Ellen Wallace
Ian Smith has died. My husband grew up partly under Smith’s Rhodesian government, in what is now Zimbabwe. In our house we read the obituaries last night. Rarely have I seen a man so little loved by the media, in life and in death. What astonishes, besides the harsh profiles, is how obituaries can bring elegant writing to the surface. From the empire he refused to listen to:
Dan van der Vat, writing in the Guardian:
He was a man who wore his mind on his face, as others wear their heart
on their sleeve. His glass eye and half-frozen features proclaimed his
obduracy before he opened his mouth to make history – by defying it for
an unlikely decade and a half.
The BBC’s nameless author was less poetic, noting:
During the crisis surrounding Zimbabwe’s general election in June 2000,
in which a number of white farmers were murdered in a bloody dispute
over land rights, Ian Smith remained unbowed. His farm was invaded by
squatters, in an incident which he described as "not serious".
The Times, UK:
. . . war-damaged left eye that drew people
GenevaLunch, 21 November 2007.
Filed under: Politics
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