Spiritual Temporalities of the Liberation War in Zimbabwe

Bibliographic Data

ID12914764
AuthorsEdmore Chitukutuku (0000-0002-9341-5648, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume12
Issue4
Pages320-333
Publication date2019-08-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of War and Culture Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1752-6272 • E-ISSN: 1752-6280
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17526272.2019.1649905
OpenAlexW2970730628
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited32

This paper contributes to our understanding of the spiritual and invisible aspects of African military landscapes through a historical and ethnographic study of Zimbabwe liberation war guerrillas' spiritual practices. Guerrillas mobilized and deployed their spiritual beliefs and practices in the execution of the 1970s liberation war against well equipped Rhodesian forces, and in subsequent deployments as members of the post-colonial national army. Guerrillas' understanding of their landscape of deployment as spiritual influenced their engagement with it's physical materials such as trees and caves and wild animals as active objects representing the ancestors. The paper argues that the spirituality of African military landscape challenges dominant western conceptualizations of military landscapes as passive sites that are dominated and shaped by violent military activities. Spirituality makes African military landscapes active and affective beyond the dictates of human [militay] action, therefore shaping and controlling ways in which the military engage with it

Action (physics · Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Environmental ethics · Ethnography · Political science · Sociology · Spirituality · Temporalities · Vietnam War · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Law

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