Hove is highly regarded as a novelist, poet and essayist in Zimbabwe and
internationally. A politically engaged writer, he has also turned to
journalism. This timely volume brings together a series of articles,
which have previously appreared in his weekly column in The Zimbabwe
Standard. Hove, publishing in Zimbabwe, believes the voices of the
nation's politically engaged writers - in tune with the mood of the
people and the times - are crucial in the current climate of political
violence and censorship. To outside media and observers trying to
ascertain the truths of the political situation, his writings offer
insights from a black Zimbabwean writer and critic. Hove writes for and
about Zimbabwe from a perspective that acknowledges recent history, and
debates around culture, tradition and democracy. His criticism is
uneqivocal, his portrayal of Zimbabwe's politics, damning and
unforgiving. His case is that Zimbabwe is a police state, which has
inherited pre-indepedence totalitarianism; members of the Government are
in politics for reasons of personal gain - they are unsophisticated,
poorly educated and have no notion of public office. He believes that
the army and police - whom he compares with those of apartheid South
Africa, are the politicians' personal weapons, committing acts of crime
and terrorism in the President's name and in their own.
