вЂњIn a few years, rural Zimbabwe will be computer-literate. I think Zimbabweans now understand that they are suffering because of sanctions by the United States, Great Britain, and the Europeans.вЂќ Otherwise, ZimbabweвЂ™s prospects were excellent-his uncle had been distributing computers to rural schools, for example. We have certain resources here, such as nickel, gold, and platinum. вЂњThere was less violence here than in Nigeria! And we all know why ZimbabweвЂ™s violence is being exaggerated-itвЂ™s about the fortune in the land. вЂњHave you seen anyone beaten up since youвЂ™ve been here?вЂќ he asked. He was in a good mood, emanating confidence and optimism over ZimbabweвЂ™s future. Her hair was arranged in red-dyed cornrows, and as Leo spoke she scribbled everything down on a notepad, expressing approval whenever he made a point, like a personal cheerleader. His secretary, a young woman wearing a tight skirt and jacket, very high heels, and a great deal of jewelry, sat down with us. On the wall behind his desk hung a map of Zimbabwe made out of a patchwork of animal skins. He is a slim, goateed man of fifty-one, and was dressed in a dark tailored suit. His brand-new silver Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon was parked outside. Leo Mugabe works from an office building he owns in Harare, where I met him this summer. In the runoff vote on June 27th, Mugabe was unopposed and was quickly declared the winner. Because of the violence, MugabeвЂ™s rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, whose Movement for Democratic Change, or M.D.C., had won a slender majority in the countryвЂ™s first round of voting in March, dropped out of the race and went into hiding. More than a hundred and fifty opposition supporters were murdered, many were raped, and thousands of people were beaten or tortured, often after being herded into so-called reГ«ducation camps. The new sanctions came in response to a wave of terror that Robert Mugabe had unleashed in the countryвЂ™s Presidential campaign. Leo was also named on a sanctions list maintained by the European Union, for his arms-dealing activities. The sanctions included a travel ban and the freezing of foreign assets, and also prohibit Americans from doing business with those on the list. He won in a landslide.Д®arlier this year, Leo was added to a sanctions list first imposed by the United States in 2003 against Robert Mugabe and members of his government. (Leo said the allegations in both cases were unfounded.) That year, he was a candidate for Parliament for the Zimbabwe African National UnionPatriotic Front, known as ZANU-P*.*F*.*, the ruling party. In 2005, he was arrested for the contraband export and sale of government-owned food, but the charges were withdrawn for lack of evidence. In the nineties, Leo earned notoriety for his alleged role in securing kickbacks, on behalf of his uncle and other officials, in the construction of Harare International Airport. He also controls at least one large farm that had been seized from its white owners. He is a director of Zimbabwe Defense Industries, which purchases the weaponry for his uncleвЂ™s Army-most of it, these days, from China. He is an entrepreneur and has stakes in several companies, among them a mobile-phone network. His nephew Leo, therefore, leads a cushioned life. After twenty-eight years, he remains in powerвЂ“вЂ“ZimbabweвЂ™s only President since the end of whiteminority rule, in 1980. Today, Mugabe can be said to be the owner of the riches that remain in the nation of Zimbabwe. In the nineteen-sixties, members of a liberation movement in what was then Rhodesia, among them Robert Mugabe, adopted Great ZimbabweвЂ™s name to refer to the notional state they were fighting for. Nine hundred years ago, at a site on a high plateau north of the Limpopo River called Great Zimbabwe, Shona kings built stone palaces where they lived in splendid isolation from their subjects, with absolute authority over their means to sustain life-cattle herds, land, and the gold that came out of the earth.

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