State apologies, postcolonial resistance and ontological insecurity: the Matabeleland massacre

Abstract

Building on the causal relationship between ontological (in)security and state apology, this article explores the Zimbabwean government’s refusal to apologise for the state-sanctioned Matabeleland massacre. First, I situate the Zimbabwean government’s response to the demand for an apology within the multifarious ontological insecurities it is grappling with in its relationship with both domestic and international actors. Second, I argue that the Zimbabwean government has refocused and repurposed this ontological insecurity-induced refusal to apologise to fulfil contemporary ontological and political exigencies. It has become a site for postcolonial resistance and domestic legitimisation in which well-rehearsed anti-Western sentiments, anti-imperialism and faux Pan-Africanism are built around the apology discourse to switch the focus from rectifying the wrongs of the past to opposing the unfinished Western civilising project. Such postcolonial posturing contains internal contradictions, particularly in reproducing oppressive and exclusionary politics domestically, and endangering the victims’ ontological security. Moreover, the continuous demands for a national apology by surviving victims and families of the deceased threaten the state’s sense of self. The article thereby identifies the practice of state apologies, particularly the refusal of apology, as a critical discursive site where contemporary postcolonial politics are negotiated, reproduced and sustained.