The book "The scramble for Africa", a history of colonialism in Africa written in 1991, has this upbeat assessment of Mugabe as representative of a new breed of progressive African leaders: "his creed was pragmatic African nationalism .. he told the new nation that the 'wrongs of the past must be forgiven and forgotten'. Mugabe was a statesman in the making." How depressing that this turned out to be so wide of the mark.