The Revd. Ndabaningi Sithole is leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union and a minister in the American Congregational Church. He joined nationalist politics in Rhodesia in 1960 and in 1964 was sent to prison on a charge of subversion for calling on his supporters to resist UDI with any means at their disposal. After completing his sentence he was sent into detention, but in November 1968 he was re-arrested and in February 1969 sentenced to six years’ hard labour on a charge of plotting to assassinate cabinet ministers of the Rhodesian Front. The various laws under which the Revd. Sithole has been held prohibit, among other things, the publication in Rhodesia of ‘any information, pictorial or in writing’ about restricted or imprisoned individuals and also prevent any communication between them and members of the public. This means that two earlier books by Sithole, African Nationalism and the novel Obed, may not be circulated in Rhodesia and that this latest work, The Polygamist, will not be published there. The Polygamist deals with the clash between African and European culture among the Africans in Rhodesia and apparently contains autobiographical elements. It deals with the conflict between an African chieftain — ‘the polygamist’ — and his eldest son, who becomes a christian and shocks his elders by electing to marry only one wife. Interestingly enough, the novel comes down on the side of European culture, but not without a good deal of wry humour expressed at the expense of both sides, as the following extract shows.
The Polygamist (extract)
