Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War - Softcover

Mlambo, Obert Bernard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1350291897 ISBN 13: 9781350291898

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024

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.

About this title

About the Author

Obert Bernard Mlambo is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe. He is currently an Alexander von Humboldt Renewed Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies and Egyptology, University of Cologne, Germany. His research perspectives are framed by issues of violence, colonialism, political economy, gender studies and identity. He has published numerous articles on Roman history, comparative histories of classical and contemporary African societies and Zimbabwe’s land reform history.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350291897
• ISBN 13: 9781350291898
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 266