Archival Significance
Written by Maurice Nyagumbo during nearly two decades of imprisonment for his political activities, this autobiography survived two failed smuggling attempts before a third succeeded, with historian Terence Ranger assisting its publication in 1980. At the time it was described as one of the most significant publishing events in post-independence Zimbabwe, the first major autobiography by a Black nationalist leader published by a formerly settler-market Rhodesian press.
Institutional Context
Published by The Graham Publishing Company, a Salisbury press that had operated largely for the white settler market through the 1960s and 1970s, making its publication of Nyagumbo’s account a notable shift in the immediate post-independence period.
Content Summary
Recounts Nyagumbo’s life and nearly twenty years of imprisonment as a consequence of his political activities within the Zimbabwean liberation movement.
Research Utility
A primary source of central importance for researchers of the liberation movement’s leadership and of political imprisonment under Rhodesian rule, valuable both for its content and for the story of its own difficult path to publication.
Abantu Archives Note
Held in-house.