The Continuum of Political Violence in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The paper interrogates political violence in Zimbabwe. The interrogation discusses violence in the pre-colonial era, the colonial era and the post-colonial era. The study used the desktop approach and reviewed secondary sources as literature review. The findings are that in Zimbabwe violence goes beyond ordinary episodic eruption as commonly experienced by societies generally, as it is entrenched in political systems that existed in various cultural forms over the years and encompasses the known history of Zimbabwe. The paper established that there is a history of political violence in Zimbabwe that predates the Zimbabwean state-system modeled on the European Concert of state. The paper concludes that violence in Zimbabwe is both systemic and political. Violence was used as a tool to control nation-states in pre-colonial Zimbabwe, to colonize Zimbabwe, and to liberate Zimbabwe from colonialism. As such, it continues to be used for statecraft, and therefore, intrinsically linking violence to politi...