Review by Choice Review
Part of the "African Arguments" series, this book details the author's assessment of Robert Mugabe's 37 years in power as prime minister and later president of Zimbabwe. At pains to mention every revolutionary, diplomat, and intellectual who played some part in the struggle against white minority rule in Rhodesia or in the subsequent political development of Zimbabwe, Moore (Univ. of Johannesburg, South Africa) often neglects to provide sufficient context for readers to understand why those figures merit attention. The result is a gossipy narrative. Readers are likely to be intrigued by the discussion of the various factions and conjectured sponsorship by foreign intelligence services, yet their relationships to one another remain frustratingly unexplained. If some chapters treat interesting events, such as the bloody purge during Operation Makavhoterapapi, they are encased within a larger text that attempts to make sense of them by reference to the history of the European Left. The author's purpose appears, in part, to be to identify a historical model that would have assisted a revolutionary leadership to win and hold state power. He does not appear to have discovered one, which may account for the disappointing inconclusiveness of this assessment. Summing Up: Optional. Faculty. --John Charles Hickman, Berry College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
