Enocent Msindo
Biographic Data
| ID | 456955 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Enocent Msindo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Enocent |
| FAMILY NAME | Msindo |
| SIGNATURE | MSINDO E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rhodes University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3820-5250 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Youth and Zanu-PF socialist politics in post-independence Zimbabwe
This paper presents a history of youth political participation in Zimbabwe during the first decade of their independence, using the example of the Zimbabwe Youth Brigades between 1980 and 1989, when Zimbabwe viewed itself as a socialist state. It provides important knowledge about the political (ab)-use of youths, suggesting that due to political paranoia, which animated Mugabe’s desire for a one-party state, Zimbabwe lost a golden opportunity to…
African (Area) Studies Experience
The idea of "Area studies" emerged before the Cold War. However, we must distinguish the genesis of the idea from its later institutionalisation in Western universities post-1945. Using African studies as a case, this paper examine the early origins of Area studies pre-1945, chiefly in England. We then trace the development of African studies in the USA, its connection to the changing political and economic interests after 1945 and its belated de…
Chiefs and Rural Health Services in South-Western Nigeria, c. 1920—c. 1950s
This article examines the role of African chiefs in the administration of colonial medicine in rural south-western Nigeria, emphasising the adaptive ways they navigated a difficult position between colonial medical authorities and indigenous medical legitimacy. Whereas colonial authorities expected chiefs to enforce medical policies and to encourage their subjects to use medical facilities, Africans wanted chiefs to defend and promote Yoruba medi…
Presidential Address
The 27th Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society (SAHS) came at a time of deepening uncertainty in Southern Africa broadly, with implications for its academe and particularly
Zimbabwe’s Liberation War and the Everyday in Honde Valley, 1975 to 1979
This paper examines the wartime history of Zimbabwe’s Honde Valley, which is located between Inyanga and Mutare, along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. It covers the period between 1975 and 1979 when ZANU’s military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) opened military bases in Mozambique. We seek to understand how regular or ‘everyday’ practices such as beer brewing, hunting, and other social solidarities highlight the ways …
Towards Banking Inclusion
The introduction in 1905 of the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) made banking generally accessible to Africans and white settlers in outlying districts. The bank emerged because of pressure from the press, white settlers residing in outlying districts, chiefly farmers, civil servants and small miners. The government acquiesced to this pressure with a view to then inculcate a saving culture. Although the POSB was…
Colonial Africa and the West
Africa’s unequal relationship with the West, particularly Europe, grew during the colonial era. Because Africa was colonized in a specific epoch in world history marked by deepening racism, heightened Western nationalisms, and globalized Western capitalism, colonialism impacted Africans in many ways. Msindo views colonialism as an extractive system which legitimized the looting of Africa by Western corporations; safeguarded new markets for Europe…
Postcolonial Africa and the West
Moving beyond the tendency to view African challenges mainly as the result of failed African political leadership, Msindo argues that Africa’s postcolonial economic and political transitions were affected mainly by the structural conditions of the new states and the nature of Africa’s relationship with the West. Post-independent Africa remained captured by Western capitalist enterprise and meddlesome Western politicians who dictated Africa’s econ…
Farmer-Miner Contestations and the British South Africa Company in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1895-1923
This article explores the interaction of settler farmers, miners, and the state in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 1895 to 1923. The governing authority, the British South Africa Company (BSAC), was a private commercial mining entity, which sought to maximise its earnings through mining, particularly gold extraction. Its mining bias set the stage for subsequent friction between the country’s miners and the fledgling settler farming sector o…
Crisis! What Crisis? The Multiple Dimensions of the Zimbabwean Crisis
ENOCENT MSINDORhodes University© 2013 Enocent MsindoNotes1. J. Crush and D. Tevera, eds, Zimbabwe's Exodus: Crisis, Migration and Survival (Cape Town: SAMP, 2010).2. E. Msindo, Ethnicity in Zimbabwe: Transformations in Kalanga and Ndebele Societies, 1860s–1990 (Rochester: Rochester University Press, 2012).3. F. Veit-Wild, '"Zimbolicious" – The Creative Potential of Linguistic Innovation: The Case of Shona-English in Zimbabwe', Journal of Southern…
Ethnicity in Zimbabwe
A comparative study of identity shifts in two large ethnic groups in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. Ethnicity in Zimbabwe: Transformations in Kalanga and Ndebele Societies, 1860-1990 is a comparative study of identity shifts in two large ethnic groups in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. The study begins in 1860, a year after the establishment of the Inyati mission station in the Ndebele Kingdom, and ends in the postcolonial period. Author Enocent Msindo asserts …
Movement, Borders and Identities in Africa
Grappling with the Beast
This volume contributes rich, new material to provide insights into indigenous responses to the colonial empires of Great Britain (South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia)) and Germany (Namibia) and explore the complex intellectual, cultural, literary, and political borders and identities that emerged across these spaces. Contributors include distinguished global scholars in the field as well as exciting young scholars. The essays l…
Winning Hearts and Minds
Recent work on media and propaganda in Zimbabwe has focused on media politics in the contemporary crisis. Most of these studies do not examine the circumstances that created the propaganda or the responses of the recipients. Some commentators have created the impression that government propaganda easily supplanted alternative opinions. This article analyses the development of Rhodesian propaganda from 1962 to 1970. It argues that far from being a…
Ethnicity and Nationalism in Urban Colonial Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean historians have not yet fully assessed the interaction of two problematic identities, ethnicity and nationalism, to determine whether the two can work as partners and successfully co-exist. This essay argues that, in Bulawayo during the period studied, ethnicity co-existed with and complemented nationalism rather than the two working as polar opposite identities. Ethnic groups provided both the required leaders who became prominent nat…
Ethnicity, not Class? The 1929 Bulawayo Faction Fights Reconsidered
From Christmas Eve of 1929 to the end of that year, Bulawayo was an ungovernable city marred by fights between Shona, on the one hand (perceived as a ‘common enemy’), and forces that were predominantly Ndebele and groups sympathetic to them. A brilliant attempt to explain these clashes a generation ago, nevertheless falls short. This article seeks to revise the popular interpretation of this violence and re-contextualise it historically. A longer…
Ethnicity and Nationalism in Urban Colonial Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean historians have not yet fully assessed the interaction of two problematic identities, ethnicity and nationalism, to determine whether the two can work as partners and successfully co-exist. This essay argues that, in Bulawayo during the period studied, ethnicity co-existed with and complemented nationalism rather than the two working as polar opposite identities. Ethnic groups provided both the required leaders who became prominent nat…
Ethnicity, not Class? The 1929 Bulawayo Faction Fights Reconsidered
From Christmas Eve of 1929 to the end of that year, Bulawayo was an ungovernable city marred by fights between Shona, on the one hand (perceived as a ‘common enemy’), and forces that were predominantly Ndebele and groups sympathetic to them. A brilliant attempt to explain these clashes a generation ago, nevertheless falls short. This article seeks to revise the popular interpretation of this violence and re-contextualise it historically. A longer…
Zimbabwe’s Liberation War and the Everyday in Honde Valley, 1975 to 1979
This paper examines the wartime history of Zimbabwe’s Honde Valley, which is located between Inyanga and Mutare, along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. It covers the period between 1975 and 1979 when ZANU’s military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) opened military bases in Mozambique. We seek to understand how regular or ‘everyday’ practices such as beer brewing, hunting, and other social solidarities highlight the ways …
Winning Hearts and Minds
Recent work on media and propaganda in Zimbabwe has focused on media politics in the contemporary crisis. Most of these studies do not examine the circumstances that created the propaganda or the responses of the recipients. Some commentators have created the impression that government propaganda easily supplanted alternative opinions. This article analyses the development of Rhodesian propaganda from 1962 to 1970. It argues that far from being a…
Ethnicity, not Class? The 1929 Bulawayo Faction Fights Reconsidered
From Christmas Eve of 1929 to the end of that year, Bulawayo was an ungovernable city marred by fights between Shona, on the one hand (perceived as a ‘common enemy’), and forces that were predominantly Ndebele and groups sympathetic to them. A brilliant attempt to explain these clashes a generation ago, nevertheless falls short. This article seeks to revise the popular interpretation of this violence and re-contextualise it historically. A longer…
Ethnicity and Nationalism in Urban Colonial Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean historians have not yet fully assessed the interaction of two problematic identities, ethnicity and nationalism, to determine whether the two can work as partners and successfully co-exist. This essay argues that, in Bulawayo during the period studied, ethnicity co-existed with and complemented nationalism rather than the two working as polar opposite identities. Ethnic groups provided both the required leaders who became prominent nat…
Winning Hearts and Minds
Recent work on media and propaganda in Zimbabwe has focused on media politics in the contemporary crisis. Most of these studies do not examine the circumstances that created the propaganda or the responses of the recipients. Some commentators have created the impression that government propaganda easily supplanted alternative opinions. This article analyses the development of Rhodesian propaganda from 1962 to 1970. It argues that far from being a…
Grappling with the Beast
This volume contributes rich, new material to provide insights into indigenous responses to the colonial empires of Great Britain (South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia)) and Germany (Namibia) and explore the complex intellectual, cultural, literary, and political borders and identities that emerged across these spaces. Contributors include distinguished global scholars in the field as well as exciting young scholars. The essays l…
Movement, Borders and Identities in Africa
Ethnicity in Zimbabwe
A comparative study of identity shifts in two large ethnic groups in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. Ethnicity in Zimbabwe: Transformations in Kalanga and Ndebele Societies, 1860-1990 is a comparative study of identity shifts in two large ethnic groups in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. The study begins in 1860, a year after the establishment of the Inyati mission station in the Ndebele Kingdom, and ends in the postcolonial period. Author Enocent Msindo asserts …
Crisis! What Crisis? The Multiple Dimensions of the Zimbabwean Crisis
ENOCENT MSINDORhodes University© 2013 Enocent MsindoNotes1. J. Crush and D. Tevera, eds, Zimbabwe's Exodus: Crisis, Migration and Survival (Cape Town: SAMP, 2010).2. E. Msindo, Ethnicity in Zimbabwe: Transformations in Kalanga and Ndebele Societies, 1860s–1990 (Rochester: Rochester University Press, 2012).3. F. Veit-Wild, '"Zimbolicious" – The Creative Potential of Linguistic Innovation: The Case of Shona-English in Zimbabwe', Journal of Southern…
Colonial Africa and the West
Africa’s unequal relationship with the West, particularly Europe, grew during the colonial era. Because Africa was colonized in a specific epoch in world history marked by deepening racism, heightened Western nationalisms, and globalized Western capitalism, colonialism impacted Africans in many ways. Msindo views colonialism as an extractive system which legitimized the looting of Africa by Western corporations; safeguarded new markets for Europe…
Postcolonial Africa and the West
Moving beyond the tendency to view African challenges mainly as the result of failed African political leadership, Msindo argues that Africa’s postcolonial economic and political transitions were affected mainly by the structural conditions of the new states and the nature of Africa’s relationship with the West. Post-independent Africa remained captured by Western capitalist enterprise and meddlesome Western politicians who dictated Africa’s econ…
Farmer-Miner Contestations and the British South Africa Company in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1895-1923
This article explores the interaction of settler farmers, miners, and the state in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 1895 to 1923. The governing authority, the British South Africa Company (BSAC), was a private commercial mining entity, which sought to maximise its earnings through mining, particularly gold extraction. Its mining bias set the stage for subsequent friction between the country’s miners and the fledgling settler farming sector o…
Zimbabwe’s Liberation War and the Everyday in Honde Valley, 1975 to 1979
This paper examines the wartime history of Zimbabwe’s Honde Valley, which is located between Inyanga and Mutare, along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. It covers the period between 1975 and 1979 when ZANU’s military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) opened military bases in Mozambique. We seek to understand how regular or ‘everyday’ practices such as beer brewing, hunting, and other social solidarities highlight the ways …
Towards Banking Inclusion
The introduction in 1905 of the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) made banking generally accessible to Africans and white settlers in outlying districts. The bank emerged because of pressure from the press, white settlers residing in outlying districts, chiefly farmers, civil servants and small miners. The government acquiesced to this pressure with a view to then inculcate a saving culture. Although the POSB was…
Presidential Address
The 27th Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society (SAHS) came at a time of deepening uncertainty in Southern Africa broadly, with implications for its academe and particularly
Chiefs and Rural Health Services in South-Western Nigeria, c. 1920—c. 1950s
This article examines the role of African chiefs in the administration of colonial medicine in rural south-western Nigeria, emphasising the adaptive ways they navigated a difficult position between colonial medical authorities and indigenous medical legitimacy. Whereas colonial authorities expected chiefs to enforce medical policies and to encourage their subjects to use medical facilities, Africans wanted chiefs to defend and promote Yoruba medi…
African (Area) Studies Experience
The idea of "Area studies" emerged before the Cold War. However, we must distinguish the genesis of the idea from its later institutionalisation in Western universities post-1945. Using African studies as a case, this paper examine the early origins of Area studies pre-1945, chiefly in England. We then trace the development of African studies in the USA, its connection to the changing political and economic interests after 1945 and its belated de…
Youth and Zanu-PF socialist politics in post-independence Zimbabwe
This paper presents a history of youth political participation in Zimbabwe during the first decade of their independence, using the example of the Zimbabwe Youth Brigades between 1980 and 1989, when Zimbabwe viewed itself as a socialist state. It provides important knowledge about the political (ab)-use of youths, suggesting that due to political paranoia, which animated Mugabe’s desire for a one-party state, Zimbabwe lost a golden opportunity to…
Political science (12 works) · African history and culture studies (10 works) · African studies and sociopolitical issues (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Politics (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Colonialism (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Political economy (5 works)