The Zimbabwean Crisis and the Unresolved Conundrum of Race in the Post-colonial Period

Abstract

This article seeks to show that although economic and political factors were all important in the Zimbabwean crisis, the unresolved legacies of racial polarization and inequalities in this former white settler colony played a pivotal role in shaping the nature and form of the crisis. The emphasis is on the unresolved racial inequalities in the economy, especially in land ownership and land utilization, which contributed to the country’s economic crisis. Further, the article shows how the Zimbabwe crisis became protracted mainly because the ruling ZANU-PF successfully utilized the emotive issue of race to mobilize support internally, regionally and internationally, while both the opposition and external critics of ZANU-PF underestimated the power of race in mobilizing support for ZANU-PF, and in polarizing political opinion in Zimbabwe.