| ISBN | 9781779223586 |
| Pages | 336 |
| Dimensions | 210 x 148mm |
| Published | 2020 |
| Publisher | Weaver Press, Zimbabwe |
| Format | Paperback |
Mothers of the Revolution
edited by Irene Staunton
Mothers of the Revolution is one of the most remarkable chronicles to emerge from the Zimbabwean liberation war (1967-1980). Here are first-hand accounts from rural women living in all parts of the country who stayed behind during the war; the women whose sons and daughters secretly left home to join the liberation armies and sometimes never returned; the women who single-handedly, not only had to keep their homes, but who fed the freedom fighters; women, who as the war intensified, were often caught in the crossfire.
“People said that when the war comes, we are going to fight so that everyone will be rich and the schools will be free … and there’ll be lots of jobs. So, we were looking forward to the war, so that when it was over, we could go to school freely and get jobs very easily.”
“If our affairs were now to be decided on how each of us had fought, I can tell you that all the homes would not belong to the women. Men just went away to town and left their women to suffer alone … they were afraid of being killed. The women stayed whether it meant death or life … so I say all over Zimbabwe women are heroes.”
“It makes me very happy that our stories would now be told for the people of Zimbabwe, as well as those of other nations, to know what our contributions to the struggle as wives and mothers of the freedom fighters were.”
About the Editor
Irene Staunton began work in publishing in London in the 1970s. Returning to Zimbabwe after its independence, she became the editor at the government’s new Curriculum Development Unit. In 1987, she co-established Baobab Books, which rapidly acquired a reputation as an exciting literary publisher. In 1999, she left Baobab to co-found Weaver Press. She was also the editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series for several years. Staunton has also researched and compiled a number of oral histories including Mothers of the Revolution.