Book Review:Marmon, Brooks. Pan-Africanism Versus Partnership: African Decolonisation in Southern Rhodesian Politics, 1950-1963. New York: Springer, 2023. SBN 10: 3031255585

Abstract

Brooks Marmon’s Pan-Africanism versus Partnership is a welcome addition to the historiography of Zimbabwe’s political history. There has not been much written of late on this period, as most historians have focused on the liberation war and the negotiated settlement leading up to Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. Marmon has taken up the challenge of re-assessing the messiness of white settler and African nationalist politics during the 10-year Federation period (1953-1963). During this period, white politicians from Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi) tried to forestall African majority rule from reaching their territories by engineering a veneer of a more racially inclusive politics short of majority rule for the Federal government. Marmon does an excellent job of bringing to life the debates and power plays of various white politicians and parties as they tried to block the growth of “pan-Africanism” amongst the Black African movements in the Central African Federation (CAF). In addition to establishing how central the fear of black nationalism, or pan-Africanism, was to white politicians, Marmon demonstrates how important it was for fledgling Zimbabwean African politicians to navigate and build ties with pan-African movements in West, Central, and Southern Africa during this period.