Tears of the Dead: The Social Biography of an African Family

Illuminating 100 years of family history in Western Zimbabwe, from the colonial period to the present, this social biography is the first account of its kind for southern Africa. At the heart of the book are the life histories of several generations of Kalanga men and women in a single extended family. Together they chronicle the family’s endurance and empowerment in the face of large scale eviction, displacement from home, the threat of imposed resettlement, guerilla war, and near starvation in a food blockade.