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The Last Resort: A Memoir Of Zimbabwe (2009)

by Douglas Rogers(Favorite Author)

4.12 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0307407977 (ISBN13: 9780307407979)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Crown

review 1: Thought that this was well written and thought provoking. My only quibble with it would be that I'm not sure about which side of the moral divide I am on with this. I was torn between feeling sorry for the people in the book, and a feeling of well, they got what they deserved. I think that the author's parents were in a pretty desperate situation and I also think that the author gives some illuminating facts about Mugabe's claims, for example the fact that white landowners owned 14% of the land rather than the quoted 70%, the brutal attempts to influence the election process, and the fact that the new black landowners did not want to be farmers. However, his parents did sometimes seem to have a rather caviler attitude to the black people that they did know - For example, n... moreot attending the funeral of their servant because so many other people that they knew had died of AIDS. Maybe it's liberal white guilt on my part but some of their actions and a few of their implied assumptions tended to stick in my throat a little. However, I am the first to say I didn't know the slightest thing about this situation till I read the book, so I think that I'll maybe read a few more viewpoints before I come down on any particular side in making any judgments.
review 2: If you want to better your understanding of what has just happened in the July 2013 Presidential elections in Zimbabwe you should read this book. It's a journal by a white Zimbabwean, now living in America, whose family was, and is still, affected by ZANU-PF's policy of land re-distribution. It plots the events of his visits over several years as he witnesses the increasing hardline taken by Mugabe's ZANU-PF government over land reform, the increasingly violent methods they've been willing to take against all Zimbabweans to hold onto power (freezing anyone out who did not support them, violent attacks on opposition activists, extensive electoral fraud), and Zimbabwe's nose-dive into hyper-inflation and a black market economy. In particular it highlights that Mugabe is not acting alone. He is just one of a group of ex-soldiers who led the fight for independence and overthrew Ian Smith's white government in 1980 and as a result believe in their right to power.The subject matter is harsh. At several points I stopped reading, I was so tense about what was going to happen next. Especially as these were real events that'd happened, not fiction. And yet it is a hopeful story. The author achieved a level of objectivity tough for a white Zimbabwean looking on. Because what really comes over, what you take away, is the incredible resourcefulness and bravery of many ordinary black Zimbabweans, their optimism in the daily struggle for survival and for democracy; that the struggle is not necessarily against ZANU-PF but against autocracy; and that through all this harshness they retain a wicked sense of humour - there are some very funny moments.The book ends at the power-sharing agreement between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai (leader of the MDC) in 2008/9, and therefore closes on a note of cautious hope. Events have moved on, but it remains relevant because it provides a background to current events. For me it makes the events and results of the July 2013 elections chilling. Under accusations of massive election fraud, it looks like Mugabe and the ZANU-PF are back in power. No-one knows now what the future will hold. less

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