Zimbabwe and the new elite

In 1980 the People's Republic of Zimbabwe was born after decades of bloody conflict between a white minority regime and the black majority. The key-note address by the Prime Minister elect Robert Mugabe surprised many whites. He offered reconciliation and envisaged a future based on harmonious relations between blacks and whites.

Ruth Weiss's book offers a close account of Zimbabwean society and considers the ways in which whites have adapted to and interpreted the government's reconciliation policy. She argues that although the politics of white privilege disappeared, white economic power remained. Moreover, the arrival of a new black elite spawned by the new order marked the start of a close alliance between the two power blocs.

In effect, this alliance established a single multiracial elite based upon a convergence of political and business interests. Drawing her information from interviews, original research and her great knowledge of the countries of Southern Africa, Ruth Weiss has written a fascinating and highly readable account of the political and social life of Zimbabwe today.