Paper short abstract:

This paper provides a historiography of whiteness studies in Zimbabwe. It focuses on the many improvements made in this field recently, but also reveals some of the major shortcomings and ways to address these in future research.

Paper long abstract:

With Zimbabwean independence coming in 1980, the space opened up to study those peoples disenfranchised by the colonial administration. The radical political shifts resulted in many academics of the time being caught in popular nationalist euphoria and much of the work produced at this time reflects this. The white population as a whole was largely absent from the growing scholarship on pre-and post-colonial Zimbabwe.

However, recent events have resulted in the rapid expansion of whiteness studies in the country, which have sought to explore the various aspects of the white experience in Zimbabwe with a particular focus on white farmers. The histories of colonial land alienation, the grievances fuelling the liberation war, and post-independence land reforms have all been aspects of this new scholarship.

This paper looks at the recent development of whiteness studies in Zimbabwe and traces the shift in academic focus. It looks at factors behind the current wave of literature on whites and discusses the many challenges posed by this new research. It also addresses the problematic issue that there is a desperate need to understand more of the urban white experience and move away from the rural focus. Urban white communities, which have been influential in shaping Zimbabwe, have often been overlooked as the events on the farms attracted so much attention. This paper hopes to illustrate the importance of more nuanced understandings of white communities in Zimbabwe and presents arguments for why such studies are significant and necessary, both for Zimbabwe and the region.