Identity, Language, and Change in Zimbabwe, 1800-2024

This book explores the history of the Kalanga in Zimbabwe and, to a lesser extent, Botswana, using their experience to examine the complex processes of identity formation in African societies. The author traces the emergence of a shared Kalanga identity and sense of belonging within larger hegemonic polities, particularly the Rozvi and Ndebele states. The book argues that language, shaped by chieftaincy as well as colonial and postcolonial institutional structures, played a pivotal role in the construction and maintenance of Kalanga collective identity. It examines the (un)making of Kalanga identity over time, highlighting how it was shaped by chieftainship, religion, and language in the precolonial period and subsequently reconfigured through the institutions of the colonial and postcolonial states. Focusing on the politics surrounding the promotion and survival of TjiKalanga, the language of the BaKalanga, the book analyses their struggles to preserve their language and ethnic identity, defend claims to ancestral lands, and secure political and cultural recognition. Adopting a longue durée perspective, the study makes a significant contribution to understanding the historical struggles of ethnic minorities for belonging and recognition across different historical epochs. In doing so, the book disentangles Kalanga identity from the broader Ndebele identity that has often subsumed both the Kalanga and other minority groups.