Home / Library / The Struggle for Zimbabwe
Cover: Open Library.
Library
The Struggle for Zimbabwe
David Martin & Phyllis Johnson · Faber and Faber · 1981 · ISBN 0571110665
What it is
A history of the liberation war, published the year after independence.
How we used it
Our main source for the prison vote of 1 November 1974 (pages 146–151) and for the killing of Herbert Chitepo on 18 March 1975 (page 172).
Read it knowing
The authors had close access to ZANU’s leaders and write from their side. Read it against Masipula Sithole’s Struggles Within the Struggle and Wilfred Mhanda’s Dzino.
In our films
Read alongside
- MugabeDavid Smith & Colin Simpson, 1981. Written close to the events, before most of the memoirs and archives were available.
- With the PeopleMaurice Nyagumbo, 1980. A participant’s account from inside ZANU, written at independence.
- A Lifetime of StruggleEdgar Tekere, 2007. Written more than thirty years later, after Tekere had broken with Mugabe and founded his own party.
- Re-living the Second ChimurengaFay Chung, 2006. An insider’s account from within ZANU.
- African Nationalist Leaders in RhodesiaRobert Cary & Diana Mitchell, 1977. A reference book from 1977: useful for dates and careers, written before the war’s outcome was known.
- The Great BetrayalIan Smith, 1997. The Rhodesian government’s side, told by its leader. We quote it and say where it differs from other accounts.