Ndabaningi Sithole: a forgotten founding father

Abstract

Ndabaningi Sithole: A Forgotten Founding Father is a biographical mapping of the political and intellectual contributions of Rev Ndabaningi Sithole to the liberation of Zimbabwe.

As the founding president of ZANU, Sithole was at the vanguard of the nationalist movement in the 50s and 60s. He was also one of the first black writers in Rhodesia and made prolific contributions in various genres including fiction, poetry, polemics and autobiography. Despite all this, Sithole has receded from view, partly because of his own political misfortunes, and partly through the machinations of his erstwhile comrades and political opponents.

Since the seismic shifts in Zimbabwe's politics in November 2017 after an unexpected military coup and the eventual demise of Robert Mugabe there is a new interest in marginalised historical and national figures such as Ndabaningi Sithole. This book will be an important contribution to a new and emerging discourse re-appraising the nationalist history of Zimbabwe. It is a misnomer that Sithole the founder of ZANU has not been given his due credit for the contributions and sacrifices he made to the independence of Zimbabwe, warts and all.

This is the first major book on Ndabaningi Sithole, so it is a very unique contribution to Zimbabwean historiography. As such there is no competition. There was a critical discourse around his writings in the 60s and 70s in various history journals, but since he was removed as leader of ZANU there has been very little critical discussion of Sithole.