Brooks Marmon
Biographic Data
| ID | 270731 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brooks Marmon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brooks |
| FAMILY NAME | Marmon |
| SIGNATURE | MARMON B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pretoria |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7504-4556 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
There cannot be two bulls in one kraal: Insights from the political conversions of Nelson Samkange on governance and opposition disruption in Zimbabwe, 1960s-2000s
This article examines the public life of Nelson Samkange, who was active in Zimbabwean politics from 1961 to the eve of his death in 2013. Samkange repeatedly shifted his party allegiance throughout Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, but consistently opposed the ultimately victorious liberation movement, Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), until the early 1980s. After two decades of public service in parastatals, Samkange fi…
Winston Field and the Decolonisation of 'British Central Africa: Crossing Racial Divides with Kamuzu Banda and Beyond, 1957-64
Archival Report: Northwestern University’s Neglected Sources on Partnership Organisations in ‘British Central Africa’
This archival report tracks two collections at Northwestern University (USA) which contain significant, albeit underutilised material on two organisations (the Capricorn Africa Society and Inter-racial Association of Southern Rhodesia) which played a notable role in attempts to implement the ‘Partnership’ philosophy that ostensibly underpinned the governing credo of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in the 1950s. A unique and notable compo…
Transnational revolutionary: Noel Mukono’s navigation of Zimbabwe’s fractious liberation struggle, 1957–77
This article recovers the role of Noel Mukono in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. The defence chief of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1964 to 1973, his pioneering role in instigating the armed struggle against the white settler government in Rhodesia is largely overlooked today. Mukono is a leading casualty of ‘patriotic history’, the contemporary Zimbabwean state’s manipulation of the independence struggle narrative. A journalist…
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland 1953–1963: A Retrospective at its Unattained Platinum Jubilee
Seventy years ago, an association of three colonies in what European imperialists then dubbed British Central Africa came into being. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (hereafter the Federation) – a union of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (present-day Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, respectively) – barely lasted a decade before its collapse at the end of 1963 in the face of intense anti-colonial pressure. Although this g…
An imperial historian of empire: Insights from the Philip Warhurst Papers, Killie Campbell Africana Library
This research note recovers the career and personal papers of Philip Warhurst, a British historian who taught at universities in Rhodesia and South Africa from the 1960s until the 1990s. The note simultaneously reviews the extent of the holdings of the Warhurst Papers at the Killie Campbell Africana Library in Durban while also exploring the insights the collection offers on Warhurst’s views on race relations and his positionality vis-a-vis the B…
Research Notes: Negotiating South African ministerial archives (Defence & Foreign Affairs)
This Research Note provides background information on how to access records held by South Africa’s Department of Defence and Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). Both repositories in Pretoria, the nation’s executive capital, hold considerable documentation of interest to scholars of the Cold War. The Note outlines the locations of the two facilities, working conditions, and policies that govern the release of their mater…
Rise and Demise of the Zimbabwe Times: Zapu’s and Lonrho’s Covert(ish) Nationalist Daily in Rhodesia
This article explores the emergence and destruction of the Zimbabwe Times, a weekly, later daily newspaper in Rhodesia. Covertly aligned to the Patriotic Front, an uneasy coalition of Zimbabwe’s two leading liberation movements, it primarily backed Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU. Financed by Lonrho, a London-based conglomerate, this nationalist friendly title dramatically altered Rhodesia’s media landscape. The paper first appeared in 1977 during the waning…
Independence and Pan-African Diplomatic Contestation: Anti-colonial Nationalism and the Eclipse of White Legitimacy in ‘British Central Africa’, 1957–64
The rapid collapse of European empires in Africa transformed the politics of the white settler dominated states at the south of the continent. In what briefly remained ‘British Central Africa’, the rise of sovereign states created a new sphere of political competition between white officials and their anti-colonial nationalist opponents. White authorities, while perturbed by imperial retreat and committed to racial discrimination at home, nonethe…
Prelude to Unilateralism: Foreclosed Independence Bids in Pre-Federation Southern Rhodesia, 1948 and 1950
This article recovers two resolutions, in 1948 and 1950, respectively, by the all-white parliament in Southern Rhodesia (colonial Zimbabwe) that expressed support for the colony’s independence within the British Commonwealth. The examination of these post-war pushes for sovereignty illuminate how Rhodesia’s political leadership was sensitive to wider changes in the imperial status quo, well before the broader white electorate became similarly sei…
Settler Worldmaking: Reconfiguring the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1953–62
As soon as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed in 1953, disgruntled white settler politicians in the new polity pushed for the reconfiguration of its borders. Driven by decolonisation struggles across Africa and a surge of anti-colonial nationalism in Nyasaland in particular, these debates were particularly vibrant among the political establishment in Southern Rhodesia, the Federation's dominant constituent. The question of Southe…
Bogey Bogey Stuff’: Gold Coastism, federation, and white backlash in Southern Rhodesia, 1951-56
This article explores the apprehension white Rhodesians evinced towards the transformation of the Commonwealth and initial signs of African decolonisation, especially in colonial Ghana. Whites informally dubbed these undesired changes ‘Gold Coastism’. Rhodesia’s ruling party weaponised these fears and argued that a Central African Federation would preserve British influence and forestall African nationalism on Southern Rhodesia’s borders. As it b…
Neutrality of a special type: George Loft’s abortive racial reconciliation in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1957–1960
In 1957, George Loft, an American Quaker, arrived in Southern Rhodesia (colonial Zimbabwe) as the field representative of the American Friends Service Committee. In his effort to help the region navigate a period of intense political change in a peaceful manner, Loft cultivated diverse contacts during three years in southern Africa. His attempts to ostensibly serve as a neutral facilitator generally rebounded to the favor of the white settler est…
Operation Refugee: The Congo Crisis and the end of humanitarian imperialism in Southern Rhodesia, 1960
Thousands of whites fled the former Belgian Congo in the weeks after independence. This movement had a significant impact on the politics of Southern Rhodesia. Disquieted whites in Rhodesia feared they might face a similar fate. They apprehensively mobilised in an effort known as Operation Refugee to support the displaced. Conversely, black nationalists were energised by the disruption. Their ranks increased and their rhetoric became more confron…
Kith and Kin" or "Rhodesia First: Kenyan decolonisation and inter-party competition in Southern Rhodesian politics, c. 1950-62
"Kith and Kin" or "Rhodesia First?":Kenyan decolonisation and inter-party competition in Southern Rhodesian politics, c. 1950–62 Brooks Marmon In April 1960, the US Consulate in Salisbury, the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, dispatched a five-page memo on a recent resolution of the Federation's Parliament that proclaimed solidarity with White settlers in Kenya and Tanganyika. The consul-general, Joseph Palmer, reported, "this…
Robert Mugabe, Sue Onslow and Martin Plaut
Reviewed by: Robert Mugabe by Sue Onslow and Martin Plaut Brooks Marmon BOOK REVIEW of Onslow, Sue, and Martin Plaut. 2018. Robert Mugabe. Athens: Ohio University Press. 208 pp. $14.95 (paper). In Robert Mugabe, Sue Onslow and Martin Plaut deliver a timely work, encapsulating the former Zimbabwean leader's thirty-seven years in power alongside his contributions to the country's liberation struggle. The authors occasionally downplay his eminence, …
From Dreams of Dominion to Aspirations for a New Africa: Ahrn Palley's Political Re-invention in Southern Rhodesia, 1959-1961
Just one year after entering the Southern Rhodesian parliament in 1958, Ahrn Palley resigned from the right-wing Dominion Party and embraced an increasingly independent political position, culminating in 1961 with a founding role in the New Africa Party, a progressive white political structure aligned with the colony’s African nationalist movement. The genesis of this transformation arose from Palley’s heightened sensitivity to international opin…
Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Cuts Impact Social Science Research
The APSA discovered just before going to press that the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, has been cancelled for FY 2011. From the inception of the awards in 1965 through 1994, 13% of all Fulbright-Hays fellowships supported students of political science or economics. In FY 2010, at least ten doctoral political science students received DDRA funding for work in locatio…
Transnational revolutionary: Noel Mukono’s navigation of Zimbabwe’s fractious liberation struggle, 1957–77
This article recovers the role of Noel Mukono in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. The defence chief of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1964 to 1973, his pioneering role in instigating the armed struggle against the white settler government in Rhodesia is largely overlooked today. Mukono is a leading casualty of ‘patriotic history’, the contemporary Zimbabwean state’s manipulation of the independence struggle narrative. A journalist…
Independence and Pan-African Diplomatic Contestation: Anti-colonial Nationalism and the Eclipse of White Legitimacy in ‘British Central Africa’, 1957–64
The rapid collapse of European empires in Africa transformed the politics of the white settler dominated states at the south of the continent. In what briefly remained ‘British Central Africa’, the rise of sovereign states created a new sphere of political competition between white officials and their anti-colonial nationalist opponents. White authorities, while perturbed by imperial retreat and committed to racial discrimination at home, nonethe…
Bogey Bogey Stuff’: Gold Coastism, federation, and white backlash in Southern Rhodesia, 1951-56
This article explores the apprehension white Rhodesians evinced towards the transformation of the Commonwealth and initial signs of African decolonisation, especially in colonial Ghana. Whites informally dubbed these undesired changes ‘Gold Coastism’. Rhodesia’s ruling party weaponised these fears and argued that a Central African Federation would preserve British influence and forestall African nationalism on Southern Rhodesia’s borders. As it b…
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland 1953–1963: A Retrospective at its Unattained Platinum Jubilee
Seventy years ago, an association of three colonies in what European imperialists then dubbed British Central Africa came into being. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (hereafter the Federation) – a union of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (present-day Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, respectively) – barely lasted a decade before its collapse at the end of 1963 in the face of intense anti-colonial pressure. Although this g…
Settler Worldmaking: Reconfiguring the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1953–62
As soon as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed in 1953, disgruntled white settler politicians in the new polity pushed for the reconfiguration of its borders. Driven by decolonisation struggles across Africa and a surge of anti-colonial nationalism in Nyasaland in particular, these debates were particularly vibrant among the political establishment in Southern Rhodesia, the Federation's dominant constituent. The question of Southe…
Neutrality of a special type: George Loft’s abortive racial reconciliation in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1957–1960
In 1957, George Loft, an American Quaker, arrived in Southern Rhodesia (colonial Zimbabwe) as the field representative of the American Friends Service Committee. In his effort to help the region navigate a period of intense political change in a peaceful manner, Loft cultivated diverse contacts during three years in southern Africa. His attempts to ostensibly serve as a neutral facilitator generally rebounded to the favor of the white settler est…
Kith and Kin" or "Rhodesia First: Kenyan decolonisation and inter-party competition in Southern Rhodesian politics, c. 1950-62
"Kith and Kin" or "Rhodesia First?":Kenyan decolonisation and inter-party competition in Southern Rhodesian politics, c. 1950–62 Brooks Marmon In April 1960, the US Consulate in Salisbury, the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, dispatched a five-page memo on a recent resolution of the Federation's Parliament that proclaimed solidarity with White settlers in Kenya and Tanganyika. The consul-general, Joseph Palmer, reported, "this…
From Dreams of Dominion to Aspirations for a New Africa: Ahrn Palley's Political Re-invention in Southern Rhodesia, 1959-1961
Just one year after entering the Southern Rhodesian parliament in 1958, Ahrn Palley resigned from the right-wing Dominion Party and embraced an increasingly independent political position, culminating in 1961 with a founding role in the New Africa Party, a progressive white political structure aligned with the colony’s African nationalist movement. The genesis of this transformation arose from Palley’s heightened sensitivity to international opin…
Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Cuts Impact Social Science Research
The APSA discovered just before going to press that the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, has been cancelled for FY 2011. From the inception of the awards in 1965 through 1994, 13% of all Fulbright-Hays fellowships supported students of political science or economics. In FY 2010, at least ten doctoral political science students received DDRA funding for work in locatio…
Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Cuts Impact Social Science Research
The APSA discovered just before going to press that the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, has been cancelled for FY 2011. From the inception of the awards in 1965 through 1994, 13% of all Fulbright-Hays fellowships supported students of political science or economics. In FY 2010, at least ten doctoral political science students received DDRA funding for work in locatio…
From Dreams of Dominion to Aspirations for a New Africa: Ahrn Palley's Political Re-invention in Southern Rhodesia, 1959-1961
Just one year after entering the Southern Rhodesian parliament in 1958, Ahrn Palley resigned from the right-wing Dominion Party and embraced an increasingly independent political position, culminating in 1961 with a founding role in the New Africa Party, a progressive white political structure aligned with the colony’s African nationalist movement. The genesis of this transformation arose from Palley’s heightened sensitivity to international opin…
Robert Mugabe, Sue Onslow and Martin Plaut
Reviewed by: Robert Mugabe by Sue Onslow and Martin Plaut Brooks Marmon BOOK REVIEW of Onslow, Sue, and Martin Plaut. 2018. Robert Mugabe. Athens: Ohio University Press. 208 pp. $14.95 (paper). In Robert Mugabe, Sue Onslow and Martin Plaut deliver a timely work, encapsulating the former Zimbabwean leader's thirty-seven years in power alongside his contributions to the country's liberation struggle. The authors occasionally downplay his eminence, …
Neutrality of a special type: George Loft’s abortive racial reconciliation in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1957–1960
In 1957, George Loft, an American Quaker, arrived in Southern Rhodesia (colonial Zimbabwe) as the field representative of the American Friends Service Committee. In his effort to help the region navigate a period of intense political change in a peaceful manner, Loft cultivated diverse contacts during three years in southern Africa. His attempts to ostensibly serve as a neutral facilitator generally rebounded to the favor of the white settler est…
Operation Refugee: The Congo Crisis and the end of humanitarian imperialism in Southern Rhodesia, 1960
Thousands of whites fled the former Belgian Congo in the weeks after independence. This movement had a significant impact on the politics of Southern Rhodesia. Disquieted whites in Rhodesia feared they might face a similar fate. They apprehensively mobilised in an effort known as Operation Refugee to support the displaced. Conversely, black nationalists were energised by the disruption. Their ranks increased and their rhetoric became more confron…
Kith and Kin" or "Rhodesia First: Kenyan decolonisation and inter-party competition in Southern Rhodesian politics, c. 1950-62
"Kith and Kin" or "Rhodesia First?":Kenyan decolonisation and inter-party competition in Southern Rhodesian politics, c. 1950–62 Brooks Marmon In April 1960, the US Consulate in Salisbury, the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, dispatched a five-page memo on a recent resolution of the Federation's Parliament that proclaimed solidarity with White settlers in Kenya and Tanganyika. The consul-general, Joseph Palmer, reported, "this…
An imperial historian of empire: Insights from the Philip Warhurst Papers, Killie Campbell Africana Library
This research note recovers the career and personal papers of Philip Warhurst, a British historian who taught at universities in Rhodesia and South Africa from the 1960s until the 1990s. The note simultaneously reviews the extent of the holdings of the Warhurst Papers at the Killie Campbell Africana Library in Durban while also exploring the insights the collection offers on Warhurst’s views on race relations and his positionality vis-a-vis the B…
Research Notes: Negotiating South African ministerial archives (Defence & Foreign Affairs)
This Research Note provides background information on how to access records held by South Africa’s Department of Defence and Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). Both repositories in Pretoria, the nation’s executive capital, hold considerable documentation of interest to scholars of the Cold War. The Note outlines the locations of the two facilities, working conditions, and policies that govern the release of their mater…
Rise and Demise of the Zimbabwe Times: Zapu’s and Lonrho’s Covert(ish) Nationalist Daily in Rhodesia
This article explores the emergence and destruction of the Zimbabwe Times, a weekly, later daily newspaper in Rhodesia. Covertly aligned to the Patriotic Front, an uneasy coalition of Zimbabwe’s two leading liberation movements, it primarily backed Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU. Financed by Lonrho, a London-based conglomerate, this nationalist friendly title dramatically altered Rhodesia’s media landscape. The paper first appeared in 1977 during the waning…
Independence and Pan-African Diplomatic Contestation: Anti-colonial Nationalism and the Eclipse of White Legitimacy in ‘British Central Africa’, 1957–64
The rapid collapse of European empires in Africa transformed the politics of the white settler dominated states at the south of the continent. In what briefly remained ‘British Central Africa’, the rise of sovereign states created a new sphere of political competition between white officials and their anti-colonial nationalist opponents. White authorities, while perturbed by imperial retreat and committed to racial discrimination at home, nonethe…
Prelude to Unilateralism: Foreclosed Independence Bids in Pre-Federation Southern Rhodesia, 1948 and 1950
This article recovers two resolutions, in 1948 and 1950, respectively, by the all-white parliament in Southern Rhodesia (colonial Zimbabwe) that expressed support for the colony’s independence within the British Commonwealth. The examination of these post-war pushes for sovereignty illuminate how Rhodesia’s political leadership was sensitive to wider changes in the imperial status quo, well before the broader white electorate became similarly sei…
Settler Worldmaking: Reconfiguring the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1953–62
As soon as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed in 1953, disgruntled white settler politicians in the new polity pushed for the reconfiguration of its borders. Driven by decolonisation struggles across Africa and a surge of anti-colonial nationalism in Nyasaland in particular, these debates were particularly vibrant among the political establishment in Southern Rhodesia, the Federation's dominant constituent. The question of Southe…
Bogey Bogey Stuff’: Gold Coastism, federation, and white backlash in Southern Rhodesia, 1951-56
This article explores the apprehension white Rhodesians evinced towards the transformation of the Commonwealth and initial signs of African decolonisation, especially in colonial Ghana. Whites informally dubbed these undesired changes ‘Gold Coastism’. Rhodesia’s ruling party weaponised these fears and argued that a Central African Federation would preserve British influence and forestall African nationalism on Southern Rhodesia’s borders. As it b…
Transnational revolutionary: Noel Mukono’s navigation of Zimbabwe’s fractious liberation struggle, 1957–77
This article recovers the role of Noel Mukono in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. The defence chief of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1964 to 1973, his pioneering role in instigating the armed struggle against the white settler government in Rhodesia is largely overlooked today. Mukono is a leading casualty of ‘patriotic history’, the contemporary Zimbabwean state’s manipulation of the independence struggle narrative. A journalist…
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland 1953–1963: A Retrospective at its Unattained Platinum Jubilee
Seventy years ago, an association of three colonies in what European imperialists then dubbed British Central Africa came into being. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (hereafter the Federation) – a union of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (present-day Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, respectively) – barely lasted a decade before its collapse at the end of 1963 in the face of intense anti-colonial pressure. Although this g…
Archival Report: Northwestern University’s Neglected Sources on Partnership Organisations in ‘British Central Africa’
This archival report tracks two collections at Northwestern University (USA) which contain significant, albeit underutilised material on two organisations (the Capricorn Africa Society and Inter-racial Association of Southern Rhodesia) which played a notable role in attempts to implement the ‘Partnership’ philosophy that ostensibly underpinned the governing credo of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in the 1950s. A unique and notable compo…
There cannot be two bulls in one kraal: Insights from the political conversions of Nelson Samkange on governance and opposition disruption in Zimbabwe, 1960s-2000s
This article examines the public life of Nelson Samkange, who was active in Zimbabwean politics from 1961 to the eve of his death in 2013. Samkange repeatedly shifted his party allegiance throughout Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, but consistently opposed the ultimately victorious liberation movement, Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), until the early 1980s. After two decades of public service in parastatals, Samkange fi…
Winston Field and the Decolonisation of 'British Central Africa: Crossing Racial Divides with Kamuzu Banda and Beyond, 1957-64
Law (17 works) · Political science (17 works) · Politics (16 works) · African history and culture studies (15 works) · African studies and sociopolitical issues (15 works) · History (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · History (11 works) · Political economy (8 works)