Robert Mugabe: a life of power and violence

by Stephen Chan

Published 2003 by I.B. Tauris pp 240 ISBN 1 86064 873 8

Robert Mugabe -- modern Africa's Stalin or a patriot fighting to reverse the effects of colonialism and white domination? Stephen Chan seeks not to demonise Mugabe but to explain and interpret him in his role as a key player in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. In this masterly portrait, Mugabe's character unfolds with the ebb and flow of triumph and crisis over more than 22 years of his rule. Mugabe's story is Zimbabwe's from the post-independence honeymoon of idealism and reconciliation, through electoral victory, successful intervention in the international politics of Southern Africa and resistance to South Africa's policy of apartheid. But a darker picture emerged early with the savage crushing of the Matabelelands rising, the elimination of political opponents, growing corruption, disastrous intervention in the Congo war, and all worsened by drought and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Here was a beleagured president in the face of growing unrest resorting to increasingly desperate measures -- seizing white-owned farms, increasing presidential constitutional powers, muzzling the press and intimidating opposition.

Stephen Chan's tightly argued and rigorous narrative, based on close personal knowledge of Zimbabwe, depicts the emergence of a ruthless and single-minded despot amassing and firmly clinging to his power. We follow the triumphant nationalist leader, reconciling all in the new multi-racial Zimbabwe, degenerate into a petty tyrant consumed by hubris and self righteousness facing an endgame of potentially horrifying dimensions.

Stephen Chan is Professor of International Relations and Dean of Law and Social Sciences at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. He has served on the faculties of the universities of Zambia, Kent, and Nottingham Tresnt. He was a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat from 1977 to 1983,and was seconded to the Commonwealth Observer Group that oversaw the election campaign that led to Zimbabwean independence in 1980. Since then, he has visited Zimbabwe at least annually, and for some years, lived in neighboring Zambia. He advised the early government of Zimbabwe and has published many books on the international relations of Southern Africa.