Abstract:
This paper explores the benefits of using in-house periodicals for writing the history of interest
groups and unions in southern Africa. In particular, it focuses on using The Farmer magazine as a
source to write more nuanced social and cultural histories of white farmers in Zimbabwe. The
importance of The Farmer to the white farming community is laid out and it is argued that longterm
and detailed readings of this magazine offer the opportunity to explore the evolutions
in discourse within the farming community, the processes of transition and the ambiguities of
independence for a group like the white farmers. The uses described are ones that have rarely
been put into practice in southern Africa, but are also ones that can be easily transposed to other
settings and context.
