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Nation,
race and history in Zimbabwean politicsm
Brian
Raftopoulos, Associate Professor, Institute of Development Studies,
University of Zimbabwe
July 06, 2004 One
of the central features of the Zimbabwean crisis, as it has unfolded
since 2000, has been the emergence of a revived nationalism delivered
in a particularly virulent form, with race as a key trope within
the discourse, and a selective rendition of the liberation history
deployed as a an ideological policing agent in the public debate.
A great deal
of commentary has been deployed to describe this process, much of
it concentrating on the undoubted coercive aspects of the politics
of state consolidation in Zimbabwe.
My intention
in this paper is to provide a more careful examination of the ideological
project of the Mugabe regime and, in particularly, to concentrate
on the ways in which both -insiders- and -outsiders-
are defined in this national project. In this analysis it is important
to keep in mind that, in a Gramscian sense, the Zimbabwean crisis
has also resulted in the reconstruction of the post-colonial state
in order to provide both the modality for and to consolidate the
accumulation drive of the ruling party elite in the country. (Raftopoulos
and Phimister: 2004 forthcoming.)
However the
manner in which the ideological battle has been fought by ZANU PF
as a party and a state is of particular importance in trying to
understand the ways in which a beleaguered state is attempting not
only to extend its dominant economic and political objectives, but
also its "intellectual and moral unity, posing all questions
around which the struggle rages not on a corporate level but on
a -universal- plane, and thus creating the hegemony
of a fundamental group over a series of subordinate groups."
(Gramsci 1971: 182.) For the manner in which Mugabe has articulated
the Zimbabwean crisis has impacted not only on the social forces
in the country but also on the African continent and in the Diaspora.
Such an ambitious
political outreach demands that we view the Zimbabwean state as
more than a -simple, dominative or instrumental model of state
power,- but as a state with a more complex and multi-dimensional
political strategy. (Hall 1996:429; and Hall 1980.) In this multi-dimensional
strategy, the state has monopolised the national media to develop
an intellectual and cultural strategy that has resulted in a persistent
bombardment of the populace with a regular and repeated series of
messages.
Moreover this
strategy has been located within a particular historical discourse
around national liberation and redemption, which has also sought
to capture a broader Pan Africanist and anti-imperialist audience.
A key tenet
of this redemptionist logic has been the reawakening of the Zimbabwean
nation from the colonial nightmare into a more essentialist African
consciousness, defined by the select bearers of the liberation legacy.
As one media ideologue of the ruling party expressed it, "right
now we are destroyed spiritually. We are suffering from what psychologists
say (sic) somnambulism. We are really sleepwalking, walking corpses,
zombies. We are carrying other people-s world view."
(Gandhi and Jambaya 2002: 10.)
Moreover in
articulating this ideological strategy the ruling party has drawn
on deep historical reservoirs of antipathy to colonial and racial
subjugation in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa and Africa more generally,
and on its complex inflections in the Diaspora. Thus the Mugabe
message is no mere case of peddling a particular form of false consciousness,
but it carries a broader and often visceral resonance, even as it
as it draws criticisms for the coercive forms of its mobilisation.
Additionally
for many progressive African intellectuals there is an internal
tension over the content and form of politics of Mugabe-s
Pan Africanist message, particularly in the face of the of the dominant
message of Empire offered by the Bush/Blair axis. Thus within Zimbabwe
the opposition to Mugabe is not only expressed in the political
polarisation in the country, but often in the more complex forms
in which the nationalist messages are interpellated within -our
selves-, given both the historical resonance of the messages
and the unpalatable coercive forms of its delivery.
Conclusion
A decade
ago I wrote an article on -Race and Nationalism- in
Zimbabwe. In re-reading the piece in recent weeks what strikes me
most about the analysis, apart from an underestimation of the potential
for a revived nationalist project by the ruling party, was its strictly
national focus, which even then was a limitation of the article.
In 2004 it is impossible to confront this subject meaningfully without
addressing the broader reach of its effects at both regional and
international levels.
Mugabe has not
only defined the national project around a selective reading of
nationalist history and an exclusivist construction of the nation,
he has also sought to ensure that this message resonates in other
black struggles both regionally and internationally. This exclusive
mobilisation around race has been a part of ZANU PF-s outlook
since its inception. (Brickhill 1999: 35.)
This was unlike
the different conditions in South Africa, which produced more emphasis
on non-racialism in the liberation movement. However it needs to
be said that even in South Africa this tradition is already facing
strong challenges as the ANC embraces a more Africanist ideological
stance. ZANU PF has set itself the task of establishing a hegemonic
project in which the party-s narrow definition of the nation
is deployed against all other forms of identification and affiliation.
In this project
the media and selected intellectuals have been used to provide a
continuous and repetitive ideological message, in order to set the
parameters of a stable national identity conducive to the consolidation
of the ruling party. As Zimbabweans listen to the radio, watch television
and read the daily newspapers, all controlled by the ruling party,
they are being -informed- about what it means to be
a -good Zimbabwean,- and a - genuine African-.
They are also
being told who is the -enemy- within and without and
advised to confront such -enemies- with ruthless exclusion
if necessary. For the present this political assault has seriously
closed down the spaces for alternative debates around citizenship
and national belonging.
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