The book represents a contribution to policy formulation and design in an increasingly knowledge economy in Zimbabwe. It challenges scholars to think about the role of education, its funding and the egalitarian approach to widening access to education. The nexus between education, democracy and policy change is a complex one. The book provides an illuminating account of the constantly evolving notions of national identity, language and citizenship from the Zimbabwean experience. The book discusses educational successes and challenges by examining the ideological effects of social, political and economic considerations on Zimbabwe’s colonial and postcolonial education. Currently, literature on current educational challenges in Zimbabwe is lacking and there is very little published material on these ideological effects on educational development in Zimbabwe. This book is likely to be one of the first on the impact of social, political and economic meltdown on education. The book is targeted at local and international academics and scholars of history of education and comparative education, scholars of international education and development, undergraduate and graduate students, and professors who are interested in educational development in Africa, particularly Zimbabwe. Notwithstanding, the book is a valuable resource to policy makers, educational administrators and researchers and the wider community. Shizha and Kariwo’s book is an important and illuminating addition on the effects of social, political and economic trajectories on education and development in Zimbabwe. It critically analyses the crucial specifics of the Zimbabwean situation by providing an in depth discourse on education at this historical juncture. The book offers new insights that may be useful for an understanding of not only the Zimbabwean case, but also education in other African countries. Rosemary Gordon, Senior Lecturer in Educational Foundations, University of Zimbabwe Ranging in temporal scope from the colonial era and its elitist legacy through the golden era of populist, universal elementary education to the disarray of contemporary socioeconomic crisis; covering elementary through higher education and touching thematically on everything from the pernicious effects of social adjustment programmes through the local deprofessionalization of teaching, this text provides a comprehensive, wide ranging and yet carefully detailed account of education in Zimbabwe. This engagingly written portrayal will prove illuminating not only to readers interested in Zimbabwe’s education specifically but more widely to all who are interested in how the sociopolitical shapes education- how ideology, policy, international pressures, economic factors and shifts in values collectively forge the historical and contemporary character of a country’s education. Handel Kashope Wright, Professor of Education, University of British Columbia

"Offers an extremely sophisticated, nuanced view of the social and political construction of an African middle class in colonial Zimbabwe." —Elizabeth Schmidt Tracing their quest for social recognition from the time of Cecil Rhodes to Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence, Michael O. West shows how some Africans were able to avail themselves of scarce educational and social opportunities in order to achieve some degree of upward mobility in a society that was hostile to their ambitions. Though relatively few in number and not rich by colonial standards, this comparatively better class of Africans challenged individual and social barriers imposed by colonialism to become the locus of protest against European domination. This extensive and original book opens new perspective into relations between colonizers and colonized in colonial Zimbabwe.

Before 'Harare' replaced 'Salisbury' as Zimbabwe's capital city in 1982, the name belonged to the country's first black township, now called Mbare. How and when did the township come into being? In this pioneering study, Tsuneo Yoshikuni offers a fascinating social history of urban development in the early twentieth century.

In this new history of music in Zimbabwe, Mhoze Chikowero deftly uses African sources to interrogate the copious colonial archive, reading it as a confessional voice along and against the grain to write a complex history of music, colonialism, and African self-liberation. Chikowero's book begins in the 1890s with missionary crusades against African performative cultures and African students being inducted into mission bands, which contextualize the music of segregated urban and mining company dance halls in the 1930s, and he builds genealogies of the Chimurenga music later popularized by guerrilla artists like Dorothy Masuku, Zexie Manatsa, Thomas Mapfumo, and others in the 1970s. Chikowero shows how Africans deployed their music and indigenous knowledge systems to fight for their freedom from British colonial domination and to assert their cultural sovereignty.

The powerful sequel to Nervous Conditions, by the Booker-shortlisted author of This Mournable Body The Book of Not continues the saga of Tambudzai, picking up where Nervous Conditions left off. As Tambu begins secondary school at the Young Ladies’ College of the Sacred Heart, she is still reeling from the personal losses that have been war has inflicted upon her family—her uncle and sister were injured in a mine explosion. Soon she’ll come face to face with discriminatory practices at her mostly-white school. And when she graduates and begins a job at an advertising agency, she realizes that the political and historical forces that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community are outside the walls of the school as well. Tsitsi Dangarembga, honored with the 2021 PEN Award for Freedom of Expression, digs deep into the damage colonialism and its education system does to Tambu’s sense of self amid the struggle for Zimbabwe’s independence, resulting in a brilliant and incisive second novel.

These ten short stories from the prize-winning Zimbabwean writer, were banned in (the then) Rhodesia, but some were published in Europe. One of the stories, 'The Setting Sun and the Rolling World', gave its title to another acclaimed collection.