The Zimbabwean author Alexander Kanengoni was a writer of war: almost everything he wrote may be directly related to the Zimbabwean war of liberation and its causes, direct consequences, or lateral outcomes. Kanengoni learned about this war by participating in it: in 1974, he joined ZANLA (an African nationalist guerrilla force) and he was an armed combatant until independence with majority rule came to Zimbabwe in 1980. Because they thematise the armed anti-colonial struggle, Kanengoni’s texts may be said to be contributing to the Zimbabwean “political imaginary” – a repository of key images and representations which participate in the re/production of socially constructed identities. In contemporary …

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Citation: Primorac, Ranka. "Alexander Kanengoni". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 January 2005; last revised 22 July 2022. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5878, accessed 22 November 2024.]

5878 Alexander Kanengoni 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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