A bright day dawns over Africa as American student Ben Dabney arrives in Zimbabwe in 1982. He finds a country newly born, its president celebrated around the world. ‘We are all Zimbabweans now!’ exclaims Robert Mugabe in conciliatory largesse. The capital sees rollicking good times, and Ben becomes friendly with the new ruling elite through his love affair with Florence Matshaka, a former guerrilla. Ben’s history research begs awkward questions when he learns about a suspicious car accident that happened during the bush war. At first he gets elusive answers, then threats. In untangling this secret, his optimism wears off layer after layer as he discovers more and more harrowing contradictions. By the time Ben experiences the army’s secret offensive in Matabeleland, the president’s phrase has come to mean that all are affected, all complicit. We Are All Zimbabweans Now is a powerful political thriller, and one of the most remarkable recent novels about Zimbabwe.
