The urban roots of democracy and political violence in Zimbabwe : Harare and Highfield, 1940-1964

Author(s)

    • Scarnecchia, Timothy

Bibliographic Information

The urban roots of democracy and political violence in Zimbabwe : Harare and Highfield, 1940-1964

Timothy Scarnecchia

(Rochester studies in African history and the diaspora, v. 35)

University of Rochester Press, 2008

  • alk. paper

Available at  / 1 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-209) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The Urban Roots of Democracy and Political Violence in Zimbabwe details a democratic tradition developed in the 1940s and 1950s, and a movement that would fall victim to an increasingly elitist and divisive political culture by the 1960s. Providing biographical sketches of key personalities within the genealogy of nationalist politics, Timothy Scarnecchia weaves an intricate narrative that traces the trajectories of earlier democratic traditions inZimbabwe, including women's political movements, township organizations, and trade unions. This work suggests that intense rivalries for control of the nationalist leadership after 1960, the "sell-out" politics of that period, andCold War funding for rival groups contributed to a unique political impasse, ultimately resulting in the largely autocratic and violent political state today. The author further proposes that this recourse to political violence,"top-down" nationalism, and the abandonment of urban democratic traditions are all hallmarks of a particular type of nationalism equally unsustainable in Zimbabwe then as it is now. Timothy Scarnecchia is Assistant Professor of African History at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

Table of Contents

Introduction Charles Mzingeli's Leadership and Imperial Working-Class Citizenship Township Protest Politics Resistance to the Urban Areas Act and Women's Political Influence Changing Tactics: Youth League Politics and the End of Accommodation The Early Sixties: Violent Protest and "Sellout" Politics The "Imperialist Stooge" and New Levels of "Sellout" Political Violence

by "Nielsen BookData"

Related Books: 1-1 of 1

Details

Page Top