The Urban Roots of Democracy and Political Violence in Zimbabwe: Harare and Highfield, 1940-1964 (Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora, 35) - Softcover

Scarnecchia, Professor Timothy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1580463630 ISBN 13: 9781580463638

Publisher: BOYE6, 2013

Synopsis

A timely examination of African politics during the formative years of Zimbabwean nationalism.

The Urban Roots of Democracy and Political Violence in Zimbabwe details a democratic tradition developed in the 1940s and 1950s, and a movement that would fall victim to an increasingly elitist and divisive political culture by the 1960s. Providing biographical sketches of key personalities within the genealogy of nationalist politics, Timothy Scarnecchia weaves an intricate narrative that traces the trajectories of earlier democratic traditions inZimbabwe, including women's political movements, township organizations, and trade unions. This work suggests that intense rivalries for control of the nationalist leadership after 1960, the "sell-out" politics of that period, andCold War funding for rival groups contributed to a unique political impasse, ultimately resulting in the largely autocratic and violent political state today. The author further proposes that this recourse to political violence,"top-down" nationalism, and the abandonment of urban democratic traditions are all hallmarks of a particular type of nationalism equally unsustainable in Zimbabwe then as it is now.

Timothy Scarnecchia is assistant professor of African history at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

About this title

About the Author

TIMOTHY SCARNECCHIA is Professor of History at Kent State University, USA.

Edition details

• Publisher: BOYE6
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1580463630
• ISBN 13: 9781580463638
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240