few maps) the value of the information presented is well worth the price. Its simply one of the best sources of information on the market about this topic and will prove invaluable to anyone researching COIN or LIC.

In Doris Lessing's second "Children of Violence" series *A Proper Marriage*, we discover that Martha, in marrying Douglas, becomes even more torn in her quest to attain full stature as a woman. Martha, in this story, not only has to reconcile her self to the causes she believes in, to her marriage with Douglas Knowell, and to motherhood, but also to the townspeople with whom she becomes entwined. Another delight of this novel for me is the way Lessing has Martha look at both individual and group dynamics throughout the story, providing seductively keen insight. Lessing's writing promises tension, suspense, and wonder for the engaged reader. *A Proper Marriage* sequels *Martha Quest* in which many of the delights in the first of the series continue on to the second, including the beautiful way Lessing mirrors Martha's interior life with the exotic and varied African natural and elemental landscape. I would recommed reading *Martha Quest* first in order to more fully appreciate *A Proper Marriage.*

This novel, the second in the Children of Violence series, will be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone who first met Martha Quest in Doris Lessing's first novel of the series of the same name. This is a story about a young woman about to create her own life with her own family and home, but Martha's self-absorbed indecisiveness make for a character who refuses to do what is expected from her by family and community. Yet Martha is always viewed with compassion and loved by her reader even in her darkest moments.

A central theme of the novel, set during World War II, is Martha's determination not become her mother, or any of the domineering society mother figures of colonial South Africa, but as her own baby is born she sees that circle beginning to repeat itself and rebels with all her strength against the fear of a future filled with domesticity and garden parties. Martha's subsequent actions become the proverbial ripples in a pond as she fails to learn that now that she is adult her actions have long lasting consequences. Yet this is not a typical coming of age story.

By the end of the novel, Martha's stakes out her own path after having become involved with a fledging communist party and its colorful comrades who begin to play an increasingly important role in her life to fill the gap she has created by her rejection of the society in which she was raised and the family she has created.

Any fan of Doris Lessing or any student of history will thoroughly enjoy this novel. One of the richest features of this novel is Lessing's brilliance in the development of her characters whose personalities and idiosyncrasies will echo long after the reader has finished the novel. That said, I thoroughly recommend that the reader read Martha Quest before delving into this novel or other in the series. Only by reading the series in order can one truly understand the evolution of Martha's character and life path.

This book piece by piece debunks the myrhs surounding the Rhodesian war and sociaty.

Itshould be made compulsory reading for all the ex Rhodesian when-we's who live around the world today.

If only some body would write a book this good debunking the myth of Mugabes noble freedom fighters

"Rhodesians Never Die" is a comprehensive history of the European population that ruled pre-independence Zimbabwe. This book takes a cynical view of Rhodesia's struggle to maintain minority rule amid increasing outside and internal pressures.

Godwin and Hancock put together an amazing amount of information in this work that includes even the smallest detail. "Rhodesians Never Die" chronicles every event, argument, article and demographic affecting Rhodesia for more than a decade.

The only drawback to this exhaustive work is its critical view of Ian Smith and Rhodesia's so called 'way of life'. Reading this book I got the impression that the authors arrived with preconceived conclusions about Rhodesia that weren't supported by their arguments. This could be due in part to the fact that this book does not relate Rhodesians to international influences or to the black population. I would liked to have seen a more classical argument and counter-argument to Rhodesia's problems.

Nonetheless, those who read this book will be greatly surprised to see how moderately the authors portray Rhodesia's Prime Minister. Even though 'Old Smithy' is not shown favorably, he wasn't the extremist as he is so often labelled. That role was played by other segments of Rhodesia's political spectrum.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has read Peter Godwin's "Mukiwa" or would like to learn more about the politics of southern Africa. This book was well worth the wait.

This is a well written and informative book that tells the story of one of Rhodesia's Intelligence Teams that operated secretly in Zambia for seven years, throughout most of the duration of the bush war. The team worked for Rhodesia's Central Intelligence Organisation and were responsible for creating a split between Robert Mugabe's ZANU and Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU that lasted for years, if not to the present day. They assassinated ZANU's chairman, supplied intelligence for major raids by the Rhodesian armed forces against Nkomo's ZIPRA bases, attacked Zambian economic targets and guided the Rhodesian SAS on a mission into Zambia to execute Nkomo following the shooting down of an Air Rhodesia civil airliner with a Soviet supplied surface to air missile and the subsequent murder of most of the survivors afterwards.

The team was made up of three men, "Taffy", an ex-British 22 SAS soldier who had emigrated to Rhodesia, Chuck Hinds, another ex-22 SAS soldier and Ian Sutherland, a farmer from Zambia who had grown up in what was then Northern Rhodesia. The book is based on "Taffy"'s account and includes a large amount of detail on training and operations carried out by Taffy while serving with Britains 22 SAS Regiment in the 1960's.

Interestingly enough, the one thing that brought Taffy's motivation for moving to Rhodesia and fighting for Rhodesia into perspective for me was a throwaway where he describes one of the motivations he had for quitting his job as employee of a British engineering company in Zambia and emigrating to Rhodesia. He crossed the border between Zambia and Rhodesia and was hit by the contrast between the chaos, dirt, confusion and lack of discipline in the police & immigration on the Zambian side of the border and on the other hand the organisation, cleanlieness, discipline and hospitality on the Rhodesian side. Fed up with the corruption and inefficiency of Zambia, this seemed to be on of the deciding factors for Taffy in emigrating to Rhodesia. Having lived and worked in Southern Africa myself for some years, I have a lot of empathy for his motivations. Crossing the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe now is a similar experience to what he must have encountered 28 years ago - except now the chaos, confusion, dirt and shabbiness is all on the Zimbabwe side - and the average income and standard of living for the bulk of the population is lower than at the time of the handover in 1980 to the terrorist leader Mugabe.

That said, as always, Peter Stiff has turned out a well-written, readable and informative book which tells it the way it was. However, this book will only appeal to those interested in Rhodesia's history and to a certain extent, those interested in reading about Special Forces and special forces operations. It includes an interesting account of a British plan to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi which was aborted at the last moment by the CIA.

If you're interested in other books on the Rhodesian war, then I'd highly recommend three further books by Peter Stiff ("The Rain Goddess" - fictional, "Selous Scouts - Top Secret War" - an excellent book and "Taming the Landmine" - 50/50 about Rhodesia & South Africa with some very good photo's). I'd also recommend Barbara Cole's "The Elite - The Story of the Rhodesian SAS" and for follow on reading about how things have turned out after the change in government, try Doris Lessing's "African Laughter - Four Visits to Zimbabwe". I've read all of these and they're all excellent.

A very correct, detailed account of the short but bitter struggle that we as Rhodesians had to endure. An account of the very special dedication that we as a small nation did to protect our nation from the larger enemy of China and Russia. Peter Stiff tells it as it happened and we owe him a lot for telling the world about the injustices that The United Kingdom allowed us to endure.

I don't know why Doris Lessing is classified as a feminist. Apparently, she didn't understand that herself. I view her as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century and the best from the 2nd half. At the end of this book I attained a deep sense of liberation.

This book is the last (and the best) in The Children of Violence series. Doris Lessing is my favourite author and this book is a difficult (and big) one, but it is one of her best works. It changed my opinion about mental health, politics and science fiction. If you like Lessing you will love it.

For me, incredibly deep view of life in England approx 1945-mid 60's and the future. One of the books I would take to a desert island - I have read and reread it. I so appreciate her insights on politics, both left and right, families, relationships, schizophrenia and the mental health professions, growing up, peace movement, writers, and more. I've read it over 6 times, I would guess, and I keep finding fascinating insights. It is the 5th of a series, but stands on its own, tho reading the others is worthwhile and does add to your understanding of the main character. I recommend reading them spaced out, not one after the other, as she is a bit longwinded.

The Booker Tea Reading Group (Wash., D.C.) read this title for our June discussion. While all of us agreed that Vera was a powerful and skilled writer, many also concluded that her writing style was so dense and poetry-like that it made it a challenge to read. This is not a put-down-pick-up-where-you-left-off book. The book does not have a plot. Rather, you are painted a picture of Southern Rhodesia that is both brutal and compelling for the reader and the characters drawn by Vera. The author gives space to the love story in glimpses between images of racial violence, back-breaking labor, rootless children, lost women and desperate men. Some scenes were so vivid it made me wriggle about in discomfort. We recently read "Austerlitz" by Sebald. If you were a patient enough reader for that, and enjoyed it, you'll like Vera. Also reminiscent of the beautiful and complex works of Toni Morrison.

Yvonne Vera's talent is amazing - she is gifted with the ability to relate stories set in her native Zimbabwe with stunning literary grace and beauty, opening the lives of her characters to the readers' eyes and hearts, laying bare the lovely and depraved and everything in between. That she does all of this and additionally illuminates and brings forth the universal aspects in each and every instance bears witness to the fact that, while she may be an African writer, writing about African people and events, she deserves to be recognized, admired and honored by the world at large - and the world at large owes it to itself to discover her talents.

BUTTERFLY BURNING is set in a Rhodesian township in the late 1940s - long before Independence from British rule. The black citizens (who, in reality, weren't recognized as citizens in their own country) were reviled by most of the whites, looked upon as a source of cheap labor and criminal activity. They weren't even allowed to walk on the sidewalks with the 'imported' white citizens. The heroine of Vera's novel is a young woman named Phephelaphi - orphaned as a young girl and raised by a close friend of her mother, she is filled with a burning need to always become more, to see her life expand without limits. This longing became widespread in the hearts of women in the West many years later with the rise of feminism - women sick of being relegated to cooking and cleaning, aching for more of an education and more of a chance to find their place in the world. Phephelaphi's yearnings lead her ever forward - emotionally, socially, and with respect to a potential career. When her path crosses with that of Fumbatha - an older man with a kind heart and a bruised and battered past (as many in Rhodesia were) - she finds love and security, and, for a while, satisfaction and fulfillment. With all of the love he can offer her, however, Fumbatha cannot fulfill all of Phephelaphi's needs - and her search to meet these needs brings her both joy and sorrow. The joys she experiences will raise your heart to the heavens - and her sorrows will break it.

As in her newest novel, THE STONE VIRGINS, Vera breathes palpable life into her characters - they are immediately acceptable and accessible to the reader. The physical settings - both the natural world and the world of the township and city - spring to life as well through the careful brush-strokes of the author's words. All of it blends together into a style that entertains on one level, certainly - but this writing will affect the reader on many, many levels. There is a depth and beauty here - and a natural grace - that is a rare thing in writing. Vera's novels are short (two of them, WITHOUT A NAME and UNDER THE TONGUE, are contained in one volume), but don't be deceived - once begun, they expand exponentially, and they will resonate within you for years to come.

I found this book while browsing my local library shelves.

The story of a young woman's longing for selfhood in an Arfrican township during the 1940's speaks volumes to all of us who have felt, at one time or another, trapped in the seeming bleakness of our surroundings.

The writing is startlingly beautiful in its imagery, rich and full of bittersweetness like chocolate. The words come in floods and tides, you are literally overwhelmed by her words. They, alone, give their own experience.

The story of Phephelaphi is visceral: you do not merely read about her life, but feel it through her pain. Vera writes with the African closeness to nature and being; it is not an easy read, but one that will stay with you long after the last page is turned.

This book detailing the liberation struggle has an unusual structure. It starts off with a chapter "Toward Zimbabwe," which raises three of Horne's themes in this book: racism, anti-communism, and the problem of "whiteness." It is often repetitive and padded and is the least interesting chapter in this book. The next chapter looks at the links between the Rhodesian government and its supporters in the United States. The third chapter looks at the ideological support of the white minority regime, concentrating on missionaries, anti-communist supporters and sexual violence. The fourth actually offers a summary of American diplomacy towards Rhodesia from the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 to Zimbabwe's independence. The fifth looks at business relations with the white minority regime. The sixth looks at the mercenary scum that came mostly from the United States to ravage Rhodesia and the indulgence they received from the American government. The seventh looks at links between African-Americans and the liberation struggle. The conclusion looks at modern Zimbabwe and the often pernicious effect Rhodesian mercenaries have had, mostly on South Africa.

Horne, of course, is thoroughly in favour of the liberation struggle and is properly angry towards those who obstructed and delayed independence. Yet this is a mixed book. One point to start off with is that Horne is affiliated with the Communist Party of the United States of America. Even by the standards of world communist party leaderships, the American party is notorious for its dogmatic, simple-minded, philistine and uncritical attitude. Many intelligent and thoughtful people have joined the American Communist Party and the vast majority have left (or been expelled from) it in disgust at its dishonesty. Horne, a rather prolific scholar, is one of the very, very few who remain.

What makes this issue important is that Horne is less than frank on a number of important issues. The CPUSA, of course, supported the Soviet Union and they, in turn, supported the ZAPU movement headed by Joseph Nkomo. By contrast the first elections were won by ZANU, led by Robert Mugabe, which had support from China and Tanzania. On the one hand Horne writes that ZAPU was more authentically non-tribalist, in contrast to ZANU, which was also affected by African-American middle class nationalist ideas. (There is little research provided about Zimbabwean politics which would allow the reader to decide the issue one way or another). On the other hand, Horne writes sympathetically of Mugabe's government, and certainly does not provide a refutation of those, like R.W.Johnson, who have vociferiously criticized it for its authoritarianism and violence. There is also a passage in which Horne writes about possibility of homosexuality among Rhodesian mercenaries. The passage has a disingenous quality and certainly does not go far enough to castigate Mugabe's demagogic homophobia and massive failure in confronting the AIDS Crisis (In a footnote, Horne writes of Zimbabwean support for a book which suggests that AIDS is the result of a South African germ warfare program, without clearly stating that such views are nonsense.)

Having said that the book has some virtues. Too much is made perhaps of the letter writers to prominent Southern senators, but their racist, anti-communist, and occasionally anti-semitic tone has a certain rebarbative quality. Surprisingly little is written about Kissinger's transition to a pseduo-majority rule, though the Nixon administration has tried to keep its records as obscure as possible. There are plently of amusing information about the supporters of the repulsive Salisbury regime, as prominent William F. Buckley, Milton Friedman, Robert Dornan and Jesse Helms mix shoulders with racists, the John Birch Society and the Liberty Lobby, while Richard Burton and Percy Sledge make idiots of themselves as tourists. It is rather horrifying to learn that Bayard Rustin, one of the heroes of the civil rights struggle, pacifist and homosexual, was so poisoned by anti-communist hatred that he gave his moral support to the farcical 1979 elections in which Smith tried to buck up his regime with a few pathetic Black puppets. It is alarming to think that so many American senators were willing to give this regime the benefit of the doubt, and that it took Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher and Churchill's son in law to point out basic reality. While the chapters on business and mercenaries would undoubtedly have benefited from more systematic research (as Horne himself admits) there is much information about sanctions busting and the pathology of mercenary life. Horne is not able to provide much more than insinuations over whether the American government supported these mercenaries, but they were important, they did prolong the war, and it was alarmingly easy for the scum of the earth to cross the Atlantic. Considering that it was the official view of the United Nations and the United States that Rhodesia will still a part of the United Kingdom and the Salisbury regime in illegal rebellion against it, the government did give these people a surprisingly easy time (certainly more so than those who protested the Vietnam war and went into exile so as not to serve in it). Not a bad portait of a qualid episode of seventies diplomacy, but not good enough.

Gerald Horne shows clearly how the U.S.A. encouraged the White Population to defy international law and set up Rhodesia. It show the tragic role American mercenaries played in maintaining this state.

Gerald Horner provides an excellent account of the realities of the fight for liberation in Zimbabwe. The author takes a unique course to make his arguement, but in the end is very effective.
The revelation of the extent of the US's involvement in the war, as an extention of white supremist aspirations under the guise of fighting 'communism'. The book will provide a good basis for understanding the present circumstances in Zimbabwe.

"Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe" is journalist Martin Meredith's report on the absolute mess that a once vibrant country has become. The cause of this mess can mostly be attributed to Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe.

In the 1970s Mugabe was a guerrilla warrior fighting for the right of majority rule in Rhodesia. Even during his guerrilla days, the lust for absolute power that would characterize Mugabe's presidential rule was apparent. Mugabe ruthlessly ensured that he was the leader of not only his movement but of all the Rhodesian independence movements.

Throughout all stages of his political career the main hallmark of Mugabe has been the use and initiation of violence as a means of terrorizing his opponents. Even when his opponents have mostly agreed with him, he has suppressed them to ensure that only he can rule.

The shame of all this is that Mugabe inherited a country that was at one time the bright spot of Africa. Zimbabwe had a private economic sector surpassed only by South Africa. The hope of Mugabe's rule was that he could peacefully integrate the disenfranchised black Zimbabweans into both the country's governing structure and its economic one. That hope quickly faded as Mugabe showed he did not care at all for any one who did not actively and vociferously sing his praises. Instead of integrating the people he had fought to liberate, he consolidated his power base and used his office as a means of rewarding his sychophantic cronies.

In "Our Votes, Our Guns" Meredith brings to light even more acts of violence and barbarism, committed by Mugabe's lieutenants, than I had previously known about. It seems the press focused on the farm invasions to the exclusion of other acts of terrorism that Mugabe's hench men carried out, such as invading urban businesses and extorting large sums of money, bankrupting state-owned businesses and stashing the cash in overseas bank accounts, acting as a terror network directing the 'war veterans' where and when to attack, and, the most egregious sin of all, terrorizing what was once an independent judiciary into nothing more than the ruling party's lap dog.

Zimbabwe is a country of great potential. The longer Mugabe rules, the less likely it will ever be that Zimbabwe fulfills that potential. Not only is he destroying what economic infrastructure Zimbabwe once had; but, he is legitimating state terrorism as the method of governing the country. Every day that Mugabe rules is another little bit that Zimbabwe dies.

At last, a novel which exposes the evil, racist practices of Robert Mugabe's dictatorship. After all the lies and platitudes, those who emigrated in the early eighties have been proven wise. Meredith clearly has an excellent understanding of events in Zimbabwe and is not deceived by the leftist propaganda engine.
Those who find themselves shocked by events in Zimbabwe should not be, the ZANU PF never embraced democracy as it is envisioned in the West.Populist majoritarian, rule with no minority protection, was always the order of the day in the new Zimbabwe (as in the new South Africa).
Readers should take a warning from this novel and compare the events depicted thein to what is currently happening in South Africa, Zimbabwe's sister state, a country where blantant racial engineering is being excercised at the expense of individual human rights.
It is only a mater of time before history repeats itself.

At last, a novel which exposes the evil, racist practices of Robert Mugabe's dictatorship. After all the lies and platitudes, those who emigrated in the early eighties have been proven wise. Meredith clearly has an excellent understanding of events in Zimbabwe and is not deceived by the leftist propaganda engine.Those who find themselves shocked by events in Zimbabwe should not be, the ZANU PF never embraced democracy as it is envisioned in the West.Populist majoritarian rule with no minority protection, was always the order of the day in the new Zimbabwe (as in the new South Africa).Readers should take a warning from this novel and compare the events depicted thein to what is currently happening in South Africa, Zimbabwe's sister state, a country where blantant racial engineering is being excercised at the expense of individual human rights.It is only a mater of time before history repeats itself.