Book Review

Sub-Saharan Africa

This is a dark, dense, and disturbing book. It recounts the many horrors (and memories) associated with the violent history of the Shangani region of Zimbabwe. Known as the Shangani Reserve in the colonial period, and now known as the Lupane and Nkayi districts, the Shangani is located on the northwest frontier of what was the nineteenth-century Ndebele state: "renowned for its dense, hardwood forests, its expansive, waterless ridges of Kalahari sands, its wild animals, tsetse fly and mosquitoes" (p. 19).

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This brooding landscape is indelibly marked in the consciousness of the Ndebele people. It has been the site of many key historical moments, often characterized by violence, displacement, and disease. In 1893, Ndebele warriors massacred the Alan Wilson Patrol at Pupu, a settlement deep in the forests of Shangani. King Lobengula was last seen at Pupu. His fate remains a mystery hanging over the landscape. After the 1896 uprising, the forests once again became a place of refuge for rebels. Some adjusted to the spartan existence; others fled or died. Despite its history of disease, drought, and death, the colonial state declared Shangani the primary Ndebele homeland. In the 1940s, colonial officials, inspired by a desire to "improve" and "modernize" African agriculture, forced people to move to the supposedly empty land in Shangani. These evictees were unprepared for the difficulties of Shangani life, and many died, further fueling the negative imaginary of the "dark forests."

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