‘Echoing Silences\': Ethnicity in post-colonial Zimbabwe, 1980-2007

In spite of its rare entry into both official and public discourses about contemporary Zimbabwe, ethnicity, alongside race, has continued to shape and influence the economic, social, and political life of Zimbabwe since the achievement of independence in 1980. In this article we argue that whilst post-independence Zimbabwe has since the days of the Gukurahundi war (1982-1986) not experienced serious ethnic-based wars or political instability, there is serious ethnic polarisation in the country and ethnicity remains one of the challenges to the survival of both the state and the country. This ethnic polarisation is to be explained mainly in terms of the broader failure by the state to develop an effective response to the political economy of ethnicity inherited from the colonial past. As with most postcolonial African nationalist governments which have come to be haunted by ethnicity, such as Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and most recently Kenya and South Africa, the postcolonial government of Zimbabwe has largely remained reluctant to engage ethnicity as an issue in both politics and the economy, particularly with regard to addressing historical and contemporary factors that continued to make ethnicity an important issue in people's lives. The nationalist government's state-building project, especially its coercive mobilisation and nation-building projects of the early 1980s, paid little attention to the ethnic configuration of the inherited state, as well as the structures and institutions which enacted and reproduced ethnicity. Such neglected processes, structures and institutions included unequal development of the provinces and the marginalisation of particular ethnic groups in politics, economy and society.African Journal on Conflict Resolution Vol. 7 (2) 2007: pp. 275-29

From buoyancy to crisis, 1980-1997

Zimbabwe's post-colonial history has become the subject of many interpretations. This chapter examines the changes in the history of the country from the years of economic buoyancy and politics of reconciliation in the early 1980s, through the crisis of unity in the Gukurahundi period up to the crisis of the state in the late 1990s. The main themes addresses are contestations over the restructuring and reconfiguration of the state after 1980; processes of rule and state-making; questions of justice and equity with regard to land and resource ownership and redistribution; and issues of nationhood and citizenship in the post-colonial state. The chapter begins by focusing on the political economy of Zimbabwe in the first decade of independence, and then reviews the changing nature of the state, politics and society within the context of the economic hardships of the 1990s

Majoni-joni: survival strategies among Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa

Paper presented at the International Conference on the Political Economies of Displacement in Zimbabwe, Wits University, 9-11 Jun

Jambanja: ideological ambiguities in the politics of land and resource ownership in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's current restructuring of land and resource ownership has not only been violent and coercive, but also disorganised and divisive. In its call for radical land redistribution, the state has increasingly resorted to authoritarian nationalism, invoking identity politics. This has resulted in new conceptions about rights and power - conceptions that basically uphold racial and ethnic politics and the pre-eminence of majority over minority rights. The current processes have also rekindled important questions about citizenship, identity, nationhood, rights and entitlement in post-independence Africa, issues that have been a subject of intense debate among various African scholars. Focusing on the experiences of 'invisible minorities', such as Coloureds and descendants of immigrants from Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, this article discusses both the ambiguities and contradictions in the current exercise, as well as newly emerging notions about race, identity, nation and citizenship neglected by most political and academic commentators. I argue that the resulting policy positions, and particularly the current emphasis on race and nativism, have not only supported contradictory perspectives on justice, rights, citizenship and nationality but have also structured the debate on these issues in very narrow and problematic terms. More important, the historical processes unfolding in Zimbabwe have engendered feelings of exclusion and insecurity, especially among the subject minorities marginalised by the current processes.

Promoting African solutions to African crises: prospects for Zimbabawe's peace and reconstruction: the ambiguities of diaspora politics: the Zimbabwe diaspora and the Zimbabwe crisis

Paper presented at the Africa Institute of South Africa & TELA Forum of Mozambique Regional Conference, Maputo, Mozambique, 22-24 Septembe

Race, ethnicity and the politics of positioning: the making of coloured identity in colonial Zimbabwe, 1890-1980

This chapter examines the growth of a distinct coloured group consciousness in Zimbabwe. The history of this group has not only been marginalised in political and academic discourses but has also been subject to widespread popular misconception. One of the most prevalent fallacies is the notion that coloured identity is a biologically determined, inherent quality derived from miscegenation. Another projects coloured identity as an invention of the colonial state, arguing that coloureds did not exist as a distinct racial or ethnic group beyond state categorisation and dismissing it as nothing more than false consciousness. This chapter will argue that the growth of coloured identity resulted from definitions both internal and external to the group involving a wide range of actors that included the colonial state, the white public and the subject people themselves who, through self-identification, not only negotiated the dynamics of coloured group creation, but also gave coloured identity its shape and tenure. The identity was continually contested and redefined by various groups both within and outside of the culturally diverse coloured community

Flawed Zimbabwe deal as good as it gets

The recent SADC-initiated political deal between Zanu-PF and the two MDC parties, which paved the way for forming an inclusive government in Zimbabwe, has enticed mixed reactions inside and outside the country. The author explores the deal and explains why the umbilical cord between Zimbabwe and southern Africa will remain intact.