Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe - by Obert Bernard Mlambo (Paperback)

About the Book

A comparative study of the expropriation of land in ancient Rome and contemporary Africa, offering an approach to classics informed by African culture.

Book Synopsis

In this highly original book, Obert Bernard Mlambo offers a comparative and critical examination of the relationship between military veterans and land expropriation in the client-army of the first-century BC Roman Republic and veterans of the Zimbabwean liberation war. The study centres on the body of the soldier, the cultural production of images and representations of gender which advance theoretical discussions around war, masculinity and violence. Mlambo employs a transcultural comparative approach based on a persistent factor found in both societies: land expropriation. Often articulated in a framework of patriarchy, land appropriation takes place in the context of war-shaped masculinities.

This book fosters a deeper understanding of social processes, adding an important new perspective to the study of military violence, and paying attention to veterans' claims for rewards and compensation. These claims are developed in the context of war and its direct consequences, namely expropriation, confiscation and violence. Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe contributes to current efforts to decolonise knowledge construction by revealing that a non-Western perspective can broaden our understanding of veterans, war, violence, land and gender in classical culture.

Review Quotes

"It is studies like this present book that provide the path forward to more groundbreaking research in the field of military history of all societies and periods." --The Classical Review

"Well founded on theory and extremely persuasive ... This book is worth reading." --The Classical Association of the Middle West and South

"This remarkable and novel study highlights the potential for illuminating comparison between Roman and African historical experiences. Mlambo analyses personal testimonies by veterans about their involvement and emotions in the expropriation of land in modern Zimbabwe, which he uses, alongside the ancient clues, to inspire a vivid recreation of Roman veterans as active agents in the land expropriations of the late Republic." --Dominic Rathbone, Professor of Ancient History, King's College London, UK

"The striking resemblances between decommissioned legionaries in ancient Rome and African veteran guerrilla fighters in present-day Zimbabwe are mutually enlightening. Moving beyond a narrow consideration of a single region or epoch towards an exploration of parallels and contrasts, this book recalibrates the Eurocentric habit of taking classical antiquity as the unique key for understanding social and political life. Mlambo brings African and European perspectives into a fresh dialogue with one another in empirically well-grounded and unexpected ways." --Thomas Widlok, Professor of the Cultural Anthropology of Africa, University of Cologne, Germany

"A diligent intervention on land expropriation, veterans, masculinity and war in ancient Rome and contemporary Zimbabwe, this magnificent book yokes together two disparate societies separated by 2,000 years and allows them to shine their light on each other in ways that enrich our understanding of history and the limitless possibilities of engaging it." --Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Assistant Professor of Pan-African Studies, California State University, Los Angeles, USA

"Scholars of masculinity studies will likely find much of interest here..." --The Journal of Roman Studies

"This is a book that all students of this period ought to read and think with. Its perspective on a well-trodden dossier will reinvigorate their historical imagination, and will equip them to ask bolder and more exciting questions." --Greece and Rome

About the Author

Obert Bernard Mlambo is Associate Professor of Classical Studies and History at the University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe. His research interests involve Roman History, Classics and Colonialism, Postcolonial Classics in Africa, and the issues of Violence, Gender, Politics, and Land in ancient Rome and Zimbabwe. Obert Mlambo also researches and teaches Roman history in a global context. He is a former Humboldt Fellow at the Institute of African Studies and Egyptology, University of Cologne, Germany, and a Guest Scholar at the Global South Studies Centre of the University of Cologne, Germany.