First comprehensive history of Zimbabwe, spanning the years from 850 to 2008. In 1997, the then Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Morgan Tsvangirai, expressed the need for a 'more open and critical process of writing history in Zimbabwe.... The history of a nation-in-the-making should not be reduced to a selective heroic tradition.' This important book tracks the idea of national belonging and citizenship and explores the nature of state rule, the changing contours of the political economy, and the regional and international dimensions of the country's history. In their Introduction, Brian Raftopoulos and Alois Mlambo enlarge on these themes; Gerald Mazarire's opening chapter sets the pre-colonial background; Sabelo Ndlovu tracks the history up to 1945; and, Alois Mlambo reviews developments in the settler economy and the emergence of nationalism leading to UDI in 1965. The politics and economics of the UDI period, and the subsequent war of liberation, are covered by Joesph Mtisi, Munyaradzi Nyakudya and Teresa Barnes. After independence in 1980, Zimbabwe enjoyed a period of buoyancy and hope. James Muzondidya's chapter details the transition 'from buoyancy to crisis', and Brian Raftopoulos concludes the book with an analysis of the decade-long crisis and the global political agreement which followed. Maps, b/w illus, 296pp, ZIMBABWE. WEAVER PRESS.

A revised [third] edition of this reference book, with introduction and annotated bibliography. BNS, 560pp, map, USA. SCARECROW, 0810834715

This study combines in one volume the history of Zimbabwe from the advent of British settlers in 1890 to 2000, including women’s rights and human rights in Zimbabwe. It is a political, social and economic history. The Postscript examines the major developments in Zimbabwe from 2001 to 2008. 380pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE SCHOLARS PUBLISHING.

Published to coincide with the seventy-fifth anniversary of teh Bulawayo-based school. B/w photos, 171pp, ZIMBABWE. MILTON SCHOOL.

1985 Hardback

Examines the politics of landscape and heritage by focusing on the example of Great Zimbabwe National Monument in southern Zimbabwe. Represents an important step beyond the earlier controversy over the site's origins, to focus on the site's position in local contests between, and among individuals within, the Nemanwa, Charumbira and Mugabe clans over land, power and authority. To justify their claims, chiefs, spirit mediums and elders of each clan make appeals to different, but related, constructions of the past. Emphasising the disappearance of the 'Voice' that used to speak there, these narratives also describe the destruction, alienation and desecration of Great Zimbabwe that occurred, and continues, through the international and national, archaeological and heritage, processes and practices by which Great Zimbabwe has become a national and world heritage site today. Index, bib, b/w illus, 246pp, UK. LEFT COAST PRESS.

In light of the uses and misuses of history in Zimbabwean politics in recent years, this research report focuses on how versions of the country's liberation war history have become a site of struggle over the definition of Zimbabwean national identity, cross reading the political discourses of the President and the ruling party ZANU (PF) with opposing voices such as those in the works of the late author Yvonne Vera. 123pp, SWEDEN. NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE.

Violence has powerfully shaped the history and memory of the past in Matabeleland, from the wars of colonial conquest in the 1890s to the devastating post colonial violence of the 1980s. The story told in this book concerns the remote, forested wilderness of the Shangani Reserve. It is the story of the settlement of a dis-ease ridden frontier and its transformation, first into the rural heartland of a nationalist movement, and later into a refuge for post liberation 'dissidents'. B/w illus. maps, refs, index, xiv, 291pp. UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.

Focused on the process of identity formation among members of Zimbabwe's coloured community, this book challenges conventional wisdom on race and ethnic identities. It tries to demonstrate how social identities are produced and reproduced in the dialectic of internal and external definition, while paying attention to the role played by people's self-definitions. Index, bib, tables, b/w photos, 323pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS.