Being Zimbabwean #Zimbabwe

By Takura Zhangazha*

There is a book called “Becoming Zimbabwe. A history fromthe Pre-Colonial Period to 2008”.  It is one written by two amazing academics that I personally admire.  Namely Professor Mlambo and Professor Raftopolous and was published in 2009 at the height of our political and economic crisis during that time.

It was and remains an amazing academic project.   What it however probably didn’t answer, beyond its time based historical event narratives, was what it meant to be Zimbabwean. Beyond how we “became Zimbabweans”.   Even in the days of poignant polarization of our people.  It had its own nuances that have stayed with us today.  This being an historical narrative of Zimbabwe that sought to indicate that we were not only a failed state but probably a failed people.

But in this brief weekend write up I do not want to focus on the book cited above.   I am more curious about what it means in the contemporary to “Be a Zimbabwean”.  As opposed to becoming one.

And this is a very complicated question that the fewest of us are willing or able to answer.  With the easiest one being that  like most of Southern and East African countries we are immediate constructs of post-colonial settler states.  Something that is hard to swallow given that fact in the majority of Southern African states we undertook wars of liberation that should have led to new revolutionary societies.  We did not and with hindsight could not given the fact of the Cold War, the Non-Aligned Movement and the South African Anti-Apartheid movement that we had to contend with in the 1980s. 

In the contemporary and to be specific to my own country, Zimbabwe, our sense of belonging is fundamentally defined by our birthplaces(s).  As long as it was within the territory that we now call Zimbabwe.  The only catch is that again it is not that simple.  We also attach to this sense of belonging, issues to do with culture, language and gender in order to reaffirm the element of being what is referred to in anthropology as being an “autochthon”.  Or an original inhabitant.  Geographically, culturally and in some cases, spiritually. 

But we now know that being Zimbabwean is a very complicated experience in the contemporary.  By way of age, ideas and material well being and not necessarily in that order.

I will however start with the issue of age and experience by way of analysis. We perceive of our being Zimbabwean through the lenses of not only what we personally experienced but also because it was not our fault.   But the fault of the then adults.   I remember having a heated conversation with a very good comrade Thomas Deve (MHSRIP) on this matter where I mistakenly sought to blame his ‘age group’ for the hard times Zimbabwe had fallen upon. He brushed me off and reminded me of the meaning of the term “generation”.

Or when I interacted with two specific war veterans, Cde Dzino (Wilfred Mhanda) and Cde Freedom Nyamubaya. 

In another instance and in my personal heady days of what was serious political activism, I told one of my then mentors Professor Lovemore Madhuku that in everything political that we do, we do for posterity.  And with due process.  But I couldn’t argue with his then struggle credentials and I lost that debate. 

In this it meant that being Zimbabwean appeared to be a very political standpoint. An almost either “you are with us or against us one”.  In absolute terms.

But I do not think absolutely.  I always try and see what the future holds. Based on the actions of those in leadership and even ‘supporter’ positions in the present.

In this, there is an assumption of political correctness about what it means to be a Zimbabwean.  Either one is fighting the status quo or defending it. 

The assumption being that there can be no other way to be a Zimbabwean.  A perception that is the direct product of our many years of political polarisation.

On the factor of ideas or to put it more directly, ideology, we are almost lost at the proverbial sea. We can only hold on either to our radical black nationalism or pander to the neoliberal ideological intentions of the global north and east.   Hence our governments rather vacuous term of “ being a friend to all and an enemy to none”.  Its as abstract as it demonstrates a naie perception of how international relations work.  Eventually we will take a side as a country in the global affairs of things.   One that is already known by those that do not like us. 

But again, just for emphasis.  Ideologically we are at sea.  At both the elite and ordinary but poor people levels. The only “idea” that seems to bind either of the two is religion.   

But what is most important in being Zimbabwean is the idea of ‘materialism’.  It is our fundamentally measure of success and being.  Something that is not unique to us had we not undertaken since the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP).  Except that in such an assumed revolutionary process we mimic those that we sought to replace. Both materially and ideologically.

So what does it mean to be a Zimbabwean now?  I do not know.

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