Zimbabwe: Challenging the stereotypes

As a South African whose lived through the major democratic changes of my country and will be here to see through the next 3-4decades, this is a scary book to read. What Zimbabwe has experienced over the last 4 decades, South Africa has seen the same over two. What is scary is we are heading straight into the next two decades without realizing that we are reliving Zimbabwe's history.This is a timely book, told with passion and sometimes frustrated anger at the misinformation perpetrated by the western media, their allies within Zimbabwe and all other African countries recently liberated from colonialism. For any South African with an opinion on Zimbabwe, but either has never been there or bothered to interrogate the details of its challenges, this is a "must read"!I felt embarrassed at times at what I took at face values to be the problems in Zimbabwe; I read without enquiry what the media (international and South African) were dishing out as facts. I noticed though that whenever I spoke personally to Zimbabweans, I never got the same sense as I got from the media. I met people who were very comfortable in who they were and very happy to return to the hell pit that the media was continuously painting. I never sat back to question the contradiction!Unless we heed the call that Kavanagh is making, South Africa should brace itself for a decade of strife and brutal hardship. The Lancaster Agreements of Zimbabwe remind me of the CODESA Agreements of South Africa - back then the "dragon's teeth" were sown in South African politics, we are now slowly reaching reaping stage as frustrations and decent start to mount. The false unity that we once relied on for growth is being taken apart by those with vested interest as pertinent questions of land ownership, resource control and direction our new found independence should take are discussed.Things definitely couldn't and shouldn't continue as they are/were - we haven't learned from Zimbabwe! What a pity - we should have by now devised strategy for a system that seeks to uplift the downtrodden and to empower them with the abilities to direct their own futures. Instead we have been experimenting with a similar system that has failed Zimbabwe, whose results are not a far away phenomenon, but a daily specter that we see and deal with daily! Why aren't we asking these questions, why has our media let us down so badly when they purport to inform us???This a challenge to those journalists in The Mail & Guardian (SA), Sunday Times, 702 Radio, CNN, BBC, SKY and all those establishments who claim true journalism and some independent reporting, to read this book with an open mind and internally ask themselves to what degree they've been complicit in propagating the stereotypes of Zimbabwe and more so in what way they are assisting those with vested interests in the destruction of South Africa? They owe it to themselves and to everything they claim to stand for to educate the population better.A really worthy output, I hope it receives its place in African and World political literature as a masterpiece which interrogated Post-liberation politics and difficulties that these new institutions find themselves better than any before it.Nathi Mdladla

So many books on Zimbabwe are very biased one way or another. This book is the rare exception! It is exactly what I was looking for! I wanted a book that took the issues of Zimbabwe - a place where I visit and have close friends - and lets the reader form opinions of complex issues. The author looks at the issues from all angles.

An ebook that gives us a new look at Zimbabwe.. Zimbabwe is a country that has many things going for it, if it had good government things would be much better for the people of Zimbabwe.

A fantastic book especially for someone living amongst the diaspora. It tells me about my country from the eyes of foreigner who is invariably present and has lived amongst it. He deconstructs everything I love about the place while providing an intellectual diary of its socio-political historical events so we can understand the country at its core – for this the aurthor is superbly positioned.It is very well balanced, not supporting any one party or group and its anecdotal expression provides a deeper context of the challenges faced by those living in Zimbabwe.I feel as though the writer is speaking to the side of my mind that has for years challenged the western perspectives on Zimbabwe, that perhaps the foreign press failed to articulate the complexities of Zimbabwe’s evolving circumstances during the 80s 90s and 2000s.In my view the best book on the Zimbabwe situation past and present – it is relevant to every person that has an idea of Zimbabwe, those on the ground and those abroad, and whatever your idea on this beautiful country this book will for challenge any notions that one might maintain.

A thoughtful, well written and constructive dialog. Seemingly unbiased, this book provides an uncommon perspective on the Zimbabwe I know and lived in. The writing paints a lucid picture of the country's evolution, serving to demystify and unravel an understanding of this land and its people since the days of ancestors far removed. I find particular interest in the analysis of the years from independence up to the time of publishing. Delivering a practical review of her triumphs and a sobering look at her faults, this writing is largely dispassionate about events, draws out the popular emotional sentiment of "the people" in various theater of life, strikes at the facts as they are known, and provides a critical analysis of the history often argued over. This might be one of the most important writings on Zimbabwe in recent years, and I would particularly recommend this book to anyone seeking to comprehend beyond media headlines and popular rhetoric on Zimbabwe. Most importantly, this book strikes at the core of what it means to be a new nation, and its people, on the verge of achieving the ideals upon which that nation was founded, while at the same time attempting to address the layers of political, economic, social and other constraints that define its evolution. If you read clearly between the lines, this book conveys a theme and a perspective on the way forward for any new nation, and for what I believe could be Zimbabwe's more prosperous future.

This book does exactly what the title promises. How many of us lazily rely on what the press tell us about Zimbabwe? That what was once a colony of merry England - the breadbasket of Africa - fell into an inevitable decline with the coming of independence; that Mugabe, however well intended when first elected, inevitably became a black dictator; that any attempt to dethrone him lead to a subversion of democracy; that without resorting to regime change, the civilized West, introduced a series of sanctions which were well targeted on Mugabe and his henchmen and did little to damage the lives of the ordinary Zimbabweans who were prepared to undergo a collapse in their own living standards in the hope that they would eventually be freed by the introduction of a 'proper' western style democracy.Robert Kavanagh, well known as an academic, teacher and dramaturge, has lived for many years in Zimbabwe. He provides for his readers a warts and all image of Robert Mugabe - a great man with many flaws - but not as the west would have it 'a tyrant'. And he shows how the Movement for Democratic Change - led by Mugabe's opponent, Tsvangirai - relied heavily on the support of the United Kingdom and American establishments, a coalition of political leaders and the media, out of touch with grass roots reality. He provides evidence to show that the much publicised 'land grab' - where the great white farms (appropriated from the indigenous owners in the emergence of Rhodesia) and now returned to black ownership - was much less violent and less damaging than the Western media would have us believe.The book ends with an analogy based on Kavanagh's own experience of working in political theatre. In his political theatre the final creation, born out of wide reading, role play and discussion, is the end process of an intense period of co-operation. And Kavanagh suggests that this practice provides a better model for African government than the kind of confrontational democracy which has been followed by Zimbabwe and some other African states - a democracy based on that of a small island somewhere north of Europe.

Robert explains the pitfalls of media worship and how a small country like Zimbabwe is in the eye of the storm and fighting a deluge of negative media year in year out. One should ask "Why does a small landlocked country in Southern Africa warrant such heavy negative criticism from the worlds biggest media houses" (CNN, BBC, NBC etc..Certainly the best book I've read in 2020 and will definitely recommend anyone interested in Geopolitics and how the world works to read this book. The world is not what it seems.The best stories are told by those who have first hand experience of the hard facts on the ground. Zimbabwe did the unthinkable by standing up to the biggest superpowers of our time and took its land back. Just like a small boy in the playground who stands up to a bully and punches him in the nose but the bully has influential friends to gang up on him again.Robert gives an honest unbiased overview of Mugabe and his leadership style which sometimes was questionable just like anyone in power. He made a lot of mistakes and he also did a lot of good for Zimbabwe.Well done Robert Mshengu Kavanagh, true son of the soil.

An enlightened Zimbabwean view of the state of the nation since 1980. This is not strictly an academic work but rather a personal view from the author who is both a former professor at the University of Zimbabwe and can rightly claim to be fluent in several African languages. He draws heavily on his experience of working in community theatre and education across the nation and reflects critically on both the positive achievements of the liberation movement and its confusing dialogue between choosing the path of a socialist utopia, or a path of social democracy and the capitalist reaction as forced upon it by the World Bank. Its a wonderful read and a breath of honest open thinking after a decade of western attacks on the nation that is still completing its liberation struggle. The Western view that the Lancaster House conference was somehow a democratic endgame is exposed as a manipulative tool by the former colonial power that brought only a temporary and unequal peace to a nation that went through over one hundred years of injustices. Should be read by every Zimbabwean seeking an interpretation of the issues faced by a young idealistic government including the historical influences on the present situation..