PUBLIC EVENTS, PRIVATE INSPIRATIONS: HOW ZIMBABWEAN HISTORY HAS CONSTRUCTED LIFE NARRATIVES by HAZEL TAFADZWA NGOSHI A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF LITERATURE in the Department of English at the University of Pretoria Faculty of Humanities Supervisor: Professor Anthony John Chennells March 2014 © University of Pretoria Declaration I declare that this thesis is my original work and that all the sources used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. i © University of Pretoria Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the support of my daughter Takudzwanashe. Her quiet demeanor and resilience when I could not give her my time have been exemplary and will always be cherished. I dedicate this work to her and anticipate the day when her own academic endeavours will come to fruition and surpass mine. It would not have been possible to write this thesis without the support of Professor Anthony Chennells, members of the Department of English at the University of Pretoria and the Department of English and Communication, at the Midlands State University. I appreciate Professor Chennells‟s profound and unparalleled multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills that helped shape this thesis: I could not have had a better director of studies. I wish to thank Professors Andries Wessels and David Medalie, and Dr Molly Brown for their kind support in many respects. My colleagues in the English and Communication department at the Midlands State University: Dr Tasiyana Javangwe, Dr Ernest Jakaza, Dr Collen Sabao, Dr Terrence Musanga, Ms Elda Hungwe, Ms Itai Mariko, Mr. Aneas Mutekwa, Mr. Hugh Mangeya and Mr. Francis Mungana provided inspirational support, stimulated academic debate and I wish to thank them for the spirit of collegiality. I express my gratitude to Dr Terrence Mashingaidze for his patience when I constantly bothered him for historical facts on Zimbabwe and for being a sounding board for my ideas. I would also like to thank the University of Pretoria for the financial support for my studies and the Midlands State University Research and Post-graduate Studies office for funding my travel and subsistence expenses. The friendship and academic support of the Midlands State University Librarian, Ms Nyarai Chibanda has been invaluable and I am grateful to her for keeping a superb library. I also thank her library staff and particularly Mr Makandwa for his patience and diligence. I wish to thank my cousin Wendy Musunda and her husband for being my hosts in South Africa; my expressions of gratitude do not suffice. Last, but not least, I am forever grateful to my friends and sisters Mrs Rhoda Makamure and Winmore Kusena for being mothers to my daughter in my absence and when I became engrossed in my studies. I have only given mention to few of those who have been kind and supported me, but I still thank many others for their kindness and support. ii © University of Pretoria Abstract This study identifies and critiques the historical, political and discursive moments and contexts that have shaped autobiographical writing in Zimbabwe. It does this by locating the autobiographies of Frank Johnson, Hans Sauer, Hylda Richards, Lawrence Vambe, Abel Muzorewa, Maurice Nyagumbo, Peter Godwin, Ian Smith, Joshua Nkomo, Fay Chung, Judith Todd and Edgar Tekere in their historical, political and discursive contexts, while also demarcating the narrating subjects in these contexts. The study seeks to examine the kind of autobiographical subjectivities that emerge in these contexts and its point of departure is that autobiographical remembering and story-telling are historically situated. It further problematises these subjectivities by showing how they are constituted by memory, experience, identity, agency and embodiment as they are inflected by history and power relationships. Literary criticism of Zimbabwean writing has not accounted for how self narration and conceptions of the self emerge out of historical, political, cultural and national processes at any given time. It has also not shown how these processes have occasioned the production of autobiographical narratives and the nature of subjectivities that these processes construct. Through the endeavours of this study autobiographical subjects are demarcated and understood in diverse contexts. The study approached the analyses of the selected life narratives from postcolonial, dialogic and intertextual perspectives. Postcolonial theory as a critical method problematises human experiences and cultural and class identities as they relate to the power dynamics of colonialism and its aftermaths. In deploying postcolonial theory the analyses in Chapters Two, Three, Four and Five establish that subjects of postcolonial autobiography in Zimbabwe develop complex subjectivities that emerge from the contradictions of history and postcolony. While some autobiographers belong to a similar historical epoch, their subjectivities are not necessarily the same but diverse and complex. The study reveals that these contradictions are constitutive of the hybrid autobiographical subjectivities of the narrators, which range from pioneer, domestic settler, nationalist, radical nationalist to nation-builder, freedom-fighter, rights activist and dissenting subjectivities. Bakhtin‟s notion of dialogism provides insight into the nature of autobiographical discourse in these narratives from a stylistic perspective and reveals the dialogic practices that narrating subjects engage in to mediate their subjectivities. The application of dialogism shows that the narrating I‟s subjectivity is formed iii © University of Pretoria and manifests at the point where the “I” is in dialogue with another‟s word. Self conception is thus located where the public and private selves converge in narrative. The analyses of these narratives also make use of intertextuality, which establishes the relationality between studied texts and other narratives. The study reaches the conclusion that the historicity of autobiographical story telling should be a guiding framework for understanding autobiographical subjectivities and for a theory of autobiography in Zimbabwe. The study also facilitates a reconsideration of Zimbabwe‟s violent past since it positions autobiographical narratives as sites for rethinking the politics and practices of life writing. Key terms: autobiography, life narrative, Zimbabwean history, Rhodesia, subjectivity, nationalism, postcolonial theory, dialogism, intertextuality, pioneers, settlers, colonialism. iv © University of Pretoria List of Acronyms AIDS - Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome ANC - African National Congress (South Africa) ANC - African National Council ANC - African National Congress (Rhodesia) BSAC - British South Africa Company HIV - Human Immuno Virus ICU - Industrial and Commercial Workers Union LAA - Land Tenure Act LOMA - Law and Order Maintenance Act LTA - Land Tenure Act MDC - Movement for Democratic Change NDP - National Democratic Party NLHA - Native Land Husbandry Act OAU - Organisation of African Unity RRAF - Royal Rhodesian Air Force RAF - Royal Air Force RF - Rhodesia Front RLI - Rhodesian Light Infantry SAPES - Southern African Political Economy Series TTL - Tribal Trust Lands UANC - United African National Council v © University of Pretoria UDI - Unilateral Declaration of Independence ZANLA - Zimbabwe National Liberation Army ZANU - Zimbabwe African National Union ZANU-PF - Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front ZAPU - Zimbabwe African People‟s Union ZIPA - Zimbabwe People‟s Army ZIPRA - Zimbabwe People‟s Revolutionary Army vi © University of Pretoria TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration............................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................... iii List of Acronyms .................................................................................................................. v TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... vii Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Autobiography: Theory and practice ..................................................................................... 1 Chapter One ........................................................................................................................ 36 Autobiographical subjectivity, discourse and history ........................................................... 36 Chapter Two ....................................................................................................................... 67 The pioneering self: Autobiography and Rhodesian discourses of empire building .............. 67 Chapter Three ................................................................................................................... 103 The era of mass nationalism and the liberation struggle: an autobiographical moment ....... 103 Chapter Four ..................................................................................................................... 162 Nation building: its rhetoric and autobiographical practices ..............................................