The people of Zimbabwe are brutalised, disenfranchised, starved. This is the only book to tell the full story of the birth of a dictatorship, including the 2008 election travesty. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, a former teacher and guerrilla leader, swept to power in Zimbabwe on a tide of euphoria in 1980 with the promise of peace, prosperity and racial harmony. He proceeded to preside over the economic ruination of the country, which he himself once described as the 'Jewel of Africa'. In his desperate attempts to create and perpetuate a one-party state, he thwarted the democratic process, used torture against his own people and deliberately obstructed aid organisations when they offered assistance to the persecuted and starving. This is the first book to explain what goes on in Mugabe's mind and only by understanding this is it possible to understand why he has destroyed his country - and what is about to happen there now.