This social biography illuminates 100 years of family history in Western Zimbabwe from the colonial period to the present. At the heart of the book are the life histories of several generations of Kalanga men and women in a single extended family, the family of Lupondo. Lupondo's family are active agents throughout the book, marshalling their own concepts of character, family morality and public authority to contend with the colonial world and its post-colonial heritage. Tears of the Dead is their own heritage, from generation to generation, both of endurance and of empowerment in the face of large scale eviction, displacement from home, the threat of imposed resettlement, guerrilla war and near starvation in a food blockade.