The army and politics in Zimbabwe: Mujuru, the liberation fighter and kingmaker

These two books offer a striking contrast: each is excellent in its own way, but very different in approach—and both are essential reading for an understanding of contemporary Zimbabwe. Blessing-Miles Tendi's The army and politics in Zimbabwe is a largely oral history of Solomon Mujuru the man, warts and all, a person readers will come to know and understand, thereby illuminating the events of the time. Stephen Chan's Mugabe is a history of the times, with President Mugabe as the lead actor in a drama largely of his own making, but seen from the outside in, rather than inside out. Mugabe and Mujuru led parallel lives, as contemporaries and revolutionaries, but one emerges as a man of flesh and blood, passion and pragmatism, the other as a cold, calculating egocentric. Both played critical roles in making Zimbabwe the country it is today. This is the second edition of Stephen Chan's book, first published in 2003, and it has been updated with a substantive afterword bringing the story up to Mugabe's removal from power in 2017. It is still one of the classics on modern Zimbabwe, elegantly written, seriously researched, drawing on extensive personal experience and balanced in its judgements. Mugabe the man, as opposed to the political actor, does not really appear until page 69, when his first wife Sally dies. But it is as good a history as you will find of the early years of independence, giving due credit to Mugabe for his diplomatic success in Mozambique in 1992, while not shying away from criticism of his dealings in Matabeleland and the Congo. It builds towards the drama of the 2002 elections, when Mugabe first faced serious opposition from Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and illuminates that, for all his lust for power and his political skill and willingness to deploy violence to keep it, appearances and the processes of democracy mattered for Mugabe. He needed to be seen to win the elections through the people's choice. Chan is clear in the end, though, that Mugabe was ultimately governed by vanity, ruthlessness, pretension and an incomprehension of his people's real needs. Readers might have found it useful to see more detail on the internal differences and factions within ZANU–PF (Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front). Mugabe manipulated his party with mastery but it became increasingly prominent as the ageing autocrat neared his end, as explained in the afterword. To understand Mugabe the man, Chan's work is best read alongside Heidi Holland's 2008 book Dinner with Mugabe (London: Penguin). But Mugabe: a life of power and violence remains one of the best single-volume histories of Zimbabwe since independence.