The Interaction of Language and Politics: Polysemanticism in the Aphorism ‘We Died for This Country, so We Will Rule Zimbabwe Forever’

Abstract

The end of the British colonial rule in Zimbabwe was expected to overcome regimes of domination and bring about socio-economic justice, public freedoms and democratic electoral culture. This utopian vision was ruined by the post-independence leadership which adopted a dictatorial culture accentuated in a reconstructed monolithic national historiography of the liberation struggle. The state’s reference to the war has become part of the regime’s survival narratives that legitimise a perpetual hold onto power. Citizens are tragically categorised as either fellow comrades or patriots or ‘mhandu’ (adversaries), in nuanced dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. The popularised discourse of entitlement denies civil rights to elect a different government apart from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Unity of Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). The narrative gains momentum during election periods to delegitimise political change and justify the ruling party’s brutal violence against political opponents and their support base. Those considered to be mhandu ‘enemies’ or vatengesi ‘sell-outs’ are mercilessly dealt with. This has given birth to contested ritual elections as ZANU-PF continues to foreground its discourse of entitlement combined with a grammar of violence. Premised on Critical Linguistics, Political Discourse Analysis and Cognitive Metaphor Theory, this study qualitatively analyses the discourse of entitlement paying a particular attention to its linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. The study argues that ZANU-PF continues to employ language to construct a despotic discourse of entitlement as part of its arsenal against opposition politics. It concludes that it is imperative to interject such rhetoric of deceit and confrontational politics that generate a painful disillusionment for the common citizens.