Mugabe Expert Comes Full Circle

Stephen Chan, longtime analyst and authority on Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, returned to NZ recently to deliver the 2007 Chapman Lectures at Auckland University, his alma mater. Born in New Zealand to refugee parents, Chan became a well known political activist and literary figure in NZ. He was president of the Auckland University Students Association in 1973 and editor of Craccum in 1971, before leaving the country in 1976. He has since held a variety of academic and advisory posts in Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and is currently a Professor of International Relations and foundation Dean of Law and Social Sciences at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. His Auckland University lectures focused on Mugabe, the subject of his 2003 book Robert Mugabe: A Life of Power and Violence, “an informed, insightful biography of Zimbabwe’s first–and only–president … We follow the triumphant nationalist leader, reconciling all in the new multi-racial Zimbabwe, degenerate into a petty tyrant consumed by hubris and self righteousness facing an endgame of potentially horrifying dimensions.” (University of Michigan Press)