The Big Read: Inside Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s schizophrenia is in vivid evidence on Friday afternoons in the capital Harare’s leafy northern suburbs. At the Tin Roof restaurant round the back of the Chisipite Shopping Centre, white, sun-baked former farmers gather for a lunch of barbecued ribs and cold Castle lagers, and to talk about the good old days.
The owner, Leith Bray, was run off his Tengwe farm in 2002 by a baying mob intent on killing him, but he now laughs that off as part of life’s rich tapestry and gets on with his new career as a restaurant proprietor. “That’s what Zimbabweans do — they make a plan,” says Bray.
