‘Personalization or fictionalization of national history in Zimbabwe?’ A re-evaluation of the Political careers of Ian Smith and Ndabaningi Sithole

Abstract

The historiography concerning the making of Zimbabwe as an independent nation has been writtenfrom various perspectives and by using different sources, both primary and secondary ones. Thestudy constitutes a re-evaluation of the political careers of Ndabaningi Sithole and Ian DouglasSmith against the background of their autobiographies as forms of primary resources of nationalhistory for Zimbabwe. It will be noted that autobiographical writing is a fruit of an arduousprocess of human construction, de-construction and re-construction done in the shadow of someinterlocking interests, fears and pressures that surround the autobiographer. The present studycontends that every personal engagement in the writing of history of a particular people or nationis a moralizing crusade or enterprise, whether by default or by design. Evidently, that is how thecharacteristic elements of objectivity and subjectivity come to the fore vis- a- vis the status ofautobiography as a source and resource of national (or patriotic) history.