EDSON SITHOLE, law, liberation and the cost of dissent, selected writings

224pp., illus., paperback, Voices of Liberation Series, HSRC Press, Cape Town, 2026

ISBN: 9780796927088

Selected writings of Edson Sithole. Edited and with analyses by Brooks Marmon.

A biographical study of Zimbabwean lawyer and activist Edson Sithole.  Sithole was born in Southern Rhodesia in 1935. An anti-colonial nationalist and a pan-Africanist, he was the first Black person in southern Africa to earn a Doctor of Law degree. He was at the heart of Zimbabwe's national liberation struggle for nearly two decades, spent nearly half of his adult life as a political prisoner, and vanished in 1975 - presumably kidnapped and killed by the Rhodesian Special Branch, though that has never been proved.

The book includes unabridged transcripts of Sithole's writings, rare interviews, and Brook Marmon's discussion of his life and legacy.

"Marmon's account of Edson Sithole is at once groundbreaking and heartwarming, especially for those of us who encountered and worked briefly with this brave and courageous man during the Pearce Commission on 1971-1972, a turning point in the struggle for national independence in Zimbabwe." Ibbo Mandaza, Executive Chair, SAPES Trust

"A compelling biographical portrait of an enigmatic hero of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle, who was abducted by Rhodesian agents in October 1975. His mysterious disappearance is one of the wounds of Zimbabwean history that has never healed." Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Assistant Professor in African and American Studies, Harvard University