A year after he was expelled from Zimbabwe as the correspondent for The Guardian, Andrew Meldrum has written a book that predicts a bright future for the country despite the havoc brought by President Robert Mugabe.
Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe, chronicles Meldrum’s beginnings as an American journalist in Zimbabwe soon after its independence from Britain in 1980 and his early appreciation of the liberation hero turned president, Mugabe.
”I was impressed by the new leader, Robert Mugabe, who had transformed himself from a hard-line Marxist guerrilla leader into a statesman who called for racial reconciliation,” writes Meldrum in the book published by John Murray Publishers.
But he would soon discover the regime’s capacity for repression in the 1980s when between 10 000 and 20 000 ethnic Ndebeles were killed in massacres in the southern province of Matabeleland for supporting rival Joshua Nkomo.
Ten years, Mugabe would face another challenge to his hold on power from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and would once again resort to repression, torture and political murder to strengthen his rule.
As the last foreign correspondent to remain in Zimbabwe, Meldrum was accused of writing ”bad things” about Mugabe’s rule and deported in 2003, about 23 years later.
While Meldrum does not spare Mugabe in his account, he writes glowingly of Zimbabweans who he says will find a better way to be governed.
”Zimbabwe will one day restore its democracy and a new government will resurrect respect for human rights and a free press,” writes Meldrum.
”When this will be achieved, however, I cannot say. But I am absolutely sure that the country will return to its democratic ideals and Zimbawe will once again be a beacon for all of Africa.” – Sapa-AFP