Back to Index , Back to page index, Previous page

The On-Going National Question
The Mugabe government has worked hard to generalise its model of resolving the national question, based largely on the model of land reform through violent land occupations, articulated through a Pan Africanist and anti-imperialist discourse. Moreover in this model the human rights question and the democratic demands of civic groups are dismissed as an extension of Western intervention, with little relevance to the -real issues- of economic empowerment. It is certainly true, as Shivji has pointed, that the human rights discourse can often be the acceptable face of neoliberalism. (Shivji 2003: 115.)

However Shivji has dangerously underestimated the strategic importance of fighting around human and civic rights questions, when confronted by repressive nationalist regimes legitimating their politics through purportedly progressive redistributive policies. Moreover when such a position is addressed through a less than critical call for a revived nationalism on the continent (Shivji: 2004.), it is very difficult to understand what the progressive features of such a nationalist politics would look like. Certainly the experience of Zimbabwe-s revived nationalism is not encouraging.

In South Africa the Zimbabwean debate has taken on a particular resonance, not least because of the apparent popularity of Mugabe amongst many South Africans. On a broader level there are many aspects of the history and politics of Zimbabwe that resonate in the current South African context. (Phimister and Raftopoulos 2004: forthcoming; Southall 2003; Melber 2003.)

Zimbabwean commentators close to the ruling party have not hesitated to - shame- the South African government into taking more Africanist political positions. A recent article in the state weekly paper entitled "South Africa -s black nation must stand up," was unambiguous in its intent: "The South African black elite has demonstrated a sickening penchant and yearning for acceptance and inclusion by white liberals and the West to a point where their public conduct is such a charade that they have squandered many opportunities to take leadership not just in South Africa but also across the continent and the world. Black South African lawyers, journalists, business people and diplomats are so embarrassingly pretentious in their conduct and expression of views that they become at once annoying and irrelevant as they never come out as folks with minds of their own. By and large they seem uncomfortable to be Africans and are always keen to find an apology for their own existentialism." (Sunday Mail 25.04.04.)

It has to be said that this pompous and accusatory tone is not uncommon amongst the ZANU PF elite, and it has often elicited a certain diffidence from the black elite in South Africa in their efforts not be seen as sub-imperial actors, working outside of the Africanist position. Mugabe has been particularly adept at positioning the ANC in this strategic difficulty.

Joel Netshitenzhe expressed these dilemmas in a series of strategic problems that confront the ANC on the Zimbabwe question: "How do we ensure that .persuasion makes the maximum impact? How do we avoid a situation in which our public stance achieves the opposite of our objectives, including popular mobilisation against South Africa as Big Brother trying to impose its will on others? How do we discourage the tendency towards total collapse and the emergence of a "failed state" of ethnic fiefdoms, attached to which would be complexities of a 19th century history which has close and emotional ethnic connections to South Africa." (The Star 25.02.04)

On the left of the ANC alliance the ambiguities on the Zimbabwe question have been striking, vacillating between a grudging admiration for the redistributive rhetoric of the land occupations, a distrust for perceived neo-liberal leanings of the MDC, and a concern over the repressive politics of ZANU PF. Thus Pallo Jordan has set out his analysis of the Zimbabwean crisis in the following terms:While a number of parties and governments have adapted to and embraced the post-liberation wave, others thought they could resist it by riding the leopard of other sources of discontent. ZANU (PF) chose the latter course and embraced illegal land occupations as though it had initiated them. It then harnessed the energy of that movement for electoral purposes using its activists to intimidate political opponents and to impress voters in to supporting it. (Jordan 2003:172-3.)

Jordan then observes that, given this situation, -principled socialists have consequently felt obliged to repudiate the Ton-ton Macoute methods of ZANU (PF) while holding at a distance the MDC, a democratic opposition that seems to lack a social conscience.- (Jordan 2003: 173.) The Communist Party, after a good deal of hesitation, conflicting signals and weary of not straining relations with its senior alliance partner, finally emerged with a position on the Zimbabwean situation. The Party stated that the crisis in Zimbabwe was a symptom of a -stunted and perverted national democratic revolution in which a parasitic, bureaucratic bourgeoisie has emerged as the dominant class stratum.-

Moreover the Zimbabwean situation illustrated that -the demagogic appropriation of a progressive nationalist discourse by a bureaucratic capitalist stratum, invariably drives a wedge between radical third-world nationalism and democracy.- (Nzimande 2004.)

Listening to the debate on Zimbabwe it is clear that the issues have been as much about South African politics as the debacle in Zimbabwe. Moreover in developing their varying responses to the contradictions in Zimbabwean politics the left has become, in Devan Pillay-s apt phrase, -spellbound by the anti-imperialist rhetoric.- (Pillay 2003:62.)

Moreover the -spell- of anti-imperialism and the resonance of the race debate in Zimbabwe, has found a broader canvas for its articulation in the diaspora. In addition to cementing the support of other liberation movements in Southern Africa, ZANU PF has actively cultivated linkages with a few black civic groups in the US, UK and Australia in an attempt to build Pan Africanist solidarity around the Mugabe project.

At a conference of National Liberation Movements organised in Harare in April 2004, three solidarity groups from the diaspora were in attendance namely the December 12 Movement from the US, the Black United Front from the UK and the Aboriginal Nations and People of Australia. In a statement of solidarity with the conference the Black United Front declared: "We want to revolve and turn back to the way of our ancestors and fathers, back to the African heart, mind and spirit, freedom, justice and equality regardless of creed colour or class. We want to become an African family again. The most important thing is to unite- black man and the African woman to produce an African child." (The Herald 26.04.04.)

Once again we can see ZANU PF articulating problems of racism in the West to the revived nationalism in Zimbabwe. It should be noted however that groups such as the December 12 Movement have been challenged within the African-American intellectual community. One critique from a group of prominent African American progressives criticised -a twisted kind of Black "solidarity" that mirrors the "patriotism" of the white right in the US.-

Furthermore they condemned those groups -issuing thinly veiled threats- and appropriating to themselves -the colours Red, Black and Green- and labelling as -treasonous all Black criticism of their current Strong Man of choice, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.- (The Black Commentator 2003.) While it can be argued that groups such as the December 12 Movement have no significant presence in Black politics in the US, the continued problem of racism in the West provides the terrain for such race-based identification. Moreover the decline of the Western left and its weakness in dealing with the issues of race in its own politics has further opened up spaces for more narrowly nationalist interventions.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP