newsTop stories: news and views from around the world
Garfield Todd – The End of the Liberal Dream in Rhodesia, by Susan Woodhouse
The story of Garfield Todd in Central Africa starts in 1934. At the age of 26 he and his 23- year old wife, Grace and their adopted daughter, Alycen, came… Read more >
Cephas Msipa: Zimbabwe’s reluctant hero
Cephas Msipa, the mild-mannered primary school teacher who left the classroom to help a generation of freedom fighters turn white-ruled Rhodesia into black-led Zimbabwe in 1980, has died in… Read more >
Christianity’s centre of gravity moves from Europe to Africa
By TREVOR GRUNDY in Busan, South Korea The shift of Christianity’s centre of gravity away from Europe towards Africa is one of the most dramatic developments since the Christian… Read more >
Lawrence Vambe’s funeral in London
A Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance for the life of Lawrence Chinyani Vambe (March 5, 1917 – September 14, 2019) was held at 2.30 pm at St Joseph’s Roman… Read more >
Kingdom, Power, Glory – Mugabe, Zanu and the Quest for Supremacy 1960-1987 by Stuart Doran
IN THE PREFACE to ‘Eminent Victorians,’ Lytton Strachey issued a warning that resonates with writers, historians, journalists and members of the public trying to make sense of post-Mugabe Zimbabwe. He… Read more >
Doris Lessing (1919-2013) Self-proclaimed ‘Useful Idiot’ for the Soviet Union
Doris Lessing was critical about herself, much more so than the people who wrote obituaries about her following her death at her London home in November 2013. From 1942… Read more >
Mike Faber and Robert Oakshott: two who helped save Zambia millions of pounds on the day it was born
By TREVOR GRUNDY HISTORIANS examining the de-colonisation process have been disinclined to examine the motives and individual psychologies of the well-educated Europeans who attached themselves to African causes and… Read more >
The Odd Man In – Mugabe’s White Hand Man, by Denis Norman
One of the main surprises that followed Robert Mugabe’s overwhelming election victory (57 of the 80 seats open to Africans) in March 1980 was Prime Minister Robert Mugabe’s decision to… Read more >
Writing Revolt – An engagement with African nationalism 1957-1967, by Terence Ranger
Professor Terence Ranger needs no introduction to students of Africa, or to those who helped turn white-ruled southern Rhodesia into black-governed Zimbabwe in April 1980. This Oxford University academic is… Read more >
Julius Nyerere reconsidered
African leaders who were not corrupt kleptomaniacs but, instead, fairly ordinary men who lived decent lives and ruled alongside opposition parties and a relatively free press, are in for a… Read more >