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reviews Palaver Finish Turmoil
of Zimbabwe, from the inside Palaver Finish is a collection of essays written by one of Zimbabwe’s top writers and published originally in the Zimbabwe Standard, an independent local newspaper. Having read these journalistic musings one can expect the Mugabe government to not take kindly to the writings of Chenjerai Hove. This book was an interesting read for a number of reasons, one being that Chenjerai Hove talks in detail about political violence in Zimbabwe’s rural areas. This is particularly relevant to the turmoil the country is experiencing, considering a large proportion of Zimbabwe’s population is situated in the rural areas. The picture painted in several of the essays on this topic is one of a peaceful community suddenly ravaged not only of their scarce belongings, such as food and money, but also of their peace, dignity and democracy by ZANU(PF) militants and, in some cases, by the police who turn a blind eye to the mayhem. In essays such as ‘The new millennium in the village’, Hove explains how villagers who oppose the ruling party, especially at election time, are earmarked for torture by politicians in that area. ‘Defenceless, and isolated in his own homestead, the young boys and girls employed to kill will arrive at any time and kill the villager and his family. He is lucky if he is beaten and left for dead, maybe he will find someone to take him to the clinic on a donkey cart.’ Such essays evoke our pity for the defenceless victims who cannot stand up against militants armed to the teeth. The former are in the class of Mugabe’s notorious Fifth Brigade of the 1980s, the ‘War Vets’ of the late 1990s, and now the Green Bombers, a somewhat derogatory name for the ZANU(PF) militia. Another interesting topic broached by Hove is how Mugabe’s atrocities are similar, if not worse, to those committed by the Apartheid government of Ian Smith. In his essay ‘The violence of Gokwe’, he describes how the troubled Gokwe of 1977-78, one of Zimbabwe’s largest districts, was a military goulash with ZANLA, ZIPRA and Rhodesian forces all hunting each other down. Then there was a cease-fire, during which time the Rhodesian army realised it could not integrate all the armed militias into the national army. So the Rhodies came up with a solution: they invited them all to assemble at the Nembudzia centre just outside the township, saying that the militias were going to be paid off and allowed home. Naturally, many youths assembled: but what they received was not the generous offer they were expecting as the Rhodesian army sent planes to bomb the centre, killing hundreds. Today, Hove says, the ruling ZANU(PF) has also established a murder and torture base at the very same Nembudzia. Such comparisons re-surface occasionally in the book, a poignant reference being highlighted in the essay ‘Liberty, Express Thyself’, where he says ‘Bakhiti! (Guys!) We have now become an armed state just as the old days of ‘good old Smithie’ …. we now have armed war veterans, guns all over the place. We even have a Rapid Reaction Force on the alert to react against people who might choose to express their freedom.’ Yet another issue he addresses is an assessment of the country’s censured media in the face of draconian press laws. The independent media is muzzled and propaganda is churned out on a disturbingly large scale. In ‘Collapse of Law: Collapse of Conscience’, the author explains how ‘the government-owned media has become an instrument for delivering daily untruths to its readers and listeners’. He has a point here, because even a blind man can see that national newspapers like The Chronicle and The Herald or the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation befit such a description. Palaver Finish is worth elevating to the top rack of your bookshelf because it is one of the few books to be written by Zimbabweans documenting a transitional period in a country known for its stagnant political tyranny. In addition, it is a plausible compilation because, as mentioned above, Hove gives a reasonable accurate account of the political violence in the rural areas of Zimbabwe, which host a large percentage of the country’s population. Employing simple layman’s terms to present his arguments, he discards indirect speech opting for blazing direct reference to the perpetrators of violence. As the title hints at, it is a criticism of a politician who talks too much blabber and doesn’t deliver. In short, this book is ideal for students of history, communications, and politics. It is also suitable for the average Zimbabwean keen to gauge a hard copy narration of Zimbabwe’s present struggle for democracy. For readers outside Zimbabwe this book gives an inside view of the day-to-day atrocities that never make it to the main headlines. However, Hove lacks flair, but this is probably because of the medium he is using. For those readers expecting the creative genius of Hove the novelist, Hove the journalist tells stories rich with facts, but bland on presentation. Irene Madonko is a Zimbabwean who is studying journalism in London. © The author/publisher |