Questioning the Commodification of Free Expression in Zimbabwe

By Takura Zhangazha*

There are many issues about our general and specific political conversations that require flagging out in Zimbabwe.  Not only as they relate to our hard held opinions but more significantly our political consciousness.  While this may appear to be abstract, we probably need to understand the necessity of getting ourselves as Zimbabweans to be a bit more frank with each other.  Particularly about what we consider to be progressive politics and its full import on our society. 

I am going to make an attempt at this. 

In the first place what I have noticed is that there is indeed a political economy to our opinions or our right to freely express ourselves. The foundation of this is our long drawn historical assumptions of what it means to be successful in life.  Both by way of education and materialist accomplishments.  Key questions that Zimbabwean society asks of us, including the Church, are how educated are you?  What degrees do you have (including if you have a PhD), what car do you drive, do you have urban property (stand), and where do you work? 

This is a general global trend in capitalist/neoliberal societies.  We may not quite be such a society in the strict sense of the term our national mindsets appear set on it.  Especially based on our desires for departure to the global north. An issue I will come back to later. 

What has been more interesting is the fact of the carry over habits of assumptions of what it means to be successful in Zimbabwe.  It’s a very complex argument but the general impression is a given with how we relate to each other at work, in churches, families, schools, rural associations and also political parties. 

So when we express our political or even other opinions we are, by default, mindful of this political and economic framework of consciousness.  We quite literally reflect it more than it does our own perception of who we are and who we can be.  Beyond ourselves and as we pass it on to our children. 

Our opinions appear to have become rigid beliefs.  Especially where they concern politics.  It is as expected but it also has specific queries that would accompany understanding our realities.

Almost as though if someone says in your face that ‘Jesus Saves’, you should be allowed to ask a question as to. How does he save?” And proceed as you consciously desire.  But this is not the case in contemporary Zimbabwe. 

We have been made by many to believe that free expression is dogmatic and partisan.  That even our mainstream media can only be found on one side or the other of our political divide and therefore are only worth listening/reading to where and when they reconfirm our own perceptions for what we may already have decided we should think. 

The title of this blog is however more interesting. The political economy of free expression in Zimbabwe reflects the fact of the material and political desires that a majority of us have. Both in the urban and rural areas.  That is, to own a car, house and to send our children to the best private schools/ universities.  In order to again reap the material wealth of our efforts.  From the children. 

The only catch with this is that we assume we are now in control of our opinions via social media.  Yet is generally established that the latter pushes us in specific directions about how we should think about ourselves and our opinions.  It reconfirms, in general, an assumption that our individual opinions matter. Collectively.  And therefore because of the combination of the individual opinions in to a numerical collective we are therefore correct in the same said opinion.  Even though we do not own any of the social media platforms that we belong to.  They are owned by individuals who determine, via algorithms what can be shared and posted on them. This includes our angst at local  mobile telephony and internet service providers when their services break down,

So the political economy of free expression in Zimbabwe is probably three fold.  It begins with the actual political economy which is neoliberal (an assumption that the free market will solve all of our problems).  And it is then followed by a desire for individual recognition for your opinion as it fits the latter narrative and sadly a simultaneous recognition from the global north. Not only for our social media influencers but also for our mainstream media.   Thirdly, it combines the ideological with the emotional. Your feelings are reconfirmed with your desires. What you believe, even without facts, is what obtains. And it is what you go with.  The only key difference is that at the moment in Zimbabwe, there is no drastic motivation to act on it.

This has been a relatively complicated blog. What appears to be real is that free expression is increasingly becoming a commodity in Zimbabwe.   Both by way of who owns the platforms you use to express yourself and the ideological parameters you chose to do so.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)