David Norman Beach (28 June 1943 – 15 February 1999) was a

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

an historian. He worked at the

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

, and the

University of Zimbabwe The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It was opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the Univers ...

and pioneered the documentation of oral traditions in Zimbabwe. In his work on

Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe was a city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It was settled from 1000 AD, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe from the 13th century. It is the largest stone struc ...

, Beach has promoted the interpretation of the different complexes as dwellings of successive rulers, opposing the structuralist tradition favoured by historians such as Huffman. When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, Beach took up Zimbabwean citizenship. When asked about his work, Nolan Chipo Makombe said "he is a comrade." In 1983 when an interviewer from London referred to David Beach as British while interviewing

Charles Utete Charles Munhamu Utete, Charles Munhamu Botsio Utete (October 30, 1938 – July 15, 2016) was a Zimbabwean academic. History He was the Chairman of Cairns Holdings Ltd. since January 2007. He served as a Director at Seed Co. Ltd., and had been a ...

, Utete responded dramatically saying "He (Beach) belongs to us, he does not belong to you. He is a Zimbabwean, period." Utete went on to say "He is not British, he is not Rhodesian, he is Zimbabwean. He is a comrade."Missionaries, Migrants, and the Manyika: The Invention of Ethnicity in Zimbabwe by T. O. Ranger

References

1943 births 1999 deaths Zimbabwean historians Historians of Zimbabwe Zimbabwean people of English descent British emigrants to Southern Rhodesia 20th-century historians Academic staff of the University of Zimbabwe University of Cape Town alumni + Great Zimbabwe {{Zimbabwe-writer-stub