'Robert Mugabe: A life of power and violence' by Stephen Chan

Sympathetic accounts of the rise and rise of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are few and far between. The anger that he has managed to generate has left little room for debate, and even more frightening, for criticism in Zimbabwe itself. He has ruled by fear and patronage, and he has maintained his political isolationism through invoking the unresolved land question and suppressing dissent. Stephen Chan is not a Mugabe hack. He does however attempt a reasoned look at history, politics, economics and war to develop a profile of arguably one of the most controversial leaders in Africa today.