Citizen of Zimbabwe: Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai

Preface to the Second Edition

vii The first edition of this book, Citizen of Africa: Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai, was written in late 2004, after protracted interviews in Harare with Morgan Tsvangirai, and was released as an ‘underground’ or samizdat edition for the elections of 2005. It bore no publisher’s imprint or ISBN, and was distributed by the MDC as part of its press pack to visiting observers, journalists, scholars and the assorted hangers-on that are the paraphernalia and travelling circus at any election – never mind one in the troubled Zimbabwe of that year. I attended those elections, as I have most Zimbabwean elections, including both rounds of those in 2008. But, in 2005, the government’s efforts to massage a sort of calm in the fortnight before polling beguiled several foreign observers, many of whom never moved far from Harare. And, indeed, despite having been involved in the pioneering Commonwealth Observer Group in Zimbabwe in 1980, I have long doubted the efficacy not of observers, but of the observation process as currently practiced. It has not, in official circles, moved on from 1980, and I shall write about that in the future. It seemed time for an ‘above ground’ edition for three reasons. Firstly, an unauthorised or ‘pirate’ edition was released, not in China where I expected, but in the United States. It had an ISBN, and many American university and other libraries purchased it before I threatened the publishers with legal action. But there seemed a hunger to read or reference the book. Secondly, it has become a curious collector ’s item, selling for up to $500 on the international web markets; and I really am not sure I want Zimbabwean political developments to be the property of connoisseurs; and thirdly, of course, Morgan Tsvangirai is now Prime Minister and it really is about time that all of Zimbabwean society, together with its curious artefacts – like this book – came above ground and entered as open a debate as any difficult moment in history deserves. Weaver Press were the originators of the underground edition, and I thank them for their support and for the risks they took. Ranka Primorac is a source of both knowledge and critical opinion. I thank her Preface to the Second Edition Citizen of Zimbabwe: Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai viii for all she brings. My many friends in Zimbabwe, and in the South Africa which brokered the power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe, will know how indebted I am to them. Even now, I don’t want to name them but, one day, when the country really has attained its place of decency, there will have to be the party of all time. London, 2010. ...