Cover: Open Library.
Library
Mugabe
David Smith & Colin Simpson · 1981 · ISBN 0722178689
What it is
One of the first biographies of Robert Mugabe, written in the year after independence.
Read it knowing
Written close to the events, before most of the memoirs and archives were available.
In our films
Read alongside
- The Struggle for ZimbabweDavid Martin & Phyllis Johnson, 1981. The authors had close access to ZANU’s leaders and write from their side. Read it against Masipula Sithole’s Struggles Within the Struggle and Wilfred Mhanda’s Dzino.
- With the PeopleMaurice Nyagumbo, 1980. A participant’s account from inside ZANU, written at independence.
- A Lifetime of StruggleEdgar Tekere, 2007. Written more than thirty years later, after Tekere had broken with Mugabe and founded his own party.
- Re-living the Second ChimurengaFay Chung, 2006. An insider’s account from within ZANU.
- African Nationalist Leaders in RhodesiaRobert Cary & Diana Mitchell, 1977. A reference book from 1977: useful for dates and careers, written before the war’s outcome was known.
- The Great BetrayalIan Smith, 1997. The Rhodesian government’s side, told by its leader. We quote it and say where it differs from other accounts.