Terence Ranger and the Jagged Geometry of Zimbabwe
Percy Zvomuya celebrates the thoughts and texts of groundbreaking historian Terence Ranger, who died on 2 January 2015 In 2004, after Terence Ranger had delivered a paper at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (Wiser), I went up to him to greet him, make a few comments about his lecture and introduce myself […]
Zimbabwe is a Victim of Outsiders’ Fantasies
In 2008 or so, I registered for a Masters degree at Wits University with a rather interesting research component that I never got to finish. My thesis was to be an examination of the coverage of Zimbabwe in South Africa’s Sunday Times; the use of the prism of Zimbabwe to debate local issues. The idea […]
Mugabe’s Respect for Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, just when the uproar attracted by Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence couldn’t get any louder. The Lancaster Agreement which Thatcher forced through was signed just before Christmas. Could this be Thatcher’s only gift to the world? A myth has spread, especially in Zimbabwean political circles, that could be […]