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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.***

Zimbabwe: State lawyers fight citizenship rights of dead statesman's daughter *** Chidyausiku criticized de Bourbon for not presenting the court with New Zealand statutes on citizenship. However, de Bourbon protested that it was up to the government to prove Todd held New Zealand citizenship. He said it was not up to her to renounce a theoretical right she has never attempted to exert. The court said it would rule later in the week on a government request for postponement to allow time to get copies of New Zealand statutes. Zimbabwe has been racked by political unrest and economic collapse since Mugabe lost a constitutional referendum in February 2000. His claims to victory in later parliamentary and presidential elections have been widely challenged.

Garfield Todd, who died last week at 94, campaigned for black advancement in Zimbabwe when it was a British colony known as Southern Rhodesia. Although the government wants to declare him a national hero, the registrar stripped him of his citizenship and right to vote before the presidential elections last March because he was not born in Zimbabwe. Judith Todd said Friday declaring her father a hero would be "inappropriate" and an "embarrassment" because he abhorred the ruling Zanu-PF party's "suppression of democracy, erosion of civil liberties, assassination of opposition officials and supporters, arrests, torture, and the climate of fear spread throughout the country." ***