Zimbabwe
In the footsteps of Cecil Rhodes
In a scrubby paddock on the edge of Bulawayo, I walked up to a half-broken leatherwood tree growing in a…
The Old Horse and the braying donkey
NoViolet Bulawayo’s first novel We Need New Names,shortlisted for the Booker in 2013, was a charming, tender gem, suffused with…
Zimbabwe’s chaotic history has at least produced some outstanding fiction
Tsitsi Dangarembga’s arresting Nervous Conditions appeared in 1988 and was the first novel published in English by a black Zimbabwean…
Will Boris Johnson stand up for the white farmers in Zimbabwe?
Laikipia After a year of peace and plentiful rain, my farm in Kenya is fantastic. Peace, rain — leave…
Britain should spend more on diplomacy in Africa and less on aid
It is a tragedy that the party that has ruined Zimbabwe, led by a man who was one of the…
Doris Lessing: from champion of free love to frump with a bun
‘I am interested only in stretching myself, in living as fully as I can.’ Lara Feigel begins her thoughtful book…
What it feels like to hold a heart
It’s been heart week on Radio 4, celebrating the anniversary of the first ‘successful’ heart transplant in 1967, which was…
I once worshipped ‘freedom fighters’ but Mugabe just looked like a teacher
At the top of Machu Picchu last week, I saw two wide-winged condors swoop over Sacred Valley through a rainbow…
When armies take over democracy dies
While the military is running Zimbabwe, there is no hope of anything resembling a functioning democracy replacing the tyrant Robert…
The Brexit Bill faces 470 amendments on its way through Parliament
Home As the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill faced 470 amendments in its examination by a committee of the whole House,…
Real democracy or a tribal bloodbath? Zimbabwe is on the brink
History will curse Robert Mugabe. When he took over as prime minister in the wake of the Lancaster House agreement…
The African bush took me back to my boyhood
Entering the Bulawayo Club, you step out of the blinding African sunshine on that safe and friendly city’s wide streets,…
Bard goes to Bollywood
The Globe’s new chatelaine, Emma Rice, has certainly shaken the old place up. It’s almost unrecognisable. Huge white plastic orbs…
From Rhexit to Brexit
We are all of us to some degree prisoners of our own experience. Experience may teach, of course — may…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that if Britain left the European Union, France could stop allowing British officials…
Rhodes’s statue should remain, on one condition
Lobengula was the second king of the Matabele people in what is now Zimbabwe. He was also the last. Cecil…
Gallows humour
It begins with a sketch. We’re in a prison in 1963 where Harry Wade, the UK’s second most famous hangman,…
Notebook
This time last year I was running around excitedly telling all my friends that I had an African president in…
Our man in Africa
This novel comes with two mysteries attached, one substantial, the other superficial. The big mystery is the author’s identity. Gender-neutral,…
Hope against hope
At the eye of apartheid South Africa’s storm of insanities was a mania for categorisation. Everything belonged in its place,…
I, Bette Davis
It was called Frankly Speaking and by golly it was. The great screen actress Bette Davis was being interviewed by…
Suite nothings
One of last year’s unexpected treasures was a novelty show by Defibrillator that took three neglected Tennessee Williams plays, all…
In and out of Africa
‘Double ouzo, hold the Coke,’ Mum ordered at the Mkushi Country Club bar, during spanikopita night. ‘My daughter’s a lesbian.’…
Voices of the world
‘Don’t take it for granted,’ she warned. ‘It’s one of the few places where you can hear diverse voices, different…
Back in time to a childhood discovery in Africa
About 55 years ago, when I was about ten, my younger brother Roger and I discovered a slave pit in…
