Zimbabwe by Jerome Gardner

Warm Heart Ugly Face

211 pages, Paperback

22.5cm x 15.5cm

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Zimbabwe - Warm Heart, Ugly face is the story of a traumatic Decade of Hyperinflation and its debilitating consequences for the people of Zimbabwe.

It starts with the authors arrival, in the late 90's, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city and once the industrial Heartland of the country - before the violent takeover of the white-owned farms. The author takes the reader through a 10 year period, from 2000 to 2009, characterised by centralised control of all facets of life and of an economy in free-fall, as well as the desperate measures adopted by ordinary people and by the business community to survive. In a down-to-earth way the book paints the day-to-day struggle with lengthy electricity and water cuts, empty supermarket shelves and dangerous black-market trading by honest, law-abiding and resilient citizens- just to survive. Arrests, tragedy, death, fear and intimidation were part of daily life in Zimbabwe during these momentous years.