A History of Zimbabwe, 1890-2000 and Postscript, Zimbabwe, 2001-2008.

A History of Zimbabwe, 1890-2000 and Postscript, Zimbabwe, 2001-2008. By Chengetai J. M. Zvobgo. (Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. Pp. xvii, 385. $74.99.)

That this study is not intended to satisfy specialists becomes apparent when Kimberley is placed in the Orange Free State; when Sir Sidney Shippard, who was concurrently the Administrator of British Bechuanaland and the Deputy Commissioner for the Bechuanaland Protectorate, is referred to as "Administrator for Bechuanaland"; and when the fourth Earl Grey is identified as "Mr. Earl Grey." Therefore, the question arises: to what extent has the author written "a political, social and economic history" for the general reader (xv)?

Chengetai J. M. Zvobgo comments briefly on the Shona and Ndebele before 1890 in his introduction without noting how the Ndebele managed their cattle. Nine chapters are then devoted to the years from the occupation of parts of Mashonaland in 1890 to the achievement of statehood on 18 April 1980. Chapter 1 closes with the suppression of the Shona and Ndebele risings and chapter 2 with the achievement of responsible government by the settlers. Chapters 3 through 9 are then demarcated through references made to matters relating to aspects of constitutional change. Chapter 10 and the postscript review the mounting political repression that developed between 1980 and 2008, with limited discussion of the economic background and references to, but no explanation of, further constitutional changes.

Why the African National Congress had to be a multiracial party in 1957 is not explained, nor is the selection of Bishop Abel Muzorewa as leader of the African National Council in 1971. The "leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions" are credited with launching the Movement for Democratic Change in 1999, although how they were able to do so is not revealed; the only previous reference to trade unions occurs in the review of the 1960 National Democratic Party program. There is no indication that reserves were intended originally only to make minimal provision for Africans unwilling to work for Europeans nor of when reserves began to be overcrowded. When systematic compulsory movements of Africans into reserves and Special Native Areas began and when compulsory destocking commenced is not stated. Mention is made of the government industrial training schools that opened in 1920 and 1921 but not of the later use made of former pupils as demonstrators to "develop" the Native Reserves. It follows that there is no discussion of what "development" meant in relation to Native Reserves and Areas. Since the sections of the 1951 Native Land Husbandry Act relating to townships are ignored, there is no serious discussion of labor policy, industrialization, or African urbanization. In discussing the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, passing reference is made to the need "to harness rivers, to develop power to meet the needs of industry" without indicating why hydroelectric power was essential, why the Zambezi rather than the Kafue River was dammed, or how Nyasaland would benefit (79).

This book is a quasi-constitutional review of the colonial period and of postindependence politics with otherwise limited political, social, and economic overtones.

Philip Stigger

Simon Fraser University