Ethnicity and nationalism in urban colonial Zimbabwe : Bulawayo, 1950 to 1963
- Authors: Msindo, Enocent
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6149 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006813 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021853707002538
- Description: Zimbabwean historians have not yet fully assessed the interaction of two problematic identities, ethnicity and nationalism, to determine whether the two can work as partners and successfully co-exist. This essay argues that, in Bulawayo during the period studied, ethnicity co-existed with and complemented nationalism rather than the two working as polar opposite identities. Ethnic groups provided both the required leaders who became prominent nationalist figures and the precolonial history, personalities and monuments that sparked the nationalist imagination. From the 1950s, ethnic groups expanded their horizons and provided platforms from which emerging African nationalists launched their agenda. Understanding these interrelationships will reshape our understanding of the workings of these two identities in a cosmopolitan town.
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- Date Issued: 2007
Ethnicity, not class? The 1929 Bulawayo faction fights reconsidered
- Authors: Msindo, Enocent
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6150 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006816 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057070600829419
- Description: From Christmas Eve of 1929 to the end of that year, Bulawayo was an ungovernable city marred by fights between Shona, on the one hand (perceived as a 'common enemy'), and forces that were predominantly Ndebele and groups sympathetic to them. A brilliant attempt to explain these clashes a generation ago, nevertheless falls short. This article seeks to revise the popular interpretation of this violence and re-contextualise it historically. A longer timeframe would give us an alternative view of the conflict. It also vindicates the ethnic interpretation of the violence that Phimister and van Onselen, concentrating on the then popular Marxist 'class struggle' paradigm, either minimised or failed to assess thoroughly.
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- Date Issued: 2006