Mugabe author found dead
11/08/2012 00:00:00
by AP
JOURNALIST and author Heidi Holland, who chronicled the rise of President Robert Mugabe from freedom fighter to what critics describe as a power-obsessed leader, died Saturday at her home in South Africa, police said.
Police spokesman Lt. Col. Katlego Mogale said a gardener found Holland's body Saturday in her home in Melville, a suburb of Johannesburg, dead from an apparent suicide. She was 64.
Mogale said there were no signs of foul play, nor any items missing from her home to suggest a burglary.
Holland grew up in Zimbabwe, then white-controlled Rhodesia, but described in her 2008 book "Dinner With Mugabe" her sympathy for the future president and others fighting to wrest control of the nation back to black Africans.
She recounted first meeting Mugabe in 1975 at a dinner, and having to leave her toddler son at home alone to drive him to a train he was about to miss.
Holland interviewed Mugabe in November 2007, after he ordered white-owned farms seized, which saw hundreds of thousands of black farm workers lose their jobs and nearly a third of the population flee.
[Total BS. - MrK]
Critics say later in his rule, Mugabe unleashed soldiers and ruling party members on opposition supporters in bid to retain power.
[Total BS. - MrK]
Though Zimbabwe is now run by a unity government, it remains fragile and there are few signs that Mugabe, who has ruled the nation since 1980, will give up power willingly.
"I think he's in denial, I think he can't face what he's done in Zimbabwe because that isn't what he intended to do," Holland told The Associated Press in 2008.
"He did genuinely, I think, want to be the savior of his people, the liberator of an oppressed nation."
Holland recently published "100 Years of Struggle: Mandela's ANC," a book about South Africa's governing African National Congress.
She has had articles published in a number of newspapers as a freelance journalist, and had an occasional column in Johannesburg newspaper The Star.
She is survived by sons Jonah Hull, a correspondent for satellite news channel Al-Jazeera English, and Niko Patrikios.
Labels: HEIDI HOLLAND, OBITUARIES
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COMMENT - An older article from New African Magazine's editor Baffour Ankomah on Zimbabwe. However, it contains a lot of home truths not elaborated on in the mainstream media.
In the name of democracy
Baffour's Beef
“He [Mugabe] was extremely magnanimous in allowing Ian Smith to go on in Zimbabwe – I wouldn’t have, I really wouldn’t – and I think that was partly because he didn’t want to alienate whites. That attitude lasted for quite a long time, 15 years or so” – Lord Carrington, the former British foreign secretary who negotiated Zimbabwe’s independence constitution at Lancaster House, quoted by Heidi Holland in her new book, “Dinner With Mugabe – The untold story of a freedom fighter who became a tyrant”, published in March 2008.
Human beings have short memories! If not, how could the Western world engage in the orgy of Mugabe-bashing that we have seen since the 29 March elections in Zimbabwe? In fact, the bashing has been going on for far longer - since 2000 when the Zimbabwe land issue blew up, after some Africans decided that enough was enough and they wanted their stolen ancestral land returned to them!
Since then, the once “blue-eyed boy” from the rolling hills of Zimbabwe, who once dined and wined with British royalty, who once received countless unsolicited honorary degrees from Western universities, and numerous awards from the likes of the Hunger Project for being “the best African president”, has sadly become a tyrant!
In her book, Heidi Holland hurls silly adjectives at President Mugabe who has now become some kind of political football worthy to be kicked and spat upon by all and sundry in the Western world. Holland’s colourful description of Mugabe include: “Naivety, emotionally immature, paranoid, no warmth, from dirt-poor childhood, loner, emotionally underdeveloped, has no conscience and sense of concern for others, monster, ruthless tyrant, a damaged person underneath, reviled politician, unstable, deluded, personality disorder, and mad”.
Holland, who now lives in South Africa, describes herself as: “A Western-orientated writer with an involvement albeit peripheral in the politics of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.” She narrates how when she was trying to get an appointment to interview Mugabe for the book, Mugabe’s press secretary George Charamba asked her what she thought of Zimbabwe and she replied “it’s a tragedy”, Holland says: “I expected him to raise his voice again: His snarled comment: ‘So you have written a Eurocentric book’, to which I replied: ‘Of course, I can only be who I am’, seem certain to incur his displeasure.” In 1975, Holland had allowed her friend, Dr Ahrn Palley, a constitutional expert and fellow activist, to hold a secret meeting in her “ranch-style home” in Zimbabwe with Mugabe who was about to flee to Mozambique after his release from 11 years in jail. Holland says she provided “dinner” for Palley and Mugabe, and this qualifies her to regurgitate it in 2008 as a “dinner with a freedom fighter who became a tyrant”.
For those Africans who don’t know the issues at stake in Zimbabwe and who think Gordon Brown and “the international community” are jumping mad because they want Africans to have more democracy (Brown is yet to be elected by his own people anyway), please take a cue from Holland’s “Of course, I can only be who I am.” I was in Zimbabwe before, during, and after the 29 March elections, and I entreat all to read my report overleaf.
In April last year, when Nigeria’s opposition parties rejected the result of the presidential election won by Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and alleged that the election had been heavily rigged against them, Britain and “the international community” pretended they had gone on holiday. Over 200 Nigerians died in both pre-and post election violence, yet did we see Brown or any of those jumping mad over Zimbabwe today, jumping mad over Nigeria? President Paul Biya of Cameroon, already 26 years in power, has just received parliamentary support to change the constitution again so that when his current term ends in 2011, he can run – again - for another 7 years. And “the international community” is not jumping mad about Biya. Why? Don’t Cameroonians deserve more democracy? That should make us pause and reflect. Before then, to enrich our understanding of what is happening in Zimbabwe, let’s look at some issues raised by Holland in her book. She interviewed Clare Short, the former British secretary for overseas development, whose 5 November 1997 letter repudiating British colonial responsibility for funding land reform in Zimbabwe, sparked the troubles we’ve seen in that beautiful country for the past eight years.
Holland reports that Clare Short tried to shift the blame, first on Peter Hain, the South African-born British minister for Africa at the time. “I think the rhetoric of the UK [on Zimbabwe] was badly handled by Hain, of all people,” Holland quotes Short as having said. “I remember being in my bedroom in Birmingham and hearing him on the radio. I thought, ‘Peter, you sound like a colonial master speaking up for white farmers’. And of course, the media here loved that.”
Short went on: “One of Britain’s errors was the noisy rhetoric. We should have kept it right down, not tried to take a leading position, and we should have made sure that the neighbouring countries were absolutely clear as to how much money was on offer and how strongly the case for redistribution was supported internationally. We should have made that our rhetoric. I absolutely don’t accept that the letter I wrote was seminal, although of course I would take it away if that could stop the destruction and suffering that has gone on in Zimbabwe. But it is definitely Mugabe who is responsible.”
Well, the man Short’s department employed to investigate the Zimbabwean land issue, does not think so. Soni Rajan is an independent London-based consultant on international development who was employed by the ODA to investigate land redistribution in Zimbabwe on a number of occasions, both under the Tories and during Clare Short’s time.
Rajan told Holland “It was absolutely clear from the attitude of her [Clare Short’s] staff towards my recommendations that Labour’s strategy was to accelerate Mugabe’s unpopularity by failing to provide him with funding for land redistribution. They thought if they didn’t give him the money for land reform, his people in the rural areas would start to turn against him. That was their position; they wanted him out and they were going to do whatever they could to hasten his demise.”
What really strikes me in Holland’s book is her description of our late president, Kwame Nkrumah, as “a revered premier”. Since when did Nkrumah become a “revered” figure? Between 1960 and his overthrow in February 1966, and even long after his death in April 1972, Nkrumah was “a Mugabe” in the eyes of Western governments and their writers. All the adjectives and insults that Holland heaps on Mugabe today were hurled at Nkrumah! It is a mark of the versatility of the human mind that today, when history has absolved him, Nkrumah could be fondly looked at as a “revered” figure. He wasn’t “revered” when the West wanted him out!
Zanu PF will look back on the 29 March elections with trepidation at its own suicidal tendencies. In the midst of a deteriorating economy, and shortages of essential goods and services, the March elections were always going to be crucial to the destiny of the country. And yet Zanu, a party of such impeccable liberation credentials, went into the elections riddled with destructive infighting which saw – and this is no laughing matter – in some constituencies, two Zanu PF candidates fighting for the same seat and confusing their voters, and thus allowing the opposition to win the seat (or seats) by default.
Sabotage by the business community which increased prices in the run-up to the elections also did not help. There are still 400 British companies based in Zimbabwe and who dominate the economy. The government can shout as much as it likes, but the companies are private and they make their own decisions – which are not always in favour of the government. By increasing prices in the weeks leading to the elections, they sent a strong message to the electorate. The government’s tendency to allow things to drift, even in the face of clear signs of sabotage, also added to its electoral woes. The government watched on, apparently unconcerned, as commercial banks allowed long queues form at counters and ATMs in the crucial weeks leading to the elections. This was a sure way of creating disaffection among voters who were forced to queue for hours to withdraw their own money. The time they spent in the queue gave them the opportunity to talk and damn the government.
Zanu PF’s message at the rallies was also not very effective. It was long on the liberation war and short on the way out of the economic hardships. While the history was fine, people were yearning to hear about their stomachs and how the current difficulties were being, or going to be, resolved. That message was lacking.
‘Morgan is more’
In contrast, MDC-Tsvangirai ran a slick campaign and promised that their “friends” abroad had $10bn at the ready to heal the economy at a stroke, in the wake of a Tsvangirai victory. In certain instances, though, their adverts on the state-owned ZBC TV and radio, and even in the state-owned print media, were better and sharper than Zanu PF’s. The simple catchphrase: “I am Morgan. You need more. And I need your vote”, caught attention better than Zanu’s many long-winded messages.
Tsvangirai’s campaign was also hugely aided by six anti-Mugabe weekly newspapers (three based in Harare, two from South Africa and one from the UK, and all freely distributed in Zimbabwe’s urban areas). They tore Mugabe and Zanu into shreds week after week. There were also the Voice Of America’s Studio 7 broadcasting propaganda into Zimbabwe from Washington DC, and SW Africa Radio doing the same from the UK. All together, this gave “Morgan Is More” an advantage over Zanu PF in terms of media messages.
All said and done, the much expected presidential run-off is going to be a very interesting election.
Labels: BAFFOUR ANKOMAH, HEIDI HOLLAND, NEOCOLONIALISM, PROPAGANDA, ROBERT MUGABE, ZIMBABWE
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COMMENT - For an extensive review of Heidi Holland's 'Dinner With Mugabe', check out:
Heidi Holland’s Dinner with Mugabe: Failed Demonographyby Stephen Gowans
September 28, 2008
Heidi Holland lied about Mugabe: CharambaBy: Nancy Pasipanodya
Posted: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 3:46 pm
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's press secretary has dismissed the series of events highlighted by Heidi Holland in her book "Dinner With Mugabe" as a lie. George Charamba says the book was written before the "dinner" took place and therefore is an inaccurate account of the man.
Charamba says Heidi by writing the book had joined the "Mugabe-bashing" crew who lie and write falsehoods about the president. In an opinion piece in The Herald, Charamba writes: "Mugabe gazing has become the single largest preoccupation in opposition politics and diplomacy."
He adds: " One classical case of such malice is Heidi Holland's 'Dinner with Mugabe', a book which has turned out to be such a propaganda runaway, yet such an atrocious lie, so well written by some old, bitter white Rhodesian girl whose deeply ingrained racist contempt for Africans, clawed to a plinth of respectability once Robert Mugabe did a few good things for his long-denied people, thereby making the white man weep."
Charamba says: "People get surprised when I tell them the President was interviewed well after the book had been written; that he was a postscript to his portrait by a woman already working the embittered the British, with the angry Rhodesians, with the eager MDC-T, all to lay propaganda material just ahead of the March 2008 harmonised polls."
The book was a propaganda tool meant to appease the British who wanted to "validate a mythic monster with which they want history to replace the flesh-and-blood Robert Mugabe" according to Charamba.
Charamba says the real interview between President Mugabe and Holland is available and will be published one day to discredit Holland's report.
"Thankfully, that interview is available, and shall one day play, clearly showing the man he could never be."
Heidi Holland is a South Africa–based Rhodesian journalist and author who has been involved in the journalism industry for over 30 years.
"Dinner With Mugabe" is published by Penguin Books.
Labels: GEORGE CHARAMBA, HEIDI HOLLAND, PROPAGANDA
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BBC report on Zimbabwe shameful
Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:27:00 +0000
DEAR EDITOR - The last few years in Zimbabwe have been fraught with tragedies and dangers. I am sure every Zimbabwean is fully aware of the serious concerns expressed by President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai over the need for "opening a new chapter in Zimbabwean politics".
I have no doubt that as leaders they are discharging their duties and obligations in helping to preserve the peace of the nation as well as ensuring the success of the inclusive Government.
Following the post March 29 election violence, Zimbabwe's leaders have made an effort to ensure peace, progress and stability in the country. There are some news organisations and individuals, however, who continue to associate our inclusive Government with, not only violence, but also lack of sincerity by one or both of the principals. This is despite the principals coming together and agreeing to chart the way forward.
Many of us as Zimbabwean have been appalled to see some of the headlines in so-called independent and international newspapers undermining the effectiveness of the 5 month old inclusive Government. Surely miracles could not have been performed by the inclusive Government in such a short space of time.
Yesterday's BBC report entitled "Zimbabwe 'facing fresh violence'" in which Mrs Holland claimed "MDC-T ministers" were on a death list prepared by hardliners in Zanu PF, was a deliberate attempt at discrediting the gains made thus far by the inclusive Government. The report was full of hearsay with no evidence of the claims made.
This kind of sensationalised reporting has done immense damage to Zimbabwe, but the BBC has been completely discredited in the process.
Those who question such type of reporting are deemed "enemies of democracy". I guess George Orwell was right when he said: ""During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act".
Labels: BBC, HEIDI HOLLAND, NEOCOLONIALISM
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