Terence Ranger collected a range of sources, including the archive of Thompson's papers, the National Archives and oral interviews.

This work provides a collective biography of Thompson Samkange and of two of his sons, Sketchley and Stanlake. Thompson Samkange was born in 1893 at the time that his land was being overwhelmed from the South. He was one of the founders of the African press. Stanlake Samkange, Professor of History and writer of historical novels, lived to see the achievement of Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.
Terence Ranger has had access to a range of sources, including the archive of Thompson's papers, found in a tin trunk which had been kept amongst rats and damp in a laundry. He also discovered a large body of evidence for the modern history of Methodism in the National Archives. However,much of this book depends on the information gleaned from oral interviews.

Zimbabwe: Baobab