subcutaneous reviewed Zimbabwe by Masipula Sithole
Important work, limited in scope
4 stars
A very critical & insightful work of political science/organizational theory that explains the internal conflicts among leaders of Zimbabwe's nationalist independence movement through the 1960s & 1970s. The author was a participant & so has important “insider” knowledge.
I shared plenty of quotes that I found helpful, so here are some limitations: • A fairly exclusive focus on the elites. This was presumably by design, but I'm still glad I read a book focused on the grassroots movement before this one & plan to read at least one more. • It's all a bunch of (very violently) squabbling cis men - there's not even a cursory acknowledgment of gender oppression despite the fact that I can only think of one person (Fay Chung) the author mentions at all who was neither a cis man nor one of his relatives. There's default “he” throughout in reference to political actors in …
A very critical & insightful work of political science/organizational theory that explains the internal conflicts among leaders of Zimbabwe's nationalist independence movement through the 1960s & 1970s. The author was a participant & so has important “insider” knowledge.
I shared plenty of quotes that I found helpful, so here are some limitations: • A fairly exclusive focus on the elites. This was presumably by design, but I'm still glad I read a book focused on the grassroots movement before this one & plan to read at least one more. • It's all a bunch of (very violently) squabbling cis men - there's not even a cursory acknowledgment of gender oppression despite the fact that I can only think of one person (Fay Chung) the author mentions at all who was neither a cis man nor one of his relatives. There's default “he” throughout in reference to political actors in the abstract too. • There isn't much said about the role of open imperialists in the internal struggles. This is intentional, but still worth noting, just to clarify what the book won't discuss much.