Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Complicating the Past: Oral History and Agrarian Change in Colonial Zimbabwe |
Author: | Thompson, Guy |
Year: | 2003 |
Periodical: | Zambezia (ISSN 0379-0622) |
Volume: | 30 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 154-177 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Zimbabwe Southern Africa |
Subjects: | oral history agricultural innovations farming systems colonial period History and Exploration Education and Oral Traditions Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology colonialism History, Archaeology land reform imperialism historiography agriculture |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.4314/zjh.v30i2.6770 |
Abstract: | Zimbabweanists should make more use of oral history because it offers unique insights that extend beyond archival accounts and illuminate the dynamics and debates that reshaped African society under white domination. Drawing on his ongoing research into agrarian and social change in the Madziwa Communal Area from 1920 to 1965, the author shows how interviews and conversations with members of the community can reveal important developments in these areas that are not readily accessible from documentary sources. In particular, peasants' oral accounts highlight shifts in methods of agricultural production and interaction with the environment, as well as important changes in the social organization of work. Madziwans reshaped community, family, and household dynamics in response to the pressures of commodification, technological and productive innovation, and State demands. These insights are not simply details of local history, however. Rather, they contribute to the ongoing work of fleshing out Zimbabwe's history, reshaping the central narratives of colonial domination. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |