1st Edition
Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle Revolutionaries and Sellouts
This book provides a timely reconceptualization of Zimbabwe’s anti- colonial liberation struggle, resisting simple binaries in favour of more nuanced, critical analysis.
Most historiographies characterize Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle as being defined by simple bifurcations along racial, ethnic, class and ideological perspectives. This book argues that the nationalist struggle is far more complex than such simple configurations would suggest, and that many actors have been overlooked in the analysis. The book broadens our understanding by analysing the roles of a wide range of political figures, organizations, and members of the military, as well as the media and the often overlooked part that women played. Over the course of the book, the contributors also reflect on the ways in which revolutionary figures have been repainted as “sellouts”, in particular by the ZANU PF ruling party, and what that means for the country’s interpretation of their recent past.
Highlighting in particular, the expertise of leading scholars from within Zimbabwe, across a range of disciplines, this book will be of interest to researchers of African history, politics and postcolonial studies.
INTRODUCTION PART ONE: HISTORIOGRAPHICAL, METHODOLOGICAL AND LITERARY PERSPECTIVES CHAPTER ONE: Reconsidering Conceptual Issues Pertaining to Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle: A Case Study of the Diwa Community in North Eastern Zimbabwe Joseph Jakarasi and Munyaradzi Nyakudya CHAPTER TWO: The Literary Legitimation of Zimbabwe’s Sellout Discourse Tanaka Chidora and Sheunesu Mandizvidza CHAPTER THREE: Heroes or victims? An Exegesis of the Battlefront Experiences of Guerrillas in Selected Zimbabwean Liberation War Novels Itai Muwati PART TWO: CONSTRUCTION OF SELLOUT IDENTITIES CHAPTER FOUR: African Newspapers, Inter-Racial Politics and Nascent Nationalism: The Construction of a ‘Sellout’ Identity in African Nationalist Politics in Rhodesia, 1953-1962 Sylvester Dombo, Joseph Mujere and Wesley Mwatwara CHAPTER FIVE: Alternative Memories of the Liberation Struggle in Zimbabwe: Some Perspectives from Rengwe Ivan Marowa CHAPTER SIX: Narratives of ZIPRA Clashes with ZANLA: Rethinking the Construction of Sellout Identities during Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle, 1974-1979 Takawira Chatambudza CHAPTER SEVEN: Honour, Patriotic Loyalty and Treachery in Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Debate: A Classical History Perspective Obert Bernard Mlambo and Clive Tendai Zimunya CHAPTER EIGHT: Malawian Encounters with the Zimbabwean Liberation Struggle and Resultant Identities, 1966 to 1979 Anusa Daimon PART THREE: GENDERED PERSPECTIVES CHAPTER NINE: District Assistants, Guerrillas and Teenage Girls in Protected Villages During Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle Ishmael Mazambani CHAPTER TEN: "Huge Impact, Little Recognition": Rethinking Women, War and Food Security in Umtali District, Rhodesia, 1975-1980 Bernard Kusena CHAPTER ELEVEN: White Women and African Nationalism in Colonial Zimbabwe Ushehwedu Kufakurinani and Pius Nyambara BIBLIOGRAPHY
Biography
Munyaradzi Nyakudya is Senior Lecturer in History, University of Zimbabwe, and Editorial Board Member of the History in Africa journal.
Wesley Mwatwara is Senior Lecturer in History, Department of Arts, Walter Sisulu University, South Africa.
Joseph Mujere is Lecturer in History at the University of York, and a researcher in the Society, Work and Politics Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
