Stanlake J. W. T. Samkange
Encyclopedia
Stanlake John William Thompson Samkange (1922–1988) was a Zimbabwe
an historiographer, educationist, journalist
, author
, and Africa
n nationalist. He was a member of an elite Zimbabwean nationalist political dynasty
and the most prolific of the first generation of black Zimbabwean creative writers in English.
Province, in the British southern Africa
n colony of Rhodesia
. He was the son of the Reverend Thompson Samkange
, a Methodist minister and nationalist politician, and his wife, Grace Mano, a Methodist evangelist. The family lived in Bulawayo
, Matabeleland
and in Mashonaland
during Samkange’s childhood. He took his higher education at Adams College in Natal
, South Africa
and the University of Fort Hare
in Alice, Eastern Cape Province
, South Africa (the first institution of higher learning in Africa that was open to Africans
).
He graduated with honors from Fort Hare in 1948 and returned to Rhodesia to become a teacher. While pursuing his teaching career he began to make plans for Nyatsime College, a secondary school to be controlled by blacks rather than government or missionaries
. The school, which opened in 1962, provided academic, technical and commercial education for Africans. He was deeply involved in the liberal politics of Southern Rhodesia
during the 1950s and 1960s, but became disillusioned when he realized that the white minority in Rhodesia would reject any multiracial options for government in the colony.
Samkange moved to the United States where he took further education at the Indiana University at Bloomington
. After earning his Ph.D.
from that institution, he worked as a journalist and then opened a public relations
firm. He also taught African history at various universities in the U.S. and in 1978 he was professor of African American studies
at Northeastern University, Boston
.
s. His book, On Trial for My Country outlined the white man’s conquest of Rhodesia, the struggles of the native people during the conquest, and the clash between Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula
, the Matabele king.
’s Zimbabwe African People's Union
and Bishop Abel Muzorewa
’s United African National Council
. He retired from active politics before the Lancaster House
talks, concentrating instead on his writing. With his wife, Tommie Anderson, he wrote Hunuism or Ubuntuism (1980), an attempt to systematize an African epistemology, and African Saga (1971), a popular history of Africa.
Samkange’s best-known work, On Trial for My Country (1966), is a tale told by an old man of the twin trials of Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula
, the Ndebele
ruler, who are both are tried by their ancestors for their respective parts in obtaining and granting the various concessions that gave an air of legality to Rhodes’s occupation of Rhodesia. Rhodes must convince his ancestors that he has been just and honest in his dealings with the African king Lobengula and his people. Lobengula is required to explain to the ancestral spirits just how he had lost the land to the white man. The novel was banned in Rhodesia.
Stanlake Samkange died March 6, 1988 in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an historiographer, educationist, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n nationalist. He was a member of an elite Zimbabwean nationalist political dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
and the most prolific of the first generation of black Zimbabwean creative writers in English.
Early life and education
Samkange was born in 1922 in Zvimba, Mashonaland WestMashonaland West
Mashonaland West is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 57,441 km² and a population of approximately 1.2 million . Chinhoyi is the capital of the province.Mashonaland West is divided into 6 districts:* Chegutu* Hurungwe* Kadoma* Kariba...
Province, in the British southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
n colony of Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
. He was the son of the Reverend Thompson Samkange
Thompson Samkange
Thompson Smakkage was a major figure in the history of Rhodesian/Zimbabwean independence. He led the African National Council in 1945, and was one of the founders of the Bantu National Congress....
, a Methodist minister and nationalist politician, and his wife, Grace Mano, a Methodist evangelist. The family lived in Bulawayo
Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
, Matabeleland
Matabeleland
Modern day Matabeleland is a region in Zimbabwe divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. The region is named after its inhabitants, the Ndebele people...
and in Mashonaland
Mashonaland
Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. It is the home of the Shona people.Currently, Mashonaland is divided into three provinces, with a total population of about 3 million:* Mashonaland West* Mashonaland Central* Mashonaland East...
during Samkange’s childhood. He took his higher education at Adams College in Natal
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and the University of Fort Hare
University of Fort Hare
The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution in higher education for black Africans from 1916 to 1959. It offered a Western-style, academically excellent education to students from across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a black...
in Alice, Eastern Cape Province
Alice, Eastern Cape
Alice, a town in South Africa, is named after Princess Alice, daughter of the British Queen Victoria. Many of the current political leaders in South Africa were educated at the University of Fort Hare, also the alma mater of former President Nelson Mandela...
, South Africa (the first institution of higher learning in Africa that was open to Africans
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...
).
He graduated with honors from Fort Hare in 1948 and returned to Rhodesia to become a teacher. While pursuing his teaching career he began to make plans for Nyatsime College, a secondary school to be controlled by blacks rather than government or missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
. The school, which opened in 1962, provided academic, technical and commercial education for Africans. He was deeply involved in the liberal politics of Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
during the 1950s and 1960s, but became disillusioned when he realized that the white minority in Rhodesia would reject any multiracial options for government in the colony.
Samkange moved to the United States where he took further education at the Indiana University at Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
. After earning his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from that institution, he worked as a journalist and then opened a public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
firm. He also taught African history at various universities in the U.S. and in 1978 he was professor of African American studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
at Northeastern University, Boston
Northeastern University, Boston
Northeastern University , is a private, secular, coeducational research university in Boston, Massachusetts. Northeastern has eight colleges and offers undergraduate majors in 65 departments...
.
Writing
During his time at Indiana he began writing historical novelHistorical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
s. His book, On Trial for My Country outlined the white man’s conquest of Rhodesia, the struggles of the native people during the conquest, and the clash between Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula
Lobengula
Lobengula Khumalo was the second and last king of the Ndebele people, usually pronounced Matabele in English. Both names, in the Sindebele language, mean "The men of the long shields", a reference to the Matabele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.- Background :The Matabele were related to...
, the Matabele king.
Return
He returned to Rhodesia in 1978 and became involved in nationalist politics, running unsuccessfully for political office on two occasions. He held high offices in Joshua NkomoJoshua Nkomo
Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo was the leader and founder of the Zimbabwe African People's Union and a member of the Kalanga tribe...
’s Zimbabwe African People's Union
Zimbabwe African People's Union
The Zimbabwe African People's Union was a militant organization and political party that fought for the national liberation of Zimbabwe from its founding in 1961 until it merged with the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front in December 1987....
and Bishop Abel Muzorewa
Abel Muzorewa
Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia from the Internal Settlement to the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979...
’s United African National Council
United African National Council
The United African National Council is a political party in Zimbabwe.In 1979, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the UANC Party held formal power in Zimbabwe during the short-lived period of the Internal Settlement...
. He retired from active politics before the Lancaster House
Lancaster House Agreement
The negotiations which led to the Lancaster House Agreement brought independence to Rhodesia following Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. The Agreement covered the Independence Constitution, pre-independence arrangements, and a ceasefire...
talks, concentrating instead on his writing. With his wife, Tommie Anderson, he wrote Hunuism or Ubuntuism (1980), an attempt to systematize an African epistemology, and African Saga (1971), a popular history of Africa.
Samkange’s best-known work, On Trial for My Country (1966), is a tale told by an old man of the twin trials of Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula
Lobengula
Lobengula Khumalo was the second and last king of the Ndebele people, usually pronounced Matabele in English. Both names, in the Sindebele language, mean "The men of the long shields", a reference to the Matabele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.- Background :The Matabele were related to...
, the Ndebele
Ndebele people (Zimbabwe)
The Ndebele are a branch of the Zulus who split from King Shaka in the early 1820s under the leadership of Mzilikazi, a former general in Shaka's army....
ruler, who are both are tried by their ancestors for their respective parts in obtaining and granting the various concessions that gave an air of legality to Rhodes’s occupation of Rhodesia. Rhodes must convince his ancestors that he has been just and honest in his dealings with the African king Lobengula and his people. Lobengula is required to explain to the ancestral spirits just how he had lost the land to the white man. The novel was banned in Rhodesia.
Stanlake Samkange died March 6, 1988 in Zimbabwe.
Works
- Nonfiction
- Origins of Rhodesia – 1968
- African Saga – 1970
- Hunhuism or Ubuntuism –1980
- Historical novels
- On Trial for My Country – 1966
- The Mourned One – 1968
- Year of the Uprising – 1978
- Among Them Yanks – 1985
- On Trial for That UDI* – 1986
-
* UDI was Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 (see Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Rhodesia)Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Rhodesia)The Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Rhodesia from the United Kingdom was signed on November 11, 1965, by the administration of Ian Smith, whose Rhodesian Front party opposed black majority rule in the then British colony. Although it declared independence from the United Kingdom it...
).