Zimbabwean People Research Articles

From Displacement to Marginalization: Tonga-Goba Wartime Experiences in the Mid-Zambezi Valley, 1976–1979

In the 1970s, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) opened its bases in the mid-Zambezi Valley, at Paradise and Mayovhe, under Chief Mola’s territory. This move by ZIPRA was motivated by a variety of reasons. The most important fact was that the Tonga-Goba people of this region were ready to support the war because they wanted to regain control of the riverscape from which they were displaced by the colonial state during the late 1950s when the Kariba dam was constructed. This paper examines how the colonial displacements of the Tonga-Goba people, their marginalization as well as the colonial regime’s “broken promise” all shaped their participation in the Zimbabwe War of Liberation in the 1970s. To explore this history of war from below, our study builds largely from the local Tonga-Goba narratives.

Cultural politics and cultural violence during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland

This paper examines and analyses the various instances where ‘performances’ of cultural violence by the state and Fifth Brigade were experienced during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland. This paper contends that cultural violence was used to stereotype Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) veterans, as well as Ndebele people. Cultural violence is used here to refer to the purposeful weakening and ultimate destruction of cultural values and practices of the Ndebele people. This paper argues that ZANU-PF created an anti-Ndebele thought collective through the use of emotive language, stylized news in media, and ‘expert opinions’ to block the creation of accurate contextual knowledge for the Shona nonlocals and ZANU-PF members. This paper further submits that this thought collective sits at the base of the disposition, segregation, dehumanization, near annihilation and framing of ZAPU, ex-ZIPRA veterans and the Ndebele people as ‘dissidents’ and ‘cockroaches’, infecting Ndebele language, identity and cultural practices. This paper, thus, argues that the deployment of cultural violence created a fertile ground for direct and structural violence that further undermined ZAPU, ZIPRA and Ndebele resistance against Gukurahundi. In conclusion, this paper proposes public multi-cultural remembrances and cultural cleansing ceremonies (nationally and communally) as possible solutions to diffusing the continuous perpetration of cultures of violence in Zimbabwe.

War time experiences of Female Ex-combatants of Zimbabwe’s war of Liberation

The story of sacrifice and suffering in the liberation struggle has been dominated by men and the role of females in the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe has not been equally celebrated. However, females played heroic roles without which the course of history might have been distorted. Due to their physical biological make up, females suffer more hardships, some humiliation, as compared to their male counterparts. In contemporary writings, a few researches were done targeting individuals such as Chung’s and Nhongo-Simbanegavi’s works. This study traces the plight of female ex-combatants back to their war time experiences to get a rich background to understand their psychological disposition and ability to be socio-economically reintegrated in post-independence Zimbabwe. These war time experiences show the inherent complexities of transitional justice as invisible war-borne scarred human emotions are often not given due attention when peace finally prevails. The study which employed the qualitative approach and the target population included both male and female ex-combatants from Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe People’s (ZIPRA) cadres, revealed that female ex-combatants went through distressing experiences during the war which required close attention (which unfortunately seemed not rendered) at reintegration in post-independence Zimbabwe. Recommendations are that the female ex-combatants be afforded systemic counselling.

Speaking in signs: Communicating the gospel with deaf people in Zimbabwe

Churches in Zimbabwe have excluded deaf people, limiting their access, presence and participation in Missio Dei and Missio Ecclesiae. So far, there is minimal Zimbabwean theological scholarly attention to communicating the gospel with deaf people. Much of the available related literature focusses on education for deaf people. This article applies a critical disability theory, which is explanatory, practical, normative, and promotes equality and inclusion. In this contribution, communication of the gospel with deaf people is explored. Against the backdrop of marginalisation of deaf people and the inconsideration of the hearing Church, this study interrogated the gospel communication gap that needs to be bridged between deaf people and the hearing Church. The culture of deaf people and communication of the gospel in Zimbabwe were examined. Reflecting through a topic ‘Speaking in signs: Communicating the gospel with deaf people in Zimbabwe’, using a qualitative research methodology through interviews with 20 participants from different institutions for deaf people and Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, this research observed that very few denominations have reached out to deaf people with the gospel, whilst the majority have not. The study challenges traditionally exclusive Zimbabwean ecclesiology, missiology and communication of the gospel. It recommends inclusive and contextualised communication of the gospel through the incorporation of sign language and deaf culture towards effective evangelisation and discipleship of deaf people.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The trainers of deaf people, Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and deaf people themselves provided an example of an interdisciplinary approach to communicating the gospel with deaf people in Zimbabwe where Ecclesiology, Communication and Disability Studies collaborate towards inclusive sharing of the gospel, and the realisation of Missio Dei and Missio Ecclesiae in Zimbabwe.

Matters of survival: a case of heavy handed didactic moralism in Ndau cautionary folktales

This paper discusses the Ndau folktale that has not received scrutiny from scholars who have invested resources in studying oral literature of the Zimbabwean people. During the years that Ndau was regarded as a Shona dialect it occupied the most peripheral position and its oral traditions were equally marginalized. This writer posits that in Ndau folklore there is a type of folktale that served to conscientize Ndau people about their historical circumstances for the sake of their safety and security. The researcher identifies folktales that reflect the history of Ndau labor migrations and Ndau experiences during Nguni raids. The writer concludes that the origins of this type of folktale, which is not found in the tales of the other Shona people of whom the Ndau were part up to 2013, is to be sought in the history and existential circumstances of the Ndau people themselves. The writer selects three folktales to illustrate risks faced by those who traveled to South African mines, cases of sexual infidelity during the long periods of spousal separation, and the dangers that befell locals during times of Nguni raids.

From Connemara to Gukurahundi Genocide of the 1980s in Zimbabwe

Summary The article addresses new and emerging perspectives on Gukurahundi genocide as remembered by combatants who participated or were close to the violent clashes between former Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas at Connemara and how their fighting resulted in a national crisis. The bulk of the literature on this subject so far has concentrated on atrocities committed by 5 Brigade and other government forces in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces between 1983 and 1987 without elaborating how it all began. This article unearths causes and course of the violence at Connemara, how it was organised and deployment of government security forces to quell it together with how the violence then spread to other barracks. The purpose of the study is to contribute interpretations and debate on this mass killing which today continues to haunt Zimbabwe. Connemara was chosen as a case study because fighting there between former ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas went unchecked and finally led to desertions in the army and then the Gukurahundi genocide. The story being told here is unique in the sense that it does not speak to civilian victims of violence but rather to armed men who were involved or at least close to the event. In gathering data, use was also made of secondary sources both published and unpublished. In terms of reconciliation and healing, it is important to take into consideration a multiplicity of voices, which is precisely what this article is doing.

Commentary on the Zimbabwean People’s Response towards the Anticipated COVID-19 Vaccine

The Coronavirus disease which started in Wuhan, China in December 2019 has been and continues to claim lives worldwide. It created uncertainties and confusion even in the medical field with its mutations which created new variants which proved to be more dangerous than the original one in some parts of the world leading it to be more fatal in the second wave.

Singing spiritually or superficially? A critical analysis of Mathias Mhere’s track ‘Zimbabwe’

Music has been one of the Zimbabwean people’s faithful companions since time immemorial. It has been used, among other roles, to entertain, to advise, to warn, to teach, and sometimes, to maintain the status quo in society. Even today, singers exploit this genre for varying purposes. In the song ‘Zimbabwe’ on his 2016 album Double Double, Mhere acknowledges that Zimbabweans are mourning and disgruntled. He sings, advising them not to mourn or complain but rather to be content. In fact, he urges them to take pride in the wonders of nature around the country. Using the socio-historical and the Afrocentricity theories, this article is a critical analysis of his message in the song, in the context of recent Zimbabwean history and experiences. It analyses the lyrics of the song, determining their message. It strives to answer the question: Is the singer singing spiritually, or is he doing so superficially? The article argues that, although the singer could be ‘seeing’ a Zimbabwe that the majority may not see and although the country has many wonders of nature which the singer describes, the people’s disgruntlement is still justified. The article thus concludes that Mhere could be singing spiritually but largely, he seems to be advertising the beauty of the nation to a disgruntled people. This makes his song largely a superficial response to the people’s cry.

Adelante!Military Imaginaries, the Cold War, and Southern Africa's Liberation Armies

AbstractStudies of southern Africa's liberation movements have turned attention to the great importance of their transnational lives, but have rarely focused on the effects of the military training Cold War-era allies provided in sites across the globe. This is a significant omission in the history of these movements: training turns civilians into soldiers and creates armies with not only military but also social and political effects, as scholarship on conventional militaries has long emphasized. Liberation movement armies were however different in that they were not subordinated to a single state, instead receiving training under the flexible rubric of international solidarity in a host of foreign sites and in interaction with a great variety of military traditions. The training provided in this context produced multiple “military imaginaries” within liberation movement armies, at once creating deep tensions and enabling innovation. The article is based on oral histories of Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) veterans trained by Cuban and Soviet instructors in Angola in the late 1970s. These soldiers emerged from the Angolan camps with a military imaginary they summed up in the Cuban exhortation “Adelante!” (Forward!). Forty years later, they stressed how different their training had made them from other ZIPRA cadres, in terms of their military strategy, mastery of advanced Soviet weaponry, and aggressive disposition, as well as their “revolutionary” performance of politics and masculinity in modes of address, salute, and drill. Such military imaginaries powerfully shaped the southern African battlefield. They offer novel insight into the distinctive institutions, identities, and memories forged through Cold War-era military exchanges.

Contextualizing the versification of genocide and gender violence in Zimbabwean poetry

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the motifs of genocide and violence in Zimbabwean literature. For more articulation of ideas, it intersects both preoccupations of genocide and gender violence in the Zimbabwean ideological purview, particularly in selected poetry. The paper probes into disarm sensitivity the domain of genocide and violence as universal phenomena and underscores various levels of vitriolic and diatribe people sometimes face in their interactions in a society that is polarized by racial and ethnic violence. It valorizes genocide and sectarian violence as bodily configuration of destruction on the mental, economic, social and political psyche of the people in time and space. Contextualising different perspectives from the World war I to the World war II, the holocaust, the experiences of the peoples of Afghanistan, Congo, Algeria, together with the Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency and the Fulani Herdsmen’s usurpation of lands are some examples of violence which directly or indirectly facilitate genocide. Similarly, the genocide experience of Namibia and the destruction of the Zulu kingdom of South Africa have all contributed to diverse application of genocide phenomenon which lends axiomatic credence to the loss of sense of belongings; the loss of lives and social abuse; physical and mental destruction; economic polarization and inhuman dispositions frequently experienced by people of diverse races. The imposition of colonialism, post-colonialism and neo-colonialism at divergent epochs have consequently crippled people and made them incapacitated to meet the immediate yearnings of their dynamic societies. The painful experience of genocide in Burundi and Rwanda has degenerated into hate and perjury. However, based on all those reflections on genocide, this paper specifically examines genocide and violence within the framework of Zimbabwean landscape and poetry in order to demonstrate that ‘genocide has largely been visualized as a crime under international and national laws and has been criticized in all ramifications’. This paper is a response to how Zimbabwean people experience different categorizations of genocide and copious representations of these phenomena in poetry. It x-rays the human loss of lives, innate pogrom and psychological destructions ostensibly visualized by the people at different times before and after the independence of 1980. The paper showcases how Zimbabweans have not enjoyed the dividends of democracy, but rather experienced dejection in their lands leading to rejection and forceful migration to different countries. All poetry citations are to the collection of poetry entitled: (And Now the Poets Speak). This paper applies the genocide theory of ‘final solution’- a psychological tenet which was propounded by Sabby Sagall and enhanced by Susan Zyl to explain the trajectory of genocide and how this brings the framework of violence to an end in Zimbabwe and in Africa at large.

Next-Generation Sequencing on Insectivorous Bat Guano: An Accurate Tool to Identify Arthropod Viruses of Potential Agricultural Concern.

Viruses belonging to the Dicistroviridae family have attracted a great deal of attention from scientists owing to their negative impact on agricultural economics, as well as their recent identification as potential aetiological agents of febrile illness in human patients. On the other hand, some Dicistroviruses are also studied for their potential biopesticide properties. To date, Dicistrovirus characterized in African mainland remain scarce. By using High-Throughput Sequencing technology on insectivorous bat faeces (Hipposideros Caffer) sampled in a cave used by humans to collect bat guano (bat manure) as fertilizer in Zimbabwe, we characterized the full-length sequences of three Dicistrovirus belonging to the Cripavirus and Aparavirus genus: Big Sioux River Virus-Like (BSRV-Like), Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV), and Aphid Lethal Paralysis Virus (ALPV). Phylogenetic analyses of ORF-1 and ORF-2 genes showed a complex evolutionary history between BSRV and close viruses, as well as for the Aparavirus genus. Herewith, we provide the first evidence of the presence of Dicistrovirus in Zimbabwe and highlight the need to further document the impact of such viruses on crops, as well as in beekeeping activities in Zimbabwe which represent a crucial source of income for Zimbabwean people.

Prospects for the future role of ex-combatants in the Zimbabwean nationalist politics or is it the end of the era?

In October 1975 a group of radical and young military guerrillas of Zimbabwe People’s Army (ZIPA) stationed at the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army’s (ZANLA) training camp at Mgagao, in Tanzania convened and issued a communique. The communique that is now commonly referred to as the ‘Mgagao Declaration’ not only elevated the rise of Robert Mugabe to the echelons of power but also helped in the construction of a symbiotic relationship between the former and ex-combatants of the struggle for Zimbabwe. In postindependence Zimbabwe, this relationship took on various forms-the unwillingness of the government to provide the necessary human security mechanisms to ex-combatants and the instrumental use of these former military guerillas in the promulgation of exclusive and patriotic political trajectories. It was not until the 1990s and 2000s that these ex-combatants became actively involved in politics in defending the Mugabe led regime. Their involvement in politics has evolved around what scholars term ‘politics of belonging’ whose tenets speak to the need to seek political, economic and ideological recognition from the government and society. In the process, these ex-combatants secured ZANU-PF lifeline only to end in a post2013 era where the future of these vanguards of the struggle hangs in the balance as the ruling ZANU-PF focuses on the youth to carry the Third Chimurenga forward.Keywords: ZANU-PF, Ex-combatants, Mgagao Declaration, Third Chimurenga, Political capital, politics of belonging, nationalist politics.

Unsung Heroes? The Rhodesian Defence Regiment and Counterinsurgency, 1973–80

This article examines the Rhodesian Defence Regiment’s role in the Rhodesian Security Forces’ counterinsurgency efforts against the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army guerrillas. It argues that the two guerrilla armies successfully used sabotage targeting installations of strategic and economic significance to Rhodesia. This compelled the Rhodesian regime to change its policy of restricting the conscription of Coloured and Asian minorities into the Rhodesian Security Forces to undertake combat duties beyond defensive roles. However, the Rhodesian Defence Regiment largely failed to serve its key duty of countering the guerrilla tactic of sabotage against all major installations and centres of strategic and economic importance. The article concludes that the failure was due to the many challenges the majority members, Coloureds and Asians, that constituted the Rhodesian Defence Regiment faced, including discrimination and mistrust. These challenges derailed the Rhodesian Defence Regiment operations and partly contributed to the overall end of the Ian Smith regime.

Indigenous Medical Knowledge and the Experiences of ZIPRA Guerrillas in Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle

This article aims to examine the importance of indigenous medical knowledge during the 1970s when guerrillas from the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) negotiated their way to the front to fight the Rhodesian white minority regime. From the 1960s until the ceasefire at the end of 1979, ZIPRA was one of the two liberation movements that waged war to liberate Zimbabwe. This article traces the experiences of guerrillas who moved from the Zambian side of the Zambezi Valley into Rhodesia. The terrain that the guerrillas had to navigate on foot was punctuated by many devastating and life - threatening challenges. Some of these included malaria, sleeping sickness, venereal diseases, snake bites, mental disorders, injuries and even fatigue. Given that the guerrillas had no hospitals and other medical facilities at their disposal, it is important to establish how local knowledge assisted them to survive, especially when ailments struck them. The purpose of this study was to determine the role the fighters’ knowledge of indigenous medicines played in dealing with these difficulties. The author collected information by conducting interviews with former ZIPRA guerrillas who had operated in Zimbabwe during the war. Some civilians who were in ZIPRA operational areas were also interviewed. The importance of the study lies in understanding the continued use and existence of indigenous medical remedies in Zimbabwe. Findings from the study are valuable in widening knowledge horizons on indigenous medical knowledge as a useful alternative in times of need.

The Zimbabwe people’s revolutionary army military operations in Makonde district and the attack on Salisbury’s fuel storage tanks, 1965-1979

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army operations in Mashonaland West province with particular reference to Makonde District during the country’s war of liberation. Despite the growing literature on ZAPU and ZPRA in Zimbabwe’s war of liberation there is little that has been written concerning the operations of ZPRA guerrillas in Mashonaland provinces. Guided by evidence drawn from secondary and primary sources the article further asserts that ZPRA adopted a four pronged strategy in Makonde District. This strategy in part was hinged on the politicization of the population on the one hand and annihilation of the enemy forces, attrition and manoeuvre warfare on the other. Again, the article argues that ZPRA guerrillas attempted to capture Salisbury (Harare) in order to conquer the Rhodesian Security Forces’ centre of gravity. It was hoped that the capture of the capital city would Makoni District was of strategic significance to the conduct of ZPRA operations and arguably hastened Ian Smith’s decision to attend the Lancaster House Conference negotiations that led to the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980.

マーチは何処へ？ ――ジンバブエの2017年政権交代とポスト・ムガベ土地問題――

マーチは何処へ？ ――ジンバブエの2017年政権交代とポスト・ムガベ土地問題――

Zimbabwe’s consolidation as a gatekeeper state

Cooper’s gatekeeper state theory provides a powerful way to read recent Zimbabwean politics, but the country also challenges his assumptions about both the elite-led nature of gatekeeping, and deterministic assumptions about its direct emergence from colonialism. Drawing on ordinary Zimbabweans’ perspectives, I make two arguments. First, I show how consolidation of Zimbabwe’s ‘gate’ has been shaped by events and contingent reactions to them since 1980, complicating Cooper’s focus on the immanence of colonial structures. Second, I show how consolidation has been achieved through popular ideas of and engagement with the outside world. This has been done in reaction to the increasing solidity and narrowness of the gate – in the ways Zimbabweans themselves work around it – but also in a shift in the ways Zimbabwean people think about the legitimacy of gatekeeping.

‘Past History Has Not Been Forgotten’: The ANC/ZAPU Alliance – the Second Phase, 1978–1980

The apparent camaraderie displayed by Presidents Jacob Zuma and Robert Mugabe, and President Thabo Mbeki’s ‘tilt’ towards Mugabe in electoral controversies in Zimbabwe, have created the impression among many in South Africa that the African National Congress (ANC) and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) were allies in the struggle against apartheid. The history of the ANC/Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) alliance has been neglected. This article focuses on the almost unknown second phase of the alliance in 1978–80 and its consequences. The history of ZAPU, which lost the struggle for power in Zimbabwe in 1980, has been largely erased, while the ANC has no reason to celebrate an alliance which bedevilled its relationship with independent Zimbabwe for many years. This article reconstructs the story of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) participation with the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) in Zimbabwe in the year or so before the Lancaster House talks in 1979. It then examines the consequences of the alliance for the relationship with ZANU during the 1980s. The second half of the article looks, largely from an ANC perspective, at what was seen by participants as the negative influence of ZIPRA training methods, as transmitted to MK members in ZIPRA camps in Zambia, and by MK veterans of the Zimbabwe war in the Angolan camps, on the political culture of MK. It discusses the allegedly apolitical and anti-intellectual impact of the toyi-toyi, and of songs or chants, such as ‘kill the Boer, kill the farmer’, which were seen as in conflict with the non-racial ethos of the ANC. The article looks finally at the continuing relevance of this anti-intellectual culture, and of Zimbabwean models, in South Africa today.

The ZIPA moment: Dzino, Mugabe and Samora Machel

ABSTRACTThis article underscores the importance of the relatively brief life but historically noteworthy emergence of the Zimbabwe People’s Army (ZIPA) within the struggle for Zimbabwean liberation in the 1970s. For ZIPA was a movement that offered both a serious military challenge of its own to Smith’s UDI regime but also the long-term possibility of a far more meaningful liberation than anything achieved since by ZANU’s ‘old guard’ under the orchestration of Robert Mugabe. The roles played by Mugabe, Machel, Kaunda, Kissinger and Crosland in ensuring ZIPA’s defeat are all emphasised, with a key source for the paper’s reinterrogation of ZIPA’s role being the recent autobiography of Wilfred Mhanda (aka Dzino Machingura), entitled Dzino. A link is also made to Lionel Cliffe’s writing of the time (in ROAPE issue no. 8), in particular to his own experience while incarcerated in one of Kaunda’s Zambian jails.

Writing back to colonialism, again: The novel <i>The Chimurenga Protocol</i> and the ‘new’ resistance literary culture in post-2000 Zimbabwe

Some contemporary Zimbabwean literature demonstrates a discernible resistance thread. These literary works create fictional life-worlds in which the ambivalence of colonial land and economic injustices are exposed as potentially mutating and threatening the independent nation. In this way, such works validate ‘nationalist’ corrective measures through inserting a narrative that implicitly refers back to past colonial imbalances. In the choreographed discourses of national sovereignty that characterise the Third Chimurenga – epitomised by Mugabe’s book Inside the Third Chimurenga – there are perceived dangers from infiltrating forces which pose a threat to the nation’s sovereignty. Britain’s refusal to fund land reform in Zimbabwe is viewed as an implicit declaration of that country’s intention to derail the Zimbabwean people’s movement towards total independence and the ‘fast track land reform’ of the Third Chimurenga. The anti-Britain campaign is inextricably linked to the land question. The cultural sphere (especially its literary, theatrical and musical dimensions) in Zimbabwe’s recent past has been faced with the political urgency of (re)defining the land question. Literary texts such as Nyaradzo Mtizira’s novel The Chimurenga Protocol, theatre performances such as Christopher Mlalazi’s ‘Election Day’ and musical compositions by the war veteran singer Dickson Chingaira are some of the artistic productions that reveal conflicting perspectives on the land and its significance in the people’s search for selfdetermination and national identity. Using the example of Nyaradzo Mtizira’s novel The Chimurenga Protocol, this article argues that whilst many Zimbabwean writers published in the post-2000 period have attempted to imagine ‘alternative’ national identities, the text’s anti-West thematic and aesthetic texture resonates with the state’s post-2000 ideological grand narratives of the nation and can therefore be read as the newest form of resistance literature in Zimbabwe’s postcolonial literary oeuvre.