This New Yorker-sized piece on Zimbabwe by Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani in the London Review of Books aims to give a different perspective on Robert Mugabe than we normally get in the Western press. He goes in depth on the factional struggles after independence in 1980, and the circumstances leading to the takeovers of white-owned farmland. It's hard to accept anyone going easy on Mugabe at first, but it's a good exercise to question our assumptions about widely demonized figures.
Meanwhile, the country has just introduced a $50 billion note, and FP Passport worries that this and other factors are constricting the flow of information about just what's going on there.
Comments (3)
The good professor has been an apologist for other nasty types as well, so its like a cottage industry for him.
best thing about the Zim cash is that they started putting expiration dates on the bills a couple years ago.
Zim was a significant economy and - at least partly - a first world country till Mugabe and his goons took power and drove it into the ground
dont take my word for it - press play and watch the trajectory of Zim's development since Mugabe became president in 1987
http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=6;ti=2007$zpv;v=1$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=199;dataMax=42642$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=25;dataMax=84$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=1.27096774193548;ti=1950$zpv;v=1$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL%5Fn5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=199;dataMax=42642$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=25;dataMax=84$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=i256_t001950,,,,
January 15, 2009 7:14 PM
Very cool, though depressing, visualization. I didn't find the article very convincing either, but wanted to keep an open mind given that it's a touchy subject, and that any information about the place likely goes through several distorting lenses before it gets to me.
January 16, 2009 12:08 PM
depressing? well, i suppose so. i love african politics, though.
i actually read (quickly) the article this time, and it looks pretty good....bottom line is Mugabe is a bad guy, and stuck in the generation indoctrinated in black liberation and marxist ideology (Jacob Zuma - the presumptive next president of South Africa is similarly). the younger generation is more pragmatic. however, even that alone doesnt explain what a criminal he is.
but situations like this dont have to center around black vs white. in liberia, for instance, you had black colonists from the U.S. treating black indigenous people as second class citizens, resulting in an even more horrific outcome.
January 17, 2009 11:00 AM