Crafting Identity in Zimbabwe and Mozambique

Elizabeth MacGonagle has produced a study long awaited by scholars of southeast Africa... The book's real strength is in its mapping of Ndau identity, reflected in the region's cartography but also etched onto people's bodies, shaped into cooking vessels and counted in the cadence of hand claps offered to visitors. This mapping will prompt other historians to ask what made -- and might still make -- 'Ndauness' distinct from other identities." --JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY, 2008 (Eric Allina-Pisano) (A) smoothly written, concise, and exhaustively documented account of that indistinct entity called the Ndau ... For anyone working on the history of the Zimbabwe-Mozambique borderlands, this is an excellent place to start reading. --AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, October 2008 (Amy Kaler) Elizabeth MacGonagle has written an extremely important and meticulously researched historical study of the complex and contested Ndau-speaking region on the Zimbabwe-Mozambican frontier. This excellent study explores the issues of identity formation and memory, crucial for understanding contemporary politics in Mozambique. Essential reading for students interested in the history of this strategic borderland. --Allen Isaacman, Regents Professor of History, University of Minnesota (MacGonagle) makes pragmatic use of every type of evidence and source to compose more straightforward narrative and descriptive accounts of Ndau history. --INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORICAL STUDIES