Title: “We do not want to be ruled by foreigners”: Oral Histories of Nationalism in Colonial Zimbabwe
Abstract: Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1. Ndabaningi Sithole, Obed Mutezo of Zimbabwe, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1970, 116.2. It is difficult to singularize and come up with a “definition” of modern anti‐colonial African nationalism, because, in actuality, “African nationalism” was a series of political movements that spanned almost five decades, from the 1940s–1990s, and took many forms including job‐strikes, urban protests and civil disobedience, negotiated settlements, and more drastically, armed guerrilla struggles. See Ibbo Mandaza, Race, Color and Class in Southern Africa, Harare: SAPES Books, 1997; Ali A. Mazrui and Michael Tidy, Nationalism and New States in Africa: From About 1935 to the Present, Nairobi: Heinemann, 1984; A. Adu Boahen, African Perspectives on Colonialism, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1987.3. The association of African nationalism with elites is reinforced by conventional texts of African nationalism that reify the role(s) of these elites in the formulation and practice of nationalism in Africa (see, especially, Toyin Falola, Nationalism and African Intellectuals, NY: U. of Rochester P., 2001).4. Colonial Zimbabwe was known as (South‐)Rhodesia before 1980, for the British had given it Cecil Rhodes's name.5. Susan Geiger, TANU Women: Gender and Culture in the Making of Tanganyikan Nationalism, 1955–65, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1997, 1–19.6. The subject of Zimbabwean nationalism is littered with official histories that highlight the central role played by “nationalist leaders”: See, especially, David Martin and Phyllis Johnson, The Struggle for Zimbabwe, London: Faber and Faber, 1981; David Smith and Colin Simpson, Mugabe Illustrated, Salisbury: Pioneer Head, 1981.7. Whereas Zimbabwean official histories of the nationalist movement read more like elitist distortions that undermine the important roles of other historical subjects critical to the liberation struggle, works such as Martin and Johnson's Struggle, albeit passionate in their documentation of Zimbabwe's struggle for liberation, read more like histories of selected elite personalities who led Zimbabwe's guerrilla war.8. As translated by Geoff Eley, see Geoff Eley, “Nazism, Politics, and the Image of the Past: Thoughts on the West German Historikerstreit, 1986–87,” Past and Present 121, 1988, 171–208: 194.9. Martin and Johnson, Struggle.10. Donald Moore, as quoted in Ngwabi Bhebhe and Terence Ranger, Soldiers in Zimbabwe's Liberation War, London: James Currey, 1991, 6. Teresa Barnes criticized the book as a “quasi‐official history which depends solely on official accounts and the recollections of national leaders” (as quoted in Bhebhe and Ranger, Soldiers, 6). Brian Raftopoulos scathingly dismissed the same book as a “little more than a hagiography for the ruling party (ZANU), an unashamed apologetic justifying the coming to power of a section of the liberation movement” (Brian Raftopoulos, “Problematising Nationalism in Zimbabwe: A Historiographical Review,” in Zambezia 2, 1999, 115–34: 121).11. See Terence Ranger, Peasant Consciousness and Guerrilla War in Zimbabwe, Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1988; and David Lan, Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe, Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1988.12. See for example Joyce M. Chadya and Koni Benson, “ ‘Ukubhinya’: Gender and Sexual Violence in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwe, 1946–56,”Journal of Southern Africa, 3, 2005, 587–606; J. Nhongo‐Simbanegavi, For Better or Worse?, Harare: Weaver Press, 2000; Tanya Lyons, Guns and Guerilla Girls, Trenton: Africa World Press, 2004, B. Raftopoulos and T. Yoshikuni, eds., Sites For Struggle, Harare: Weaver Press, 1999, and B. Raftopoulos and A. Mlambo, eds., Becoming Zimbabwe, Harare: Weaver Press, 2009.13. See Norma Kriger, Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War: Peasant Voices, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.14. Alois Mlambo dismissed Kriger's work as a “gross distortion of the Zimbabwean [liberation struggle] reality” for her refusal to submit to a liberation war narrative that stresses collective peasant grievances and consciousness (Alois Mlambo, “Out on a Limb: Review of Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War by Norma Kriger,”The Zimbabwe Review, January 1997, 8–9: 8). Angela Cheater characterized Kriger's book as a “badly flawed contribution to the literature on Zimbabwe's liberation struggle” (Angela Cheater, “Review: Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War,”Man, New Series 4, 1992, 888–9: 888). For other reviews of Kriger's book, see Terence Ranger, “Review of Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War by Norma Kriger,” African Affairs 370, 1994, 142–4; S. Robins, “Heroes, Heretics and Historians of the Zimbabwe Revolution: A Review Article of Norma Kriger's Peasant Voices,” Zambezia 1, 1996, 73–91.15. The oral and life history of Obed Mutezo was published as a biography by Ndabaningi Sithole, an academic and later nationalist leader of ZANU (see Ndabaningi Sithole, Obed Mutezo of Zimbabwe, Nairobi: Oxford UP, 1977). Although Sithole himself was part of the African political elite, he came from the same rural home as Mutezo and once shared a prison cell with him. During intermittent periods of freedom from Rhodesian prisons and detention centers, Sithole decided to record Mutezo's life story as oral testimony with limited commentary, later publishing it as a biography.16. Sithole, Obed Mutezo, 21. Rhodesia's Industrial Conciliation Act of 1934 legalized an industrial color bar that segmented black and white laborers into different reward structures and disallowed competition between them and mobility across this racial chasm (see Edmore Mufema, “The Southern Rhodesia Industrial Conciliation Act of 1934”, unpubl. MA thesis, University of Zimbabwe, 1992).17. Sithole, Obed Mutezo, 21.18. Ibid. Native Commissioners were the principal rural district administrators in Southern Rhodesia.19. Ibid.20. Ibid.21. Ibid.22. Ibid., 21–2. An urban based trade unionist, Benjamin Burombo was an influential reformist African politician in the 1940s. Not necessarily advocating for majority rule, Burombo's British National Voice Association provided a platform for reform‐minded Africans to challenge the racial policies of the Rhodesian authorities (see Ngwabi Bhebhe, Benjamin Burombo: African Politics in Zimbabwe 1947–58, Harare: Mambo Press, 1989).23. Sithole, Obed Mutezo, 22.24. Ibid., 22.25. Ibid., 15.26. Ibid., 119.27. Micah 2:2, see Sithole, Obed Mutezo, 23.28. Ibid., 120.29. Ibid.30. Ibid., 21–3, 118–19.31. Ibid., 23.32. Lan, Guns and Rain, xv–xvi, 7, 38–40.33. Mordikai Hamutyinei, Zvakange Zvakaoma MuZimbabwe (It was Difficult in Zimbabwe), Gweru: Mambo Press, 1984 (Author's translation).34. Ibid., 5.35. Ibid. According to Rhodesia's 1912 Beer Ordinance, Africans were not allowed to drink European brewed beer such as clear malt liquor, spirits, or wines. Africans were only allowed to partake of their home‐brewed, sorghum opaque beer. See also Justin Willis, “Drinking Power: Alcohol and History in Africa,”History Compass 1, 2005, 1–12.36. Hamutyinei, Zvakange Zvakaoma, 5.37. Ibid.38. Ibid.39. Ibid., 6.40. Ibid.41. Ibid., 5–6.42. Ibid., 6.43. Interview with Oliver Muvirimi Dizha, Murewa Rural Area, Zimbabwe, 17 October 2006. Digital recordings and transcripts of all the interviews that follow are deposited in the Aluka Digital Library, content area “Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa”[available at: http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.ae000169, accessed 14 October 2010].44. Interview with Oliver Muvirimi Dizha.45. Ibid.46. Interview with Lucas Jonasi, Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, 28 July 2007 (Aluka Digital Library).47. Interview with Henry Masunda, Bikita, Mandadzaka Village, Zimbabwe, 1 July 2007 (Aluka Digital Library).48. Interview with Francis Chikukwa, Mufakose Township, Harare, Zimbabwe, 25 August, 2006 (Aluka Digital Library).49. On Rhodesia's urban influx‐control laws, see Terry Barnes, “ ‘Am I a Man?’: Gender and the Pass Laws in Urban Colonial Zimbabwe, 1930–80,” African Studies Review 1, 1997, 59–81.50. Interview with Francis Chikukwa.51. Ibid. Salisbury's “First Street” was the central boulevard of downtown Salisbury. It was known for its town glitter, elegance, and cosmopolitan outlook. Black people were not allowed to set foot along this street.52. Ibid.53. Ibid.54. Ibid.55. Interview with Roderick Muhammad, Mbare Township, Harare, Zimbabwe, 10 August 2007 (Aluka Digital Library).56. Ibid.57. Interview with Roderick Muhammad.58. Interview with Matthew Masiyakurima, Budiriro 5 Township, Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 August 2006 (Aluka Digital Library).59. Ibid. In Rhodesian racialized parlance, Africans were forever infantile, which explains why a male domestic servant could be referred to as a “boy” regardless of his age.60. Interview with Matthew Masiyakurima.61. Ibid.62. Interview with Rueben Bascoe, Mbare Township, Zimbabwe, 12 July 2007 (Aluka Digital Library).Additional informationNotes on contributorsMunyaradzi B. MunochiveyiMunyaradzi Bryn Munochiveyi is an Assistant Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross and a Research Fellow for the Economic History Department of the University of Zimbabwe. The author wishes to thank the following for generous research grants that funded field work for this article: the International Center for the Study of Global Change (University of Minnesota) for the Compton Doctoral Research Grant and the College of the Holy Cross for the Research and Publication Grant. I also acknowledge the helpful critiques and suggestions from the anonymous readers of The Historian.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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