Rhodesia 1890–1980

Lowry, Donal

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199297672.003.0005

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Several researchers have described the continuing existence of a transnational commemorative community of 'ex-Rhodesians' who share wistful tales of the Rhodesian pastalso sometimes referred to as 'Whenwes' for their tendency to reminisce constantly about 'when we were in Rhodesia'. 51 Much of this research has focused on the late 1990s and early 2000s, precisely the period into which Smith is writing, a time when storytelling was clearly important for maintaining the ex-Rhodesian sense of community. As Katja Uusihakala argues, '[r]eflecting upon the place of belonging and a sense of home, as well as ritually celebrating a common past, all relate to, and are formative of, how the ex-Rhodesians understand themselves and their place in the world'.…”

Section: Zimbabwean State Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subversion or Identity Work? Tracing the Reception of Zimbabwean Counter-Narrative Memoirs

Rasch

2021

Journal of Southern African Studies

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This article analyses the reception of memoirs that position themselves as counternarratives to state-sanctioned Zimbabwean storytelling. It asks whether these texts play the subversive role that one might expect from their status as counter-narratives. To study the lives of counter-narratives, I propose that it is helpful to examine their narrative communities, distinguishing between implicit and imagined narrative communities. Under scrutiny are four very different memoirs: Nkomo: The Story of My Life by Joshua Nkomo (1984), The Great Betrayal/Bitter Harvest by Ian Smith (1997/2001), When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin ( 2006) and These Bones Will Rise Again by Panashe Chigumadzi (2018). The article examines the counter-narrative gestures of the memoirs and then places them in the context of their narrative communities, exploring how they are reviewed and debated, particularly online. Considering audiences in Zimbabwe, the ex-Rhodesian community, the west and the Zimbabwean diaspora, the article concludes that the target audience is rarely the Zimbabwean state itself. Instead, these texts are written and read in support of a number of identity projects, serving to confirm readers' understanding of the world. Countering the Zimbabwean state narrative is not always the prime concern of readers who, like the texts, communicate mostly with like-minded people.

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Section: Zimbabwean State Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subversion or Identity Work? Tracing the Reception of Zimbabwean Counter-Narrative Memoirs

Rasch

2021

Journal of Southern African Studies

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“…3 This frustration with the inability of those members of the 'ruling race' at the bottom of the social scale-the 'poor whites'-to perform the civilising role assigned to them is seemingly a characteristic of all settler societies. 4 However, the specifically racial anxieties summoned up by the term were less pronounced in the Russian Empire, where there was no direct equivalent: racial ideologies and categorisations were quite highly developed in some branches of Russian ethnography, but with the notable exception of anti-Semitism they only rarely spilled over into official rhetoric and practice. 5 Russian officials were more concerned about the possibility of religious apostasy and cultural degeneration among settlers in Asia than about miscegenation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%