The primary goal of this book is to provide an account of a democratic tradition that was present in the African townships of what was Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, and to show how that tradition was cut off by the political violence associated with the leadership struggles and factionalism of the early 1960s. The setting for this story is primarily centered in two places, Harare township (now Mbare) and Highfield township, although the narrative also follows nationalist leaders to London, Dar es Salaam, and Washington, D.C. Zimbabwean scholars, writers, and journalists, have written fondly of their own memories of the cultural and political life in these former African townships of Salisbury. Others have written about the creative music scene produced from the mixing of cultures and working-class life in the townships, helping to show the unique culture and style produced in Harare and Highfield over the years. In addition, historians have written extensively on the labor, gender, and social history of Salisbury's African townships and have developed a strong historiography of the townships' political and social life.

Given the rich body of literature on township life that already exists, the intent of this book is to concentrate on a specific aspect of township history: the development of a democratic political tradition created in the 1940s that survived into the 1950s.