Analysis Of The Other Side Of Hate By Andrew Corsello

In his short story, “The Other Side of Hate,” Andrew Corsello treats readers to a journey through racially turbulent Zimbabwe over a number of decades, through the eyes of two men who could not have more different origins. Through the use of first-person accounts of events and deep character introspection, Corsello crafts a stirring work in which two men, originally filled with hate, both explosive and internalized, come to find unlikely allies in each other in a racially-charged country. Jim Steele, whose hate derives from long-held preconceived notions and a feeling of personal violation, and Paul Neshangwe, ostracized from birth and in possession of an explosive anger, both come to be reborn as Christians. The tale of how they came to be …show more content…
However, when the reader looks deeper into this account of the rise and fall of Zimbabwe under Mugabe, it is clear that the racial divide in this country was not simply in the age-old biases of those different from oneself, it is a detailed telling of how racial divides were weaponized into a foe which Jim and Paul found a common enemy. One which would unite them in both an outward and internal battle. Paul Mugabe became prime minister of Zimbabwe at the culmination of a fifteen-year war, the underlying tension in which was racial rule. In his inauguration speech and in the early years of his rule to come, Mugabe acted as a unifier and visionary in which he preached love for one another regardless of race, signaling a peaceful period of great growth and prosperity in Zimbabwe. Alas, the good times would not last. Feeling threatened from within, Mugabe quickly ushered in an era of tyranny and racial divide. The promotion of pitting black versus white was strategical in nature. Pitting one race against the other ensured neither would be strong enough to attempt an overthrow of his rule. The country fell into disarray and financial ruin. To curry favor with the black population Mugabe set out to redistribute the land owned by the relatively wealthy white farmers to the disenfranchised blacks of the country. The coming storm stirred up the rage in Jim Steele yet again. A transformed man of Christian principle and high character, what he held most dear, his life’s work, was about to come under attack. “The Steeles knew their land would be taken. It was inevitable. (Pg 294),” Corsello writes. He continues, “They knew the invasion would be violating and psychologically violent, just as they knew it would begin in silence, with a stranger strolling onto their land and pushing stakes into the soft soil to mark his claim. Not yours. Mine. (Pg. 294)” In the issuance of this