Despite the ubiquity and easy access the internet promises, it has also been deleterious of marginal cultures. The impulse to build readingzimbabwe.com was simply to develop a portal with information for books that were missing on the internet. This digital archive problematizes how a single country's 60 year published history has been created, distorted, and engenders a space where a variety of critical lenses are interwoven to question research truths in relation to Zimbabwe.
In this talk, Dr Mushakavanhu will offer critical meditations on archiving gaps. He will discuss the methodological, historical, and epistemological questions faced in building a digital database of Zimbabwean books published since 1956. Prior to that year, black writers and intellectuals could not publish books in Rhodesia except for pamphlets or contributions in newspapers and magazines. The database seeks to reconstruct a detailed history of books in Zimbabwe.