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Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe

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Martin Meredith's "Our Votes, Our Guns" is a particlarly depressing work of jouralism covering the descent of post-Rhodesia Zimbabwe into a barbarous authoritarian kleptocracy thoroughly dominated by a corrupt leader who turned his back on ever principle he supposedly had before obtaining power. The world's attention (such as it is) has been focussed on the forcible removal of white farmers from their land with the explict support of the government. But as Meredith demonstrates, President Mugabe's racist policies toward whites is just one of many evils he has perpetrated on his country.

Meredith starts out by setting the historical stage, including telling about the horrific brutality of white rule in what was then Rhodesia before the 1979 "revolution" that brought Mugabe to power. Certainly, Zimbabwe's violent release from colonialism has a lot to do with the country's current situation.

Meredith then goes on to show the early promise that Mugabe showed as president, so willing for reconcilliation that he met with the last white Prime Minister, Ian Smith on numerous occasions to ask adbvice in the early years. Meredith then shows how as Mugabe became increasingly paranoid and obsessed with power his cronys became more and more corrupt. Anyone who believes that third world debts ought to be forgiven should read this book. Zimbabwe is in a state of financial collapse because its president and his associates bled the country dry, not because of IMF or World Bank financial imperialism. If anything, Western aid has helped serve as an enabler for Mugabe's destruction of Zimbabwe.

The book's main drawback is a lack of first hand reporting by Meredith. There is no indication in the narrative that the author has ever visited Zimbabwe and he seems to have relied mostly on second had accounts. Nevertheless, he is an excellent researcherr, and despite this flaw this is still a compelling read for those with an interest in current events beyond the headlines.

So said Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Robert Mugabe. This is coming from a church leader about someone who often publicly boasts about being a devout christian. If the Archbishop's criticism doesn't bother Mugabe then maybe Nelson Mandela's dissmissive epithet - calling the man "Comrade Bob" hits more to home. Mandela throws cold water on Mugabe's previously illustrious reputation as a freedom fighter and liberator of his people.

Mentioning Mandela is an appropriate starting point for discussing OUR VOTES,OUR GUNS because the author - Martin Meredith - is best known for his authoritative biography of Mandela. Here he applies his writing skills and powers of observation with the same results - a thorough analysis with keen insights into the personality. So who is Robert Mugabe and how is it that from a position of world acclaim as a hero at Zimbabwe's independence in April, 1980 - inhereting "a jewel" as Meredith quotes another African leader as telling him - he has sunk to such a low position today? Meredith says that a lot of this can be explained by over optimism and excessive expectations. In the 1970's he was the guerilla leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union/Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) which wrested control of Rhodesia from the minority, white-ruled government of Ian Smith. Following independence Mugabe emerged as a statesman. He was committed to reconciliation with whites and Meredith refers to Mugabe's speech on Independence day. He promised to "draw a line through the past" and said "if yesterday I fought you as an enemy, today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest..." Meredith argues however that the hope in Mugabe as a model of the new African leader was badly misplaced. He says that Mugabe was never committed to democracy and his rule increasingly reflected his autocratic tendencies.

The book is very clear however in showing that Zimbabwe is not a one-party state. It is a functioning democracy with the required basics of regular elections, a free press and an independent judiciary. Mugabe also has achieved some notable successes. In keeping with their president's love of education (Mugabe has seven degrees) Zimbabwean's are generally very well educated and highly literate. The country has one of the highest rates of literacy in Africa (nearly 90%). Despite being an avowed marxist and thus seeking radical solutions to economic problems, and his very ugly attack on Matabeleland where his army killed thousands of civilians in an attempt to quash dissent, Mugabe could nevertheless always count on international and domestic support (especially in rural areas). In recent years his support both at home and abroad has evaporated, largely due to his increasingly violent land reform policies. 'Reconciliation' is no longer a word in Mugabe's vocabulary and he now calls Zimbabwe's white farmers racists and neocolonialists.

Meredith goes into all the social, economic, and political underpinnings of Mugabe's 22 year rule and the concomitant decline of Zimbabwe. One of the telling indicators of economic collapse is that this is a country that once had productive farms (albeit white-owned in a majority black country) and a booming agricultural sector. Today there are starving Zimbabweans. This book was no doubt published now because of its relevance in the lead-up to next week's electionsm - the most important in Zimbabwe's short history. As OUR VOTES, OUR GUNS clearly shows the events of March 9-1Oth will go a long way to deciding what kind of future Zimbabwe has and whether a line can in fact be drawn through the past.

This is a super-readable book about the career of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whose corruption, brutality, and paranoia have wrecked Zimbabwe's democratic institutions and have brought the country to the brink of economic ruin. The book is refreshingly free of cant, and the author has a sharp eye for political grotesqueries, which have abounded in post-independence Zimbabwe. My only complaint (and hence the rating of 4 stars) is the lack of footnotes or any real analysis of the social or economic currents underlying Zimbabwean politics. Instead, journalist Meredith is content to chronicle events newspaper-style.

As the editor of Our Votes, Our Guns I just wanted to correct Robert Rubendall's review which says that the author seems never to have visited Zimbabwe and done no original reporting. The author was in fact born in what was then Rhodesia and has spent his life covering the country, visiting many times and spending months at a time there. He could not source some of what he reports in order to protect other Zimbabweans.

Two decades can ultimately change the course and path of a country's ruler, from ambitious construction to utter and complete despotism; no one has demonstrated this more in recent years than Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the one president that Zimbabwe ever had since its official independence from the UK in April 1980. When first elected, he promised hope and harmony between all people of Zimbabwe, as one of his speeches outlined: "Racism, whether practiced by whites or blacks, is anathema to the humanitarian philosophy of Zanu [Mugabe's political party]. It is as primitive a dogma as tribalism or regionalism. Zimbabwe cannot just be a country of blacks. It is and should remain our country, all of us together" (pp. 9-10). That speech was in the beginning. Consider what another speech looked like, just twenty years after independence, by the same "humanitarian" president: "Our present state of mind is that you are now are [sic] enemies because you really have behaved as enemies of Zimbabwe. We are full of anger. Our entire community is angry and that is why we now have the war veterans seizing land" (p. 175). To this, Mugabe was referring to the controversial and unlawful land reform program that he had unleashed full-force beginning in February 2000. Such change in the course and path of Zimbabwe is the subject of Martin Meredith's most recent book on contemporary African issues.

Like Philip Gourevitch, who broke the silence over the genocide and post-1994 experiences of Rwanda in his magnificent book, Meredith offers the same eulogy to a country that has become a pariah state on the verge of complete anarchy. Seizing the moment when full stories behind the current situation in Zimbabwe were lacking, Meredith has written a brief, but illuminating and enjoyable work, coming from an author who has spent a large portion of his life writing about Africa (his first book appeared in 1979, about Zimbabwe in the years 1965-1979). Included is an important biography of Robert Mugabe himself. Meredith's thesis is that Zimbabwe's woes are solely the responsibility of Mugabe, whose only objective was power and authority. He made it possible for himself to become a bigoted, racist dictator with no concern for the issues plaguing his country under his rule.

Beginning in 1982, Mugabe sought to destroy the sources of his political opposition in Matabeleland regions of the country by hiring North Korean agents to train an elite force known as 5th Brigade. This force carried out acts of terror and murder on the civilian populace in those regions, leaving thousands of Ndebele and Kalanga dead. Corruption and economic mismanagement began raging unchecked; government positions were laden with a vast web of patronage. Losing the vital lifeblood of support from groups within his domineering party Zanu-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front) like the War Veterans, Mugabe unleashed a torrent of racist, xenophobic attacks on the country's white community, of which 6,000 were farmers, holding the majority of the country's fertile farmland and practically serving as the backbone to the country's economic revenue.

In recent months (2002), the whole issue of land reform in Zimbabwe - theoretically the plan to resettle landless black peasants onto the vast farms owned by whites - has hit mainstream news tabloids. The bulk of Meredith's book is devoted to discussing this issue, complete with a history starting in 1890, when the first white settlers under the vigilant eye of Cecil Rhodes settled the country that first became Southern Rhodesia. Most of the modern white farmers are descendents of these original settlers and had since become Zimbabwean citizens, even though they had once been supporters of Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front, which supported a pro-apartheid system with white minority rule of Rhodesia following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from the UK in 1965. The one constant issue that remained stagnant throughout those years, and far into the 1990s of Mugabe's regime, was the land problem, where poor urban blacks were crowded, while 6,000 people out of a population of some 11,000,000 controlled vast, fertile land, 39% of the whole country. The Commercial Farmers Union, representing the country's farmers, tacitly admitted that land reform was needed, recognizing that this disparity in resource-control had to be corrected. But what Mugabe forgot was that many white farmers had bought the land from the government upon the abolishment of Rhodesia and the birth of Zimbabwe in 1980. This fact was never mentioned when Mugabe undertook the forcible seizure of white farms throughout the country, nor did he mention that the early expropriations were stopped in 1995 because it became clear that the beneficiaries of such land were Zanu-PF supporters, not the landless blacks that Mugabe claimed to be vehemently drawing his guns for. At the peak of the seizures, seven farmers were killed and some forty opposition supporters were also killed. The land reform program became an extension of opposition bashing for Mugabe, who faced presidential and parliamentary elections. What better convenience could there have been to reopen old colonial wounds and salt them down with Mugabe's rhetoric of injustice and fault for the country's serious economic and social woes?

One minus in Meredith's book is that he sometimes does not go into sufficient background detail on topics where such background is needed. For instance, Chapter 9 briefly discusses the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) and Zimbabwe's devious reasons for direct military involvement in supporting the government forces of the late Mobutu Sese-Seko. Not enough information is given on the other key players in this conflict, or the background to the conflict itself (i.e. the Rwandan genocide, Hutu Power exiles in Zaire regrouping, Rwanda's support of rebels trying to oust the pro-Hutu Power Mobutu, etc.), which would make it confusing and incomplete for the beginner student of African current events. In some places throughout the book, more background information could certainly have been included.

This book is essential reading for understanding Zimbabwe.

When Mugabe and his band of guerrilla emerged from the jungle in 1980 and took the reigns of power in Zimbabwe(at that time RHodesia) the wordl breathed a sigh of relief. For a decade the white minority government of Ian Smith had been fighting a losing struggle against Mugabes Marxists. The Rhodesian government had 'declared independence' from England in order to continue the war which England had encouraged the government to negotiate a ceasefire and allow for a majority government.

We all thought that Zimbabwe would now have equal rights for all. This book details what happaned and the horror that Mugabes country has become. Mugabe promised land reform, what he meant was that he would take every inch of white land and reward it to his 'boys'. His followers grabbed the white land and then they did nothing with it and soon a country that had been exporting grain and food was on the brink of national starvation. Mugabe could have devided the land fairly and could have given it to the blacks who had farmed it for years under white rule but instead he gave it to his corrupt 'boys' and ruined the economy.

Next Mugabe became a dictator. He had fought against what he called white dictatorship but he then became a dictator himself, like all communists who promise freedom but only bring slavery to their nations, Mugabe quickly outlawed freedom of the press and civil rights and imprisoned those that spoke against him.

THis wonderful book written by a man who was born in Rhodesia tells the story of idealism gone awry. Her majestys government in England that had orginally called for a settlement now has snactions on Mugabe and opposes him at every turn because England knows the Mugabe is a viscous dictator worse then the white government he replaced. The people are Zimbabwe are starving. They were better off under Smith when at least they had some freedoms and food. Now the country is a disaster and this book is one of the few to expose the truth. A riveting tale, a must read for africa buffs. A balanced account that reveals the suffering of average africans.

This book puts into context better than anything I have read the major tragedy that has been occurring in Zimbabwe for over twenty years. The parallels with the Congo (as covered in the excellent book "In the footsteps of Mr Kurtz" on Mobutu's kleptocracy in Zaire) are matched here by the story of how a wealthy and well developed colony after a crippling war of independence came under Mugabe's control.

The saddest aspect is while matters started very promisingly with the country ripe for a muti racial experiment and very similar to South Africa, the early use of force to remove tribal opposition was then applied unremmitingly to the white minority with fatal long term effects on the country's economy.

That inequality existed and changes were needed on land distribution were clear - the redistribution when it occurred was done in such a manner that not only were the whites permanently alienated but the corruption and lack of planning as to what was to replace has had fatal consequences with mass poverty, unrest and a wealthy autocratic elite destroying the future prospects for the poorer native populace of the country.

The control of every facet by Mugabe's Zanu Party whenever challenged has been met with violence from local opposition using North Korean trained cadres to outright intimidation of the judiciary, one of the real heroes in this story.

A very well told and researched history.

Zimbabwe (formerly known as Rhodesia) started its existence in 1980 with much hope and fanfare from around the world. Indeed, the talk by the leader Mugabe pointed towards a peaceful, prosperous nation that even impressed former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith. However, it soon became apparent that Mugabe and his cohorts had lied to any and all who would listen. Mugabe waged (and continues to wage) a brutal campaign against fellow Zimbabweans (black and white) that includes intimidation, torture, and murder. He ignores court rulings he doesn't agree with and rewards cronies with ill-gotten money. In short, Zimbabwe became yet another despot-ruled nation fulfilling Ian Smith's predictions.

Mr. Meredith covers the agony of Zimbabwe in good detail and paints a vivid portrait of the wickedness of Mugabe and his regime.

A nice book about the kleptacracy of present day Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe took a jewell of a country and turned it into a failed state. He has done this so he can enrich his family, friends, and supporters at the expense of the vast Zimbabwean people. Meredith describes the liberation of Rhodesia and the early promise of Mugabe's presidency. After the honeymoon, Mugabe gave jobs to his supporters and enriched his party, the ZANU-PF. Latest developments in Zimbabwe continue to show the mass exodus of the few remaining whites, and the poverty of the majority population. Mugabe enriches himself and his supporters, but leaves the rest of the population to fend for itself.

I couple of comments about what some of the other reviewers said. Zimbabwe is no longer a democracy. Hitler took Weimar Germany and made it into a Fascist state. Ferdinand Marcos took the Philippines and turned it into a tin horn dictatorship. Just because a country has some trappings of democracy, it is not a democracy. Remember the Soviet Union had elections, and they were not free. Zimbabwe may have elections and a somewhat free judiciary, but it is not a democracy any more than Rhodesia was a democracy. Mugabe is showing traits of a Fascist or Communist Dictator (i.e. hero worship of the leader). Mugabe is also showing signs of his racist nature. He often berates the former white leader Ian Smith, but Mugabe's leadership (or dictatorship) is worse. At least Smith gave up power, Mugabe wants to retain power forever.

Another comment made by another reviewer is that the West should not show debt forgiveness to certain Third World countries. I quite agree, why subsidize Zimbabwe so we can enrich the kleptocrats of the ZANU-PF and Mugabe's family. The West should have learned its leason with Mobutu and Zaire. Don't give Zimbabwe a dime until ZANU-PF and Mugabe are gone.

This is a good book from a great author. I am reading his latest work about the Fate of Africa, and this is a nice companion read.

This book should be evaluated and judged for what it is: a fairly comprehensive piece of historical journalism. It does not pretend to be an in-depth and exhaustive scholarly analysis of post-colonial Zimbabwean society, and the reader should therefore not approach it as such. Meredith succeeds in tracing the developmental path of Mugabe's political career, and he provides the reader with an ample historical/contextual framework within which to interpret Mugabe both as a person and as a politician. The author is particularly adept at clearly illustrating the patronage-based structure of the Mugabe regime. However, at times, this over-emphasis on ethnic cronyism and state corruption becomes tedious and simplistic, as it is obviously impossible to relate all of Zimbabwe's contemporary problems to internal factors alone. The author gets his point across -- that Mugabe is a dictator and that his system of government was inherently corrupt from the start -- BUT Meredith fails to adequately address the fundamental socio-economic and political reasons that facilitate the rise to power of someone like Mugabe. However, given the journalistic flavor of this book, such analysis might simply have been beyond the author's current scope. It remains an interesting and worthwhile read though, and it does provide valuable insights to those who have never studied about, or visited, Zimbabwe.