Freedom vs. Anticolonialism in Zimbabwe: Subversions of the ‘Third Chimurenga’ Myth in African Literature

Abstract

ANTICOLONIALISM WAS NOT ONLY A KEY POLITICAL FORCE in twentieth-century world history, but has also been a major inspiration for the emergence of postcolonial theory and criticism; even today, the idea that 'postcolonialism' is essentially concerned with deconstructing the legacies of colonial discourse and with dismantling 'Western imperial narratives' remains highly popular among many of its academic practitioners. Yet, in many formerly colonized parts of the world, particularly in Africa, anticolonialism has turned into a new ideology utilized by incumbent power elites to legitimate their oppressive regimes. Present-day Zimbabwe offers one of the most blatant examples of an anticolonialism transformed into a stifling rulingclass 'truth' in the context of the so-called 'Third Chimurenga', the self-declared third war of liberation contrived by the present political regime under President Mugabe to thwart the opposition within the country, to divert national and international attention from the social and economic destitution into which the country has been led by its ruling party, and to cover up the massive violation of human rights that has become the hallmark of the Mugabe presidency.The following essay will outline the bizarre suturing of anticolonialism and authoritarian oppression in 'official' political discourse in Zimbabwe and discuss the short-story collections Writing Still (2003), Writing Now (2005), and Laughing Now (2007) to highlight various modes in which Zimbabwean authors have attempted to unpick that suture and to project a democratic politics of civil society and human rights.1 Finally, it will look at Chielo Zona Eze's recent novel The Trial of Robert Mugabe (2009) to highlight the pan-African dimension of the struggle against the pernicious legacies of authoritarian anticolonialism, Zimbabwe-style, in contemporary African literature.2What, then, is the 'Third Chimurenga', when did it begin to impact on Zimbabwean society, and how can its ideological underpinnings be related to the pervasive authoritarianism that has characterized the regime of Robert Mugabe, the former freedom fighter turned dictatorial president? The social and political background to this peculiar 'war of liberation' ostensibly targeting the former colonizers but effectively directed against vast sections of Zimbabwe's population is well-known. Immediately after Mugabe's ZANU government had come to power in 1980 in the wake of the collapse of the racist Rhodesian settler regime that had been defeated in the so-called 'Second Chimurenga' (the first Chimurenga having been the ultimately unsuccessful war against the British of 1896-97), internal divisions in the victorious 'Patriotic Front' composed of the nationalist parties ZANU and ZAPU and their respective guerrilla armies ZANLA and ZIPRA led to violent attacks by former ZIPRA guerrillas (so-called 'dissidents') in Matabeleland. These revolts were violently repressed by the notorious 'Fifth Brigade' sent into Matabeleland to 'restore order' in what became known as 'Operation Gukurahundi' ('Spring Rain' or 'Clear away the Rubbish'), a campaign of indiscriminate terror against the civilian population that left thousands dead and that - as Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor put it in their contribution to a volume of essays on Democracy and Human Rights in Zimbabwe - led to a pervasive feeling of alienation from the national body politic in Matabeleland persisting to the present day.3After an enforced period of 'national unity' in the 1980s and 1990s, the Mugabe government faced a major challenge in the late 1990s with the emergence of a popular democratic opposition and the founding of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai. As a response to this challenge, the ? ANU regime unleashed what became known as the 'Third Chimurenga': it expropriated the white farmers whose status had been protected under the settlement agreed upon during the independence negotiations, redistributed their land (often to party members and so-called 'war veterans'), and began a campaign of ruthless political violence directed against the opposition. …