Author David Lan Preface by Maurice Bloch Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics Publisher Zimbabwe Publishing House (Pvt) Ltd P.O. Box BW-350 Harare, Zimbabwe ©David Lan 1985 First published 1985, in Southern Africa by ZPH, in Great Britain by James Currey Ltd, and in the USA by the University of California Press. ISBN 0 949225 08 8 Printed in Zimbabwe by Zimpak Categories War, Guerillas, Peasants, Politics, Chimurenga & Spirituality
Almost every anti-colonial struggle this century has been led by an army of guerrillas. No such struggle has succeeded without a very high degree of cooperation between guerrillas the local peasantry. But what does ‘cooperation’ between peasants and guerillas really consist of? What effects does it have on the way they view the world for which they fight?
In the struggle for Zimbabwe (1966-80), hundreds of thousands of peasants provided the guerrillas with practical help and support. But they wept a good deal further. Throughout the country scores of spirit mediums gave active support to resistance. With their participation, the scale of the war expanded into an astonishing act of collaboration between ancestors and their descendants, the past and the Present, the living and the dead.
This book is a detailed study of one key zone in the Zambezi valley. It shows that to understand the meaning the war and independence have for the people of Zimbabwe themselves, we must take into account not only the nationalist guerrillas and politicians, the bearers of guns, but also the mediums of the spirits of the Shona royal ancestors the bringers of rain.