A01=Trishula Rachna Patel
Author_Trishula Rachna Patel
Bhimjee Naik
Black anticolonial nationalist movement
british colonialism
Category=JBFH
Category=JBSL
Category=JHMC
Category=NHF
Category=NHH
dukkan
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Gujarati
harare
herrenvolk democracy
hindoo
hindu
history of zimbabwe
indian migrants
indian shops in zimbabwe
indians in southern africa
indians in zimbabwe
laundry shops in zimbabwe
Rhodesian white minority government
southern rhodesia
white minority government
zimbabwe
Zimbabwe African National Union
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front
Zimbabwe African People's Union
zimbabweans of indian origin
Product details
- ISBN 9780813954486
- Weight: 518g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 05 Jan 2026
- Publisher: University of Virginia Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The first comprehensive history of Indian migrants and their descendants in Zimbabwe
Becoming Zimbabwean tells the long-overdue story of the Indian community in the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Centering the stories of individuals and families, and building on a foundation of extensive archival research, Trishula Rachna Patel—a Zimbabwean of Indian origin herself—shows that the history of Indians in Zimbabwe is not of a transient diaspora but one of deliberate permanence.
Indians initially played a critical part in the settler colonial process in Southern Rhodesia, but as new generations were born and raised, their politics and social lives evolved to localized forms of citizenship. Eventually, they functioned as part of the resistance to the Rhodesian white minority government, either through participation in the system as nonwhites or by joining the Black anticolonial nationalist movement. They did all this through their shops, African-rooted institutions that became social, economic, and political spaces through which Indians became Zimbabwean. In this highly readable and authoritative study, Patel makes clear that Zimbabwe cannot be properly understood without accounting for the substantial Indian community that has woven itself into the fabric of the nation.
Becoming Zimbabwean tells the long-overdue story of the Indian community in the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Centering the stories of individuals and families, and building on a foundation of extensive archival research, Trishula Rachna Patel—a Zimbabwean of Indian origin herself—shows that the history of Indians in Zimbabwe is not of a transient diaspora but one of deliberate permanence.
Indians initially played a critical part in the settler colonial process in Southern Rhodesia, but as new generations were born and raised, their politics and social lives evolved to localized forms of citizenship. Eventually, they functioned as part of the resistance to the Rhodesian white minority government, either through participation in the system as nonwhites or by joining the Black anticolonial nationalist movement. They did all this through their shops, African-rooted institutions that became social, economic, and political spaces through which Indians became Zimbabwean. In this highly readable and authoritative study, Patel makes clear that Zimbabwe cannot be properly understood without accounting for the substantial Indian community that has woven itself into the fabric of the nation.
Trishula Rachna Patel is Assistant Professor of African History and Asian Studies at the University of Denver.
