‘Personalization or fictionalization of national history in Zimbabwe?’ A re-evaluation of the Political careers of Ian Smith and Ndabaningi Sithole
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25255/jss.2013.2.1.15.26Abstract
The historiography concerning the making of Zimbabwe as an independent nation has been written
from various perspectives and by using different sources, both primary and secondary ones. The
study constitutes a re-evaluation of the political careers of Ndabaningi Sithole and Ian Douglas
Smith against the background of their autobiographies as forms of primary resources of national
history for Zimbabwe. It will be noted that autobiographical writing is a fruit of an arduous
process of human construction, de-construction and re-construction done in the shadow of some
interlocking interests, fears and pressures that surround the autobiographer. The present study
contends that every personal engagement in the writing of history of a particular people or nation
is a moralizing crusade or enterprise, whether by default or by design. Evidently, that is how the
characteristic elements of objectivity and subjectivity come to the fore vis- a- vis the status of
autobiography as a source and resource of national (or patriotic) history.
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