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OverviewIn Fighting and Writing Luise White brings the force of her historical insight to bear on the many war memoirs published by white soldiers who fought for Rhodesia during the 1964-1979 Zimbabwean liberation struggle. In the memoirs of white soldiers fighting to defend white minority rule in Africa long after other countries were independent, White finds a robust and contentious conversation about race, difference, and the war itself. These are writings by men who were ambivalent conscripts, generally aware of the futility of their fight-not brutal pawns flawlessly executing the orders and parroting the rhetoric of a racist regime. Moreover, most of these men insisted that the most important aspects of fighting a guerrilla war-tracking and hunting, knowledge of the land and of the ways of African society-were learned from black playmates in idealized rural childhoods. In these memoirs, African guerrillas never lost their association with the wild, even as white soldiers boasted of bringing Africans into the intimate spaces of regiment and regime. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Luise WhitePublisher: Duke University Press Imprint: Duke University Press Weight: 0.476kg ISBN: 9781478011729ISBN 10: 1478011726 Pages: 304 Publication Date: 26 March 2021 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of Contents"Acknowledgments vii Place-Names, Currency, and Acronyms xi 1. Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle and Rhodesia's Bush War: Locating Its History 1 2. ""Blood and Ink"": Memoirs, Authors, Histories 31 3. ""Your Shona Is Better Than Mine!"" Pseudo Gangs, Blacking Up, and the Pleasures of Counterinsurgency 59 4. ""Each Footprint Tells a Story"": Tracking and Poaching in the Rhodesian Army 83 5. ""There Is No Copyright on Facts"": Ron Reid-Daly, Authorship, and the Transkei Defence Force 109 6. ""Every Self-Respecting Terrorist Has an AK-47"": Guerrilla Weapons and Rhodesian Imaginations 121 7. ""A Plastic Bag full of Cholera"": Rhodesia and Chemical and Biological Weapons 141 8. ""Will Travel Worldwide. You Pay Expenses"": Foreign Soldiers in the Rhodesian Army 167 9. ""What Interests Do You Have?"": Security Force Auxiliaries and the Limits of Counterinsurgency 197 Conclusions 222 Notes 227 Bibliography 261 Index 281"ReviewsFighting and Writing offers an often-harrowing look into the hearts and minds of the men who fought in the struggle for Rhodesia. With her unique combination of fearlessness and provocation, Luise White asks whether war is always about killing and whether killing is the most significant thing about war. She asks us to stare hard at these discomfiting questions, giving a whole new meaning to the history of war stories. -- Antoinette Burton, author of * The Trouble with Empire: Challenges to Modern British Imperialism * Luise White is that scholar of rare analytic and literary ability who can tell history's most sensational stories differently: prostitution, vampire rumors, and now, in Fighting and Writing, the memoirs of white soldiers in a racist war. These are the unlikely starting points from which White leads her readers through histories that become more rich and more relevant with every page. -- Danny Hoffman, author of * The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia * Luise White has produced a powerful, provocative, novel work that contains enthralling literary and historiographical analysis. This book is not only original but is also very interesting. . . . It will appeal to those interested in the history of Zimbabwe's War of Liberation, and I think it would also function very well as a set text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, particularly those working on contested histories, warfare in post-Second World War Africa, and literary representations of modern conflict. -- M.T. Howard * Journal of Southern African Studies * Fighting and Writing offers a new angle on the complexity of the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean war through the memoirs of white soldiers. The book is a great resource for those interested in Rhodesian and Zimbabwean history and for military historians. -- Amina Marzouk Chouchene * African Studies Quarterly * This book should rattle comfortable stories of race in Rhodesia, and that is to the good. -- Allison K. Shutt * American Historical Review * Fighting and Writing is a powerfully and uniquely written piece of work that successfully and practically helps to answer old questions about the writing and study of history. Both broadly and in very concrete ways it helps us rethink the production and purpose of history. The book explores seemingly disparate but neatly woven themes about the so-called bush war, production of historical knowledge, authorship in history, and perceptions about war. -- Ushehwedu Kufakurinani * Journal of African History * Luise White is that scholar of rare analytic and literary ability who can tell history's most sensational stories differently. Prostitution, vampire rumors, or now, in Fighting and Writing, the memoirs of white soldiers in a racist war. These are the unlikely starting points from which White leads her readers through histories that become more rich and more relevant with every page. -- Danny Hoffman, author of * The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia * Fighting and Writing offers an often-harrowing look into the hearts and minds of the men who fought in the struggle for Rhodesia. With her unique combination fearlessness and provocation, Luise S. White asks whether war is always about killing and whether killing is the most significant thing about war. She asks us to stare hard at these discomfiting questions, giving a whole new meaning to the history of war stories. -- Antoinette Burton, author of * The Trouble with Empire: Challenges to Modern British Imperialism * Author InformationLuise White is Professor Emerita of History at the University of Florida and the author of several books, most recently Unpopular Sovereignty: Rhodesian Independence and African Decolonization. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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