The Zimbabwe student movement: Love-hate relationship with government?

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to trace the development of student unionism in Zimbabwe.On the basis of a discussion of the nature of the university, the article argues that becausethe university environment tolerates and promotes academic freedom and liberal values, itprovides an environment conducive to critical thought and oppositional politics, while theuniversity quite often itself becomes the target for student attack. Student representationduring the pre-independence period in Zimbabwe sought to engage the institution in itseffort to re-order society at a time of racial struggle and class conflict. After independence,student representation was in support of government efforts to create a better Zimbabweand to consolidate the gains of independence. However, after the first decade ofindependence, the relationship between students and government soured due to students’opposition to the one-party system as well as the University of Zimbabwe AmendmentBill, among other issues. This article thus documents and analyses the relationship betweenstudents and government with reference to three periods and two key moments: the 1973protests against racial discrimination in the pre-independence phase and the post-1990developments in Zimbabwean national and university politics.