Murray Steele

Maronda Mashanu: the History of A Community Murray Steele

The Maronda Mashona (Five Wounds of Christ) community was set up in colonial Zimbabwe just over a century ago by the missionary, poet, redoubtable champion of African rights and fierce critic of imperialist oppression, Rev Arthur Shearly Cripps. This book describes the evolution of the community from its beginnings as a mission sanctuary for black people who had been deprived of their lands or had suffered oppression at the hands of white farmers and officials. Following Cripps's death in 1952, the Maronda Mashona community evolved into a conjunction of small-scale landholders and communal area cultivators, tied together by their common identification with the legacy of Baba Cripps. It is the culmination of the author's long association with the Maronda Mashanu community, going back several decades, and is based on extensive oral and documentary evidence.