Excerpt from Moore’s Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies, and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe

After an attempt at a theoretical and contextual introduction to Mugabe’s Legacy, I dug into the main menu with something akin to the mainstay of Joost Fontein’s nearly simultaneously published book on the politics of death in Zimbabwe: a death. I am sure Joost would agree that such a denouement ha...

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Main Author: David B. Moore
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Johannesburg 2022-09-01
Series:The Thinker
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Online Access:https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/The_Thinker/article/view/1462
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author David B. Moore
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description After an attempt at a theoretical and contextual introduction to Mugabe’s Legacy, I dug into the main menu with something akin to the mainstay of Joost Fontein’s nearly simultaneously published book on the politics of death in Zimbabwe: a death. I am sure Joost would agree that such a denouement hardly means ‘the end’. My end-that-is-a-new-beginning entailed the somewhat magical way I discovered that Robert Mugabe had indeed reached the final point of his mortal coil, and my recounting of Stephen Groote’s hastily rallied Zimbabwean éminence activistes grises’ epitaphs on SAFM’s Sunrise. Surprisingly (to me), none of them mentioned in other than laudatory mode Mugabe’s learning many of his trade’s tricks during Zimbabwe’s liberation war. I tried to remedy some of such lacunae at the end of the interviews on that September 6, 2019 morning, but when writing the book discovered writer Percy Zvomuya’s historical delving reflected my interests. Zvomuya zeroed in on the mid-1970s moment Mugabe’s Legacy takes as integral to Mugabe’s political making: that being his ability to get rid of those he thought challenged him. Zvomuya’s never-erring literary marksmanship hit on some remarkable writers’ takes on history and politics, including Graham Greene, one of African Arguments brilliant managing editor Stephanie Kitchen’s favourites. I brought Zvomuya and his interpretations to my story in these excerpts: I owe him the book’s literary legacy.
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spelling doaj-art-ec2c9792a71940f29b5f063812e3ebb72025-01-28T09:02:05ZengUniversity of JohannesburgThe Thinker2075-24582616-907X2022-09-0192310.36615/thethinker.v92i3.1462Excerpt from Moore’s Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies, and the Conceits of Power in ZimbabweDavid B. Moore After an attempt at a theoretical and contextual introduction to Mugabe’s Legacy, I dug into the main menu with something akin to the mainstay of Joost Fontein’s nearly simultaneously published book on the politics of death in Zimbabwe: a death. I am sure Joost would agree that such a denouement hardly means ‘the end’. My end-that-is-a-new-beginning entailed the somewhat magical way I discovered that Robert Mugabe had indeed reached the final point of his mortal coil, and my recounting of Stephen Groote’s hastily rallied Zimbabwean éminence activistes grises’ epitaphs on SAFM’s Sunrise. Surprisingly (to me), none of them mentioned in other than laudatory mode Mugabe’s learning many of his trade’s tricks during Zimbabwe’s liberation war. I tried to remedy some of such lacunae at the end of the interviews on that September 6, 2019 morning, but when writing the book discovered writer Percy Zvomuya’s historical delving reflected my interests. Zvomuya zeroed in on the mid-1970s moment Mugabe’s Legacy takes as integral to Mugabe’s political making: that being his ability to get rid of those he thought challenged him. Zvomuya’s never-erring literary marksmanship hit on some remarkable writers’ takes on history and politics, including Graham Greene, one of African Arguments brilliant managing editor Stephanie Kitchen’s favourites. I brought Zvomuya and his interpretations to my story in these excerpts: I owe him the book’s literary legacy. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/The_Thinker/article/view/1462David B MooreMugabe's Legacy
spellingShingle David B. Moore
Excerpt from Moore’s Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies, and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe
The Thinker
David B Moore
Mugabe's Legacy
title Excerpt from Moore’s Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies, and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe
title_full Excerpt from Moore’s Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies, and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe
title_fullStr Excerpt from Moore’s Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies, and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed Excerpt from Moore’s Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies, and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe
title_short Excerpt from Moore’s Mugabe’s Legacy: Coups, Conspiracies, and the Conceits of Power in Zimbabwe
title_sort excerpt from moore s mugabe s legacy coups conspiracies and the conceits of power in zimbabwe
topic David B Moore
Mugabe's Legacy
url https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/The_Thinker/article/view/1462
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