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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Fictional Depictions of Land Resistance in Southern Africa |
| Author: | Vambe, Maurice T. |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Periodical: | African Identities |
| Volume: | 3 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Period: | April |
| Pages: | 17-36 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Mozambique Zimbabwe Great Britain Portugal |
| Subjects: | peasantry colonialism national liberation struggles short stories Literature, Mass Media and the Press Ethnic and Race Relations Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/14725840500065887 |
| Abstract: | This essay analyses the depiction of land resistance or the struggle over control of land by black people as portrayed in some southern African short stories in English. These stories are drawn from Zimbabwe and Mozambique because these two countries experienced bitter and protracted wars of liberation, with the issue of land at the centre of those struggles. The first part of the essay argues that land resistance, which took the form of the peasant option in the colonial context, demonstrates African agency and is a precursor of renewed efforts at land reform in Zimbabwe today. This is illustrated by short stories from Bernardo Luis Honwana's 'We killed Mangy-Dog & other Mozambique stories' (1969) and David Mungoshi's story 'Seventy-five bags' that appears in the collection 'The sound of snapping wires: a selection of Zimbabwean short stories' (ed. T.O. McLoughlin, 1990). The second part of the essay analyses Stanley Nyamfukudza's story 'Settlers' (1990), Memory Chirere's 'Maize' (2003), and Alexander Kanengoni's 'The ugly reflection in the mirror' (2003), which depict the exhilaration of the black peasantry in Zimbabwe who benefited from the post-1980 land reform that stepped up a gear in 2000. Part three focuses on the anthology 'Exploding the myths about Zimbabwe's land issue; the budding writers' perspective' (ed. Dudziro Nhengu, 2004) and Musaemura Zimunya's story 'The slashers' (1993), which portray Africans grappling with the socioeconomic and political contradictions that arise in their resistance aimed at controlling land after independence. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
