Summary

In her memoirs, Fay Chung presents her first-hand experience of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle and the reforms of the country's educational system, which followed. She gives her personal interpretation of Zimbabwe's trajectory over the last thirty years from a nationalist uprising, through the promises of the first independent government, to the present turmoil of land invasions, new democratic challenges, and political violence. Chung's memoirs--in many ways controversial--offer a valuable and thought-provoking introduction to modern Zimbabwean history and burning issues in the contemporary politics of Southern Africa. This book will be of great interest, not only to students and researchers, but also to a wider group of readers concerned with politics and development in Africa and with the Zimbabwean experiment in social transformation from the 1970s to the present. This edition of Fay Chung's memoirs has an introduction by Preben Kaarsholm--an experienced Danish Zimbabwe scholar--that situates her narrative and reflections in the context of debates around Zimbabwe's modern history and current political and economical crisis.