Reading Zimbabwe

Reading Zimbabwe is a digital archive that was initiated to try and locate 'Zimbabwe' in the global discourse. The project was born out of a curiosity for a deeper understanding of the nature and extent of knowledge production, dissemination, and use around the subject of Zimbabwe: the place and the people. Of the many facets this project attempts to deal with, we highlight four in particular: ● the paramount importance of hierarchies and power dynamics in the existing knowledge order ● the relationship of reciprocal legitimation between knowledge and power ● the transnational production of knowledge related to Zimbabwe ● the political economy of the commercialization of knowledge.

Reading Zimbabwe is a product of Black Chalk and Co., a creative think tank founded by Nontsikelelo Mutiti, a visual artist and Assistant Professor in Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Dr. Tinashe Mushakavanhu, a writer and literary historian. The work is collaborative, bringing together writers, artists, designers, academics, and technologists with a mutual interest in publishing, archiving, mapping, curating conversations and exhibitions, and facilitating residencies. What animates all these activities is the effort to engender a new culture and new forms of publishing, reading and creative production.