Introduction: Suffering for the Nation: The Prison as a Site of Struggle during Zimbabwe’s Liberation War

Abstract

During conversations with former African political prisoners of the Rhodesian¹ colonial regime, “we suffered for this nation” was a common reflective phrase that informants used in order to claim their place within the narrative of Zimbabwe’s anti-colonial struggle in the late-twentieth century. Indeed, “suffering” is a dominant analytical trope for most liberation struggle participants in Zimbabwean history. However, in the dominant narratives of this history, both popular and sometimes academic, the suffering of others is more visible and audible in comparison to other historical subjects’ histories. This is not surprising because over the years, and since Zimbabwe attained political independence from colonial rule in 1980, those with politically legitimate and authorized claims to suffering have had unfettered access to both political and economic power in postcolonial Zimbabwe. The writing of Zimbabwean history, particularly nationalist history, has been in constant evolution and has demonstrated that it is indeed an intense exercise in inclusion and exclusion. The subjects of this study have lived on the fringes of this history for a long time, and this book seeks to tell the story of colonial Rhodesia’s political captives, stories that have remained in the shadows of dominant nationalist and state narratives.