This work is an attempt to look at some of the realities of Zimbabwe's liberation war and at what happened afterwards, rather than at the comfortable myths. Both heroic and terrible deeds are recorded. North America: Heinemann; Zimbabwe: University of Zimbabwe Publications
Pre-colonial and Colonial Legacies
This volume explores the prehistory of human rights in Zimbabwe. It asks whether there are democratic legacies from pre-colonial polities and what limitations then existed on human rights. It also asks what colonialism contributed to the discourse of human rights and democracy despite its denial of both to Africans. pre- colonial states of Central Africa as embodiments of despotic culture; archaeological evidence of political structures; democracy and traditional political structure 1890-1999; imperial and settler hypocrisy and double standards and the denial of human rights; black elite responses to ideologies of democracy; the law courts in Rhodesia; interaction between white and black trade unionism; and the Build a Nation campaign, 1961-62.
This was a seminal contribution to the history of the Zimbabwean liberation war, which ended with independence in 1980. The book takes a considered view of both sides in the guerrilla war, but is particularly concerned with the Zapu side. At the time of writing this was more or less uncharted territory, to some extent the result of the political outcome of the war, which in the name of national unity, silenced the Zapu story. In particular, it uses material from interviews with ex-Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (Zipra) combatants, previously unobtainable. A particular angle of enquiry is the role of the evangelical Lutheran church in the war. The book is organised into sections: presenting an overview of the war and the roles of Zanu and Zapu 1964-1979; on ideologies and strategies of the liberation movements and the colonial state; on the place of the Lutheran church in Zimbabwe, the war in the west; the war in the east; church, mission and liberation; and the era of reconstruction.