Andrew Meldrum. Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of . New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005. 290 pp. $24.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-87113-896-5.

Reviewed by Elaine Windrich

Published on H-SAfrica (August, 2005)

Unlike most journalists writing about Africa, ti-racial society and an economy that would pro‐ this author, The Guardian correspondent in Zim‐ vide a decent standard of living for the black ma‐ babwe for more than two decades, has not been jority" (p. 27). However, within a few years things infuenced by the prevailing mood of Afro-pes‐ began to go badly wrong, and the so-called "hon‐ simism. Instead, he still retains some "hope" for eymoon" came to an end, leaving many of the "ex‐ the future of his adopted country, despite having pats" to depart for home, or perhaps a safer desti‐ been a victim of the vendetta against foreign jour‐ nation. nalists pursued by President 's The violence that descended upon Matabele‐ ZANU-PF government since 2000. And in his case, land was not new or unexpected, as the author re‐ the ordeal included intimidation and harassment lates, since it went back to the ZAPU/ZANU rivalry by the security police, detention, a court trial, kid‐ of the 1960s, when ZANU split away from the Zim‐ napping, and forcible deportation. babwe African People's Union led by Joshua Nko‐ Like most of the "expats" who arrived in the mo. But this time the mistrust erupted into wide‐ newly independent Zimbabwe in the 1980s--the spread killing because each side had its demobi‐ journalists, the technical experts, the aid donors, lized fghters ready to take up arms against its po‐ the teachers, the research scholars, and the advis‐ litical rival. Although the Mugabe government de‐ ers (including this reviewer)--Andrew Meldrum nied that the newly integrated national army was was caught up in the euphoria following the victo‐ targeting Ndebele civilians as well as the so-called rious conclusion of a long and bitter war and the ZAPU "dissidents" allegedly supported by South prospect of building a new society that would be a Africa, reports of indiscriminate killing began to model for other countries in Africa. As he de‐ appear in the overseas press, whose correspon‐ scribed the atmosphere at that time, "Many peo‐ dents (including Meldrum) had managed to visit ple shared my hopes for the country ... a country the afected areas and interview some of the sur‐ that was working to establish a democracy, a mul‐ vivors. In accounting for this prolonged violence, H-Net Reviews which claimed up to 20,000 lives during the 1980s, gabe's decision to award a multi-million dollar the author "frmly" believes that "Mugabe carried package of benefts to the war veterans associa‐ out the Matabeleland massacres in order to crush tion, which had threatened a coup if he did not any opposition to his ambitions to establish a one- comply. Although this excessive and unbudgeted party state by , ZAPU and the Nde‐ expenditure caused the collapse of the Zimbabwe bele people in general" (p. 78). dollar, it also ensured the loyalty of the "war After peace was restored in 1987 as a result of vets," who were to lead the occupation of white- a "Unity Accord" under which ZANU co-opted owned farmland as well as the ofensive against ZAPU and some ZAPU ofcials became ministers the new political opposition. in a ZANU-PF government, the author turned to The second half of this book refects the reporting on other issues confronting Zimbabwe. "resurgence of hope" which arose with the forma‐ Among these was the corruption that was gradu‐ tion of the MDC in 1999, a coalition of trade ally permeating every level of public service, from unions and civic groups headed by trade unionist small-scale bribery by petty ofcials to the misap‐ . Since this was the frst politi‐ propriation of millions of dollars of state funds by cal party to present a credible challenge to ZANU- government ministers. After relating how he was PF's monopoly of power, it was inevitable that it forced to pay a bribe to get a telephone and how would be the victim of state-sponsored violence others were forced to pay a bribe to get a driving and repression. It was also inevitable that the license, Meldrum quotes a popular song by super‐ journalists who exposed these violations of hu‐ star Thomas Mapfumo which captured the public man rights would also be targets for retribution. mood (and was banned from state radio by the Much of this violence occurred during the parlia‐ ZBC): "Nothing for nothing is nothing but some‐ mentary and presidential elections held between thing for something is something--corruption" (p. 2000 and 2002, which the author covers in great 91). detail, including the massive fraud to keep ZANU- Also a major problem was the widespread in‐ PF in power and the subjection of MDC supporters tolerance of dissent, whatever form it might take. to measures ranging from harassment and intimi‐ To illustrate this trend, the author cites the viola‐ dation to beating, torture, and killing. But even af‐ tion of minority rights by Mugabe's anti-homosex‐ ter the elections had secured their purpose for the ual crusade, the detention and torture of the jour‐ ruling party, the violence continued, now directed nalists who revealed Zimbabwe's war for plunder against the largely urban population which had and proft in the Congo, and the repression of all voted so overwhelmingly for the MDC. political opposition. This resort to violence to en‐ In the campaign against the media, the author sure continued ZANU-PF rule was applied against became the frst of the hundred or so journalists ZAPU until 1987, the Zimbabwe Unity Movement detained under new draconian law to silence the in 1990, and the Movement for Democratic press known as the Access to Information and Change (MDC) since 2000. Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). Under this legis‐ A third issue of concern was the state of the lation, as well as the new Public Order and Securi‐ economy, which was facing collapse in the late ty Act (POSA), journalists could be sent to prison 1990s as a result of rampant infation and mass for criticizing the president of Zimbabwe or for poverty and unemployment. While the govern‐ publishing "false information." In Meldrum's case, ment attributed this economic meltdown to the he was detained for reporting on a post-election structural adjustment program allegedly imposed incident concerning the alleged beheading of a by the IMF in 1991, the immediate cause was Mu‐ woman by ZANU-PF supporters which had ap‐

2 H-Net Reviews peared in the independent Daily News. However, the whole episode appeared to be a contrived one, probably to entrap journalists under AIPPA, since the purveyor of the story (whose wife had died of AIDS, not beheading) was suddenly nowhere to be found. In addition, both The Guardian and the Daily News had published apologies for the story, which the police had refused to confrm or deny. Although the author had been exonerated and judged a "responsible journalist" by the mag‐ istrate hearing his case, there was still the threat of deportation by a government determined to rid the country of all foreign journalists. Consequent‐ ly, his last year as a legal "permanent resident" was marked by intimidation and harassment by the immigration authorities. And it was during a hearing at the immigration department, where he was accompanied by his own lawyer, that he was whisked away in an unmarked car, driven on a roundabout route to the airport and bundled on an Air Zimbabwe fight to London. Thus ended Meldrum's twenty-three years of reporting on a country which he still regards as "home" and which he still hopes will fulfll the promise with which it began when he arrived all those years ago. His vivid portrayal of those years, which is accurate and balanced as well, merits the attention of all readers with an interest in Africa.

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Citation: Elaine Windrich. Review of Meldrum, Andrew. Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe. H-SAfrica, H-Net Reviews. August, 2005.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10809

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