Zimbabwe: Mugabe snubbed at summit of southern Africa countries *** It was the second time the SADC has snubbed Mugabe whose increasingly unpopular and authoritarian government has backed the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms and clamped down on political opponents, the judiciary and the media. At a summit in Namibia last year, the SADC decided to make the chair of the group's defense body rotate on a yearly basis. Before that, Mugabe had been head of that body since 1999 and wanted to continue in perpetuity. ***
Zimbabwe's Writers Explore Despair and Violence Under Black Rule*** "It has been a silenced subject," she said. "There has been an absolute fear of even talking about it. For two years I did not write it. But it was not possible for me to have that self-censorship. "I wanted to say, This is how it was. Just that. These destructive people were created, and they roamed the land. I cannot pretend to have been unaware of the relevance now. We weren't past this violence; we have remained in that." By confronting the troubles of the past and acknowledging their continuing relevance, Ms. Vera is following one of Zimbabwe's most striking literary trends.
Black writers here have written eloquently about black suffering under the white government and the jubilation that followed Mr. Mugabe's election in 1980. But since the late 1980's many writers who were in their 20's when white rule ended have focused on the damage and disillusionment experienced by blacks during and immediately after the struggle for self-determination. In "Shadows," Chenjerai Hove, 46, describes how some black guerrillas commandeered homes from their supporters and abandoned the children they fathered in rural villages. In "Harvest of Thorns," Shimmer Chinodya, who is also in his mid-40's, depicts the brutal public killings of blacks who were viewed as collaborators with the white government. In her collection of poems, "On the Road Again," Freedom Nyamubaya, a poet and a former guerrilla, describes how many female fighters, including herself, were raped by their commanders.***