Todd Moss

South African envoys in Zimbabwe held talks yesterday with detained President Mugabe and his army chief, in an effort to form consensus on the military coup launched earlier this week.

Stepping off the plane in Zimbabwe a quarter century ago was a huge shock. A college student on my very first visit to Africa, I was surprised how familiar everything felt.

Like most Americans, my image of the continent had been formed by disaster news, flies-on-the–eyes charity commercials and wildlife ...