ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief outline of the historical link between the press and the governing authority from when the first newspaper was published in Zimbabwe to the present. It traces how the dual parentage of government and the press in modern-day Zimbabwe to South Africa. The racist stereotypes of a contended African so prevalent in the colonial press were responsible for the perfect surprise and the devastation that marked the beginning of the Mashonaland uprising. The press silence about growing discontent among the Africans with some of the more oppressive policies of the colonial administration had lulled white settlers with a false sense of security. South Africa has played a historically significant role as the gateway to the interior of Africa for European imperial expansion.
