Of possible interest?…
"This thesis is largely interpretative and revisionist in approach to Ndebele history. It is built upon the works of Kent Rasmussen, Ngwabi Bhebe, Julian Cobbing, and Pathisa Nyathi. These pioneering works were largely premised on an empiricist methodology that made them to concentraten on "event" history, rather than ideology and social practice.
This thesis goes beyond the realm of event and empiricist history to grapple with the ideological issues. Its theoretical framework is situated within the context of the novel and critical perspective of democracy and human rights and Antonio Gramsci's innovative theory of hegemony.
The theory of democracy and human rights has generally been assumed to be useful in illuminating only late colonial and post-colonial experiences of Africans. In this thesis, this theory is projected backward and effectively applied to the analysis of the pre-colonial Ndebele state, society, and the early colonial Rhodesian state.
In broad terms, the thesis covers three phases of Ndebele history, beginning with the period 1818 to 1842. This is the period of the Mfecane, migration, state formation and initial settlement of the Ndebele on the Zimbabwean plateau. The second phase is traced from 1842-1893. It is the period of settlement dominated by coalescence of various ethnic groups into a united and heterogeneous Ndebele nation, as well as the consolidation of Khumalo hegemony via the process of ritualisation of kingship and delicate balancing of coercion and consent. The last phase is reconstructed from the first encounter between the Ndebele and the representatives…"
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Amicalement
Armand
