The Struggle Over State Power in Zimbabwe Law And Politics Since 1950 by G.H. Karekwaivanane (Cambridge University Press 2017)

Abstract

This excellent and important book opens by relating what happened at the trial in 1968 of four liberation fighters charged by the Rhodesian regime of possession of arms of war, an offence that carried the death penalty. The fighters refused legal representation, called no witnesses and openly admitted they had brought arms into the country. They proclaimed that they had committed no crime as they had legitimately taken up arms to depose an illegitimate and highly repressive colonial regime. They maintained that the court itself was illegitimate and had no right to try them. Their court “performance” allowed them to assert their political convictions and put on trial the colonial regime.