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Title: Diana Mitchell papers
Date (inclusive): 1953-2005
Collection Number: 2011C36
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
71 manuscript boxes, 3 card file boxes
(29.2 Linear Feet)
Abstract: The Diana Mitchell Papers document her activities as a social and political activist, journalist, educator, and consultant
in her native Zimbabwe, dating from the late 1950s to the early 2000s. The collection consists of correspondence, writings,
reports, minutes, biographical data, and printed matter.
Creator:
Mitchell, Diana, 1932-
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Boxes 45, 50-53, FH11, and FH20 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of the collection is open
for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media
material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2011.
[Identification of item], Diana Mitchell Papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Diana Mitchell was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia (Harare, Zimbabwe), in 1932. She was a school teacher at various schools and
a part-time student at the University of Zimbabwe, where she received her M.A. in African history in 1979.
During much of the late 1950s to early 2000s Mitchell lent her skills to a variety of political parties and movements, beginning
in the late 1950s in Southern Rhodesia with the nascent political parties that sought to bring about a settlement between
the British colonial rulers and African nationalist leaders seeking independence. After the leader of the white-minority Rhodesian
Front, led by Ian Smith, declared the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (or UDI) from Britain in 1965--in its bid to
maintain white minority rule in Rhodesia--Mitchell worked actively to oppose the UDI. She worked in a succession of political
parties, including the United Federal Party (1957-1962), the Rhodesia Party (1963-1965), the multi-racial Centre Party (1967-1977),
and its successor party, the National Unifying Force (1977-1979). In 1974 she ran as an independent candidate for parliament,
campaigning to represent her home district of Highlands North in Salisbury. During this period, she also participated in a
number of social programs, including ones to benefit African school children in Salisbury, and programs advocating rural development
and environmental education.
Following the end of white minority rule and the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, Mitchell continued to be active in a number
of non-governmental organizations that sought to provide social services and help build the agricultural and educational infrastructure
of the newly independent country. As Zimbabwean ruler Robert Mugabe tightened his grip on power through his political party,
the ZANU-PF, Mitchell found herself drawn once again to organizations advocating on behalf of human rights and freedom of
the press, including several political parties that were formed in opposition to the policies of the ZANU-PF, including the
Forum Party in the early 1990s.
During the pre- and post-independence periods, Mitchell was also a prolific commentator on first Rhodesian, and then Zimbabwean,
political and social issues, regularly publishing articles and op-ed pieces in newspapers both at home and abroad. During
this period she became well-known for a series of biographical reference books on African nationalist leaders from Zimbabwe,
which cemented her reputation as an expert on the political leadership of this land. During the 1990s, Mitchell was also active
in the campaign to oppose the ZANU-PF's draconian laws aimed at restricting non-governmental organizations operating in the
country, known as the PVO (Private Voluntary Organization) Act. In 2003, she and her husband emigrated to England, where she
has continued to comment on developments in her homeland through her writings, including her online blog, "Zimbabwe?Colonial
Relic" (http://z-cr.blogspot.com/).
Scope and Content of Collection
The Diana Mitchell Papers document her activities as a social and political activist, journalist, educator, and consultant
in her native Zimbabwe, dating from the late 1950s to the early 2000s.
The Diana Mitchell Papers are arranged in six broad series reflecting her activities during the past fifty years. The first
series,
Political parties and elections file, contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes of meetings, notes, voter lists, political ephemera, and related material
from the parties she worked for, as well as ephemera she collected from other parties and movements. Of particular note are
documents that reconstruct the founding of several political parties in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, such as the Centre Party and
Forum Party, as well as extensive material from Mitchell's own campaign for parliament. As a researcher and writer, she kept
extensive subject files of newspaper clippings, documents, and ephemera, most of which are kept elsewhere in this collection.
The section on "Elections," however, has been retained with this series.
The second series of materials,
Civic associations and non-governmental organizations file, documents many of the organizations that Mitchell volunteered for, and in which she often played a key role, ranging from
the Friends of African Schoolchildren Fund in the late 1960s up to organizations advocating human rights, freedom of the press,
and the rights of women in the 1990s. Such files often contain newsletters, correspondence, financial records, printed reports,
and as Mitchell served as the secretary in several of these organizations, there are extensive minutes of the meetings of
such organizations. Many files from these latter years document the efforts of the ZANU-PF regime to restrict the activities
of non-governmental organizations, as well as those organizations' attempts to resist such measures.
The series
Academic materials and writings contains material from Mitchell's academic career, both as a graduate student at the University of Rhodesia in the 1970s,
as well as her teaching career at the Harare Polytechnic Institute in the 1980s. In addition, typescripts and newspaper clippings
of many of her columns and articles, primarily in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, but also in the United Kingdom, are included. Drafts
of her biographical reference books on Zimbabwean nationalist leaders are included, as is material about her long-time collaborator
on this project, Robert Cary. The subseries of personal correspondence is also included in this series, and often contains
reflections about the political situation in Zimbabwe written by Mitchell to friends abroad, as well as letters to Mitchell
from friends within the country.
The largest series is the
Subject file, which contains newspaper clippings, magazine articles, pamphlets, brochures, ephemera, and at times, correspondence, about
various topics of interest to Mitchell as both an author and a political activist. Many of these files are biographical in
nature, and were often used as background material for her
Who's Who series on Zimbabwean political leaders. Other files are more general in scope, focusing on various social and political issues
in Zimbabwe, and consist primarily of clippings taken from Rhodesian and Zimbabwean newspapers, but which sometimes contain
reports, pamphlets, and other documentation. The
Card file also contains biographical information and background materials for Mitchell's many projects, including the Who's Who publication.
The collection is organized in six groups: Political parties and elections file, Civic associations and non-governmental organizations
file, Academic materials and writings, Subject file, Personal file, and Card file
Kent Bruce Crane Collection, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
A. H. M. Kirk-Greene Papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
H. R. G. Howman Papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Zimbabwean Subject Collection, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Zimbabwe -- Politics and government
Zimbabwe -- Economic conditions
Zimbabwe -- Social conditions