HSRC Press to launch Edson Sithole: Law, Liberation, and the Cost of Dissent

Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

Press Release

HSRC Press to launch Edson Sithole: Law, Liberation, and the Cost of Dissent

Pretoria, Tuesday, 24 March 2026 – As South Africa concludes Human Rights Month and reflects on the sacrifices made for freedom and dignity, HSRC Press invites members of the media to the launch of a new book that honours the life and legacy of a courageous anticolonial nationalist and pan-Africanist, Edson Sithole.

Voices of Liberation: Edson Sithole – Law, Liberation, and the Cost of Dissent will be launched on Thursday, 26 March 2026 at Exclusive Books Brooklyn, Pretoria, from 17h30 to 19h30.

Sithole was a political prisoner for nearly half of his adult life. In 1975, he disappeared –presumably abducted and killed by the Rhodesian Special Branch, although this has never been conclusively proven.

This latest edition in the acclaimed Voices of Liberation series presents unabridged transcripts of Sithole’s writings alongside interviews with him, offering fresh insights into his life and legacy.

The book includes transcripts of several interviews and more than two dozen original writings spanning 1958 until the days leading up to his disappearance. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews conducted across three continents, it explores four central themes: Pan-Africanism, political imprisonment, intra-nationalist factionalism, and the efforts to negotiate a settlement with white Rhodesians.

Historian, Brooks Marmon’s research and interviews sheds new light on Sithole’s significant contributions to Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, as well as the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.

For two decades, Sithole played a central role in Zimbabwe’s liberation movement, serving in key positions within the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the African National Council (ANC). He envisioned a liberated Africa when such a future seemed distant, and wrote with clarity and courage when silence often meant survival. Though abducted in 1975, his ideas endured – and, fifty years later, continue to resonate powerfully.

At the launch, Marmon and Professor David Moore will discuss Sithole’s legacy and impact.

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Details of the event

Date: 26 March 2026

Time: 17h30 – 19h30

Venue: Exclusive Books Brooklyn, Pretoria

RSVP: exclusivebooks.co.za/pages/events

For media enquiries, please contact Adziliwi Nematandani: Cell: +27 82 765 9191 Email: anematandani@hsrc.ac.za

Join the conversation:

#VoicesofLiberation #Law #CostofDissent #EdsonSithole

Notes to the editor

Brooks Marmon is research associate in the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies at the University of Pretoria. He will be in discussion with David Moore, retired professor of Development Studies from the University of Johannesburg who has also worked at Canadian and Australian universities and University of KwaZulu Natal since 1989. This promises to be a rich discussion on Zimbabwean liberation history and honouring the revolutionary mind of Edson Sithole.

“A jewel in our time, the unexpected and even belated work on Edson Sithole – one of Zimbabwe’s unsung heroes. 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 in 1971/72, a turning point in the struggle for national independence in Zimbabwe.” – Ibbo Mandaza, Executive Chair, Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES) Trust

About the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

The HSRC was established in 1968 as South Africa’s statutory research agency and has grown to become the largest dedicated research institute in the social sciences and humanities on the African continent, doing cutting-edge public research in areas that are crucial to development.

Our mandate is to inform the effective formulation and monitoring of government policy; to evaluate policy implementation; to stimulate public debate through the effective dissemination of research-based data and fact-based research results; to foster research collaboration; and to help build research capacity and infrastructure for the human sciences.

The Council conducts large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific research for public sector users, non-governmental organisations and international development agencies. Its research activities and structures are closely aligned with South Africa’s national development priorities.

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www.hsrc.ac.za