Novel
On Trial for My Country
Stanlake Samkange · 1966
Synopsis
An old man recounts an imaginary double trial, held in the world of the ancestors. Cecil Rhodes must convince his own people that he acted with honour towards the Ndebele king Lobengula and his people; Lobengula must explain to the spirits of his fathers how he lost the land to the whites. The concessions of the 1880s and 1890s, which handed Matabeleland and Mashonaland over to Rhodes's company, are examined in turn, supported by authentic letters and documents from Rhodes, the missionary Moffat and Jameson.
Context
The novel was published in London by Heinemann in 1966, in the African Writers series, the year the nationalist guerrilla war began in Rhodesia. The author, a historian by training, wrote it during his American years and worked into it authentic letters and documents of Rhodes, Moffat, Jameson and other makers of the conquest. It opens the series of three historical novels for which he is chiefly known; Heinemann reprinted it several times, until 1987.
Who it is for
In English, one hundred and sixty pages. The narrative proceeds by depositions and assumes familiarity with the names of the conquest of Matabeleland: concessions, treaties and signatories.
Prizes and reception
Hailed by the journal Books Abroad as a sign that Africans were taking the measure of the clash of cultures; the best-known book by its author.
Sources for this page 8
The pages consulted to check this page.