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Simon Vengayi Muzenda and the Struggle for, and the Liberation of Zimbabwe. By Ngwabi Bhebe. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press, 2004. Pp. 286; index. $24.95 paper.
Biographies of living people have enormous constraints. If you let the subject speak for himself, the text essentially becomes an autobiography. But if you let other people speak about the subject, there's always the risk that those friends and comrades will want to talk much more about themselves than about the subject of the biography. In Ngwabi Bhebe's insider's life of Simon Muzenda, the long time ZANU stalwart, for many years vice president of Zimbabwe, and close lieutenant of Robert Mugabe, Muzenda is spoken about as much as he speaks for himself. Muzenda (and Mrs. Muzenda) speak in this book, but not as much as some of Muzenda's comrades who become Bhebe's key informants, notably Rugare Gumbo, Richard Hove, and Kumbarai Kangai. (I said it was an insider's book). Others involved in the struggle-Henry Hamadziripi, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Frederick Shava, and Eddison Zvogob-describe Muzenda's deeds in the broader context of the struggle in Zimbabwe and the Front Line states.
Although this book follows the conventions of biography and devotes a good fifty pages to boyhood, schooling, marriage, and Muzenda's skill both as a carpenter and traditional dancer, most of...