Abstract
In the human rights narrative, the Third Chimurenga violence in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2008 is categorised as senseless and self-preserving violence used by ZANU-PF to retain power through cowing the electorate and intimidating the opposition MDC. This article revisits the violence of the era through problematizing this Human Rights articulation. Using the historical genealogy of land expropriations and shortages among the blacks, I attempt to answer the question: To what degree was the violence that accompanied the Third Chimurenga senseless? I argue that while there could have been cases of extreme violations of human rights of certain citizens on the whole in Shurugwi district, it had the overall result of correcting historical wrongs. The article begins by problematizing the human rights discourse as it can be applied to the farm takeovers in Shurugwi district. In the second part, I discuss the genealogy of land shortages as well as coercive policies such as centralisation that was piloted in Shurugwi and the introduction of the plough in entrenching structural violence in the district. This enables us to view the build-up to the 2000 onwards land invasions and accompanying violence.
Highlights
In the human rights narrative, the Third Chimurenga violence between 2000 and 2008 is categorised as senselessand self-preserving violence, used by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANUPF)to retain power through cowing the electorate and intimidating the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
Using the historical genealogy of land expropriations and shortages among the blacks, I attempt to answer the question: To what degree was the violence that accompanied the Third Chimurenga senseless? Primarily, I argue that while there could have been cases of extreme violations of human rights of certain citizens on the whole in Shurugwi district, it had the overall result of correcting historical wrongs.Simultaneously, it empowered the majority of those who acquired pieces of land for farming.The article begins by articulating and problematizing the human rights discourse as it can be applied to the farm takeovers in Shurugwi district
I discuss the genealogy of land shortages as well as coercive policies such as centralisation that was piloted in Shurugwi and the introduction of the plough in entrenching structural violence in the district
Summary
The human rights violation discourse on the Third Chimurenga violence proffered differentially by NGOs, the MDCs and the Western Liberal Nations looks at the 2000-2008 violence in Zimbabwe as having been aimed at intimidating the electorate to vote for ZANU-PF and the elimination of a strong opposition to ZANU-PF and to President Mugabe. The crisis, which coincided with the emergence of the MDC, was exhibited in multivalent ways, including: Confrontations over land and property rights; contestations over history and meanings of nationalism and citizenship; the emergence of critical civic society organisations campaigning around trade union, human rights and constitutional questions; the restructuring of the state in more authoritarian forms; the broader pan-African and anti-imperialist struggles in Zimbabwe; the cultural representations of the crisis in Zimbabwean literature; and the central role of Robert Mugabe (Raftopoulos, 2009: 201) Under these conditions, violence was used broadly as an “instrument of dehumanisation” (Sachikonye, 2011: xviii), as well as “systematic campaign of intimidation aimed at crushing support for opposition parties ...” (Kriger, 2003: 196),for political “dividends” (Sachikonye, 2011: 1-2).it was an attempt by the state to “forestall major constitutional reforms that [would] offer greater scope for democracy and political reform” (Rukuni and Jensen, 2003: 246). Notwithstanding the arguments against the human rights discourse, we need to state that in the current era of the domination of Western liberal thought, the idea of a citizen is determined by access to basic rights
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