📚 Subversion, Resistance and Contestations: New Volume Explores the Politics of Naming in Zimbabwe

 Brill’s African Social Studies Series proudly announces its 50th volume, Subversion, Resistance and Contestations: Politics of Names and Naming in Zimbabwe, edited by Tanaka Chidora, Zvinashe Mamvura, and Sheunesu Mandizvidza. This pioneering volume marks the first comprehensive academic collection devoted solely to the onomastics of Zimbabwe - a country where names are more than just identifiers; they are sites of struggle, memory, resistance, and reinvention.

🔍 A Multidisciplinary Chronicle of Onomastic Power

Structured chronologically, the volume explores naming practices from colonial impositions to the post-Mugabe "New Dispensation," challenging any linear or monolithic reading of Zimbabwean history. Instead, the chapters expose how place names, personal names, and other linguistic signifiers have been used as tools of colonial control, cultural erasure, nationalist assertion, and political maneuvering.

The volume brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines—linguistics, literature, history, media studies, sociology, and ethnomusicology—illustrating how deeply embedded names are in every aspect of Zimbabwe’s historical and contemporary identity.

👥 About the Editors

• Tanaka Chidora – poet, novelist, Humboldt Fellow, and lecturer at the University of Malawi.

• Zvinashe Mamvura – Humboldt Fellow and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

• Sheunesu Mandizvidza – lecturer at Midlands State University’s Centre for Communication Studies.

📘 Key Facts

• Title: Subversion, Resistance and Contestations: Politics of Names and Naming in Zimbabwe

• Series: African Social Studies Series (Vol. 50)

• Language: English

• Publisher: Brill

• Publication Date: 27 November 2025

• ISBN: 978-90-04-74449-3 (E-Book), 978-90-04-74448-6 (Print)

• Price: €79.00 excl. VAT / €84.53 net

• Availability: Brill website

🧭 Who Should Read It?

This book is a must-read for scholars and students in:

• Onomastics

• African Studies

• Cultural and Literary Studies

• Sociology and Political Science

• Geography and Urban Studies

• Ethnomusicology

Whether you're tracing colonial legacies, examining linguistic resistance, or studying identity politics, Subversion, Resistance and Contestations is an indispensable resource for understanding how naming becomes a powerful act of agency and contestation in Zimbabwe.