Culture and Praxis in Zimbabwe.

By Takura Zhangazha*

A friend recently asked me about what I meant many years ago about “generational praxis”. I will come back to this concept/issue later. But if you want to crosscheck Antonio Gramsci on Google, please go ahead.

 He asked me this in an awkward context wherein we had listened to the new music that is now very popular with the youth of Zimbabwe and also somewhat over-similar in its instrumentation and lyrics. This music is either called dancehall or hip hop as motivated by social media.

We were in Dzivaresekwa high density suburb where I partly grew up. (I also grew up in Chitungwiza and Waterfalls)

The music was blaring at the braai spot and it was not what we were used to when we used to watch Mvengemvenge /Ezomgido. Or go to watch Pengaudzoke or Somandla Ndebele live in concert at Nyaguwa nightclub. Or get over-inspired by Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited’s Chimurenga Music.

The music we were listening to was more brazenly individualistic, self-celebratory and somewhat abstract. But it suited the moment and also helped with memory and nostalgia of belonging. Both to the proverbial ghetto but more significantly of meeting with friends from long back.

In the conversations we had with my friend, I still looked around at the evident poverty of the neighborhood and its contradictory pride. Almost as though, in our dancing and inebriation, the cdes were saying, as in the songs they were dancing to, “ This is who we are! We were born here”

Lyrics that are also derived from popular musician “Killer T” who represents an iconic figure of both recognition of origin from the ghetto but also departure from it. Only to return in pride to prove that things worked out well elsewhere. 

This is not a new comparative argument for many Zimbabweans.  We all encounter it at church, work and in social spaces.  Sometimes with individual pride and competitive work experience.  Or in some cases with individual envy and competitive desire to be better than the ‘other’. Be they from high school, college or university.

It is a very interesting paradox. That is, to want both life experiences in post-independent Zimbabwe.  You were born, grew up and educated in either a rural enclave or urban ghetto and now you can argue about your successful point at arrival in the leafy suburbs of Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo or Mutare among many other towns and cities.  

This is a very realistic and emotional point to make because the majority of colleagues who went to high school, college or university between the late 1980s to the new millennium have this mindset.  The ones that were the first to get colonial education before independence are probably more embedded in specific lifestyles and habits that are too ingrained in them to be challenged intellectually or socially. 

But lets get back to “generational praxis” by asking the question of how do we now construct an understanding of a global progressive human existence. Regardless of race, colour, origin or class?

 Within an African context.

The reality of the matter is that this has not yet happened.  Mainly because of our own African materialism and regrettable simplicity over our lifestyles.  As we interact with global capitalism via money, movies and the attendant re-objectification of the female body (black, brown or white).

In this, we are not learning from history. We are entrapped in a neoliberal cycle of assuming that the world is our oyster.  Even as we Africans from all regions die going to the global north in the Mediterranean sea.

Or as we clamour to be recognized as equal human beings via various United Nations conventions that we fought hard for in the past and in the contemporary.

The question that however hangs over our heads is “What  do we now teach our children?” And also one about, “Who teaches them?” 

We all know from an African perspective that mothers are the best teachers of children.  Especially in their infancy. Your first song, sense of understanding of reality always stems from your mother.    

Though with the passage of time, depending on your gender, this can be ahistorically disputable.

But we need to look at the bigger picture. We need to get ourselves to quite literally believe in our being.  As Africans and beyond what we see on television, Netflix, the pastors pulpit or on other social media platforms.

Even if wanted or willed it, we are not all main actors or survivors.  We are a people that should treat each other with equality and fairness.  In as democratic a ways as is possible beyond the bright lights syndrome but an organic understanding that progressive change belongs to everyone. 

Indeed the global political economy sets out the standard for that house, car, trophy husband or wife, but it will never change the reality that life must be lived as honestly and obejctively as possible.  Beyond what you see on television and social media. 

Materialism is not a ‘life standard’.  It helps with how an individual or individuals can be perceived in a given society but it doesn’t change much. Unless you find yourself in a church organization. Or political party with ambitions for both local or national power. Or your remember the Nkrumah maxim, “Educate a Woman, You Liberate a Nation”

The major question however is what are we teaching our children?  Is the praxis of whatever we are teaching them going to make them better Zimbabweans?  At this rate, it is least likely. 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zimbabwe’s New Land Policy As Replacement Capitalism

By Takura Zhangazha*

Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa recently announced a change to land policy within the context of under what we now historically refer to as the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP).  This was done at a routine weekly cabinet briefing by his minister of information. 

This new land policy essentially changes the tenure system for the beneficiaries of the FTLRP. There will be changes to the 99-year lease regime to one in which ‘bankable’ title will be given in various forms in order for farmers and investors to either get new loans or on the other side, lose land for failure to pay whatever they owe.

As reported in various online and mainstream platforms, this is a significant shift to the FTLRP.  One that appears to generally be welcomed by 99-year lease or offer letter farmers who were not defaulting on their state guaranteed loans. 

This new framework will prioritize (no surprises) veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, youths and women that are already beneficiaries of the FTLRP. 

This new policy will also be appealing to current and potential urban land developers whom it identifies as another priority target group of investors/businesses. 

The referred to ‘bankability’ of the tenure system also immediately means that the financial services sector is another key priority target group.  Especially where and when they can invest in a loan system that can/will cyclically allow them to retain physical capital.  

Be it on behalf of individuals or corporate entities such as urban land developers that already either have permits, 99-year leases or offer letters. 

It will however not affect colonially designed communal land tenure.  That land will still fall under the purview of traditional leaders and Rural District Councils (RDC’s). 

This is also a new policy that will take a little bit of time to be effected due to necessary legal processes that follow such government announcements.

But be that as it may, it is a huge and economically significant one seeing as it is coming from cabinet and in the name of the current president of Zimbabwe, it must be taken with the utmost seriousness it deserves. 

Especially where it has occurred after an already given government position on a compensation deal for former white commercial farmers as provided for by the constitution for developments on the land at least.

Even if it is not yet fully formulated for the purposes of governance and remains a policy announcement.

In this new and sort of expected development there are however some ideological, political and economic considerations that must be part of the public debate or acceptance of the emergent new land policy.

The first being the ideological question of when the liberation struggle was fought was this the envisioned land tenure system?  What exactly did ‘Ivhu kuVanhu’ as a major motivation for the liberation struggle entail? 

The answer to this is multifaceted because we are at least 44 years after independence and its promises.   From our socialist ideals at the inception of our freedom through to our highly unpopular neoliberal  Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAP’s) and now our newfound state capitalist projects wherein the government is functioning on behalf of private capital in its variegated local and international interests.

Ideologically this new land policy is a return to the privatization of land that though acquired with the ‘revolutionary’ premise of ‘land back to the people’  reflects more of governments intent to do what I would call ‘replacement capitalism’.

It is a pretty basic concept.

It’s a return to a past or pre-FTLRP land ownership political economy.  Except for the fact that the now majority land owners are black, not white.  Almost as though we are flipping an ahistorical coin. 

Those that benefitted from the FTLRP are being given an opportunity to either use it as a bankable investment or sell it to the highest bidder based on the tenure granted to them by government.  Or to lose it based on the fact that they will now be able to get bank loans which if they do not remit, their land will be lost to financial services institutions or loan sharks. 

This is neoliberalism writ large.  Or as a close cde of mine reminded me recently, it can be a form of ‘Socialism for the Rich or Politically Connected’.  

Except that the beneficiaries of the FTLRP are not all rich or politically connected.   They are as vulnerable to these emerging government facilitated market trends as much as the communal farmer with the newly proposed policy. 

Politically though, this is a relatively populist move for many farmers that can either pay back the state backed loans they acquired during the height of the FTLRP or those who recently got the necessary state leases and offer letters.  They will be sloganeering all the way to the banks so long they can develop their acquired farms or pay back the money in one form or the other (sub-lease or sell). 

The key political issue is that it is likely that with this policy, the ruling Zanu PF party intends to create a specific farming political class that it will protect, nurture and create new political meaning about the FTLRP.  It already has the seedlings for this and in all likelihood with this new policy will expand it.  Both at a technical, political and economic level.

And it is the latter that I will seek to lastly deal with.  The economic effects of this are that if you are already a landowner via the FTLRP, you are basically in a position to expand or retain your capital with the support of not only this new policy but also your ability to maneuver around financial investments on your property. 

This also means that government expects that you will understand the necessity of a ‘trickle down economics' benefit for your investments based on the land that you got under the FTLRP to create be it employment or find new ‘markets’. 

In all of this, there is an unwritten and unspoken assumption from officials in the government and the ruling party that Zimbabwe’s agricultural and urban development sector can rise in the same manner that either China or Singapore did.   Mainly via prioritizing private but sitting government friendly global and local capital.

But also giving the impression that they know better in land policy mimicry that will pass the test of time because of radical historical nationalism.  Without revolutionary praxis but impressionable neoliberal false populism. 

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

 

 

 

 

 

A Journey Through #Zimbabwe Political Consciousness.

By Takura Zhangazha*

Most of us as Zimbabweans do not examine the trajectory of our contemporary but also individual national consciousness.  For example we do not really ask, what shapes our individual political opinions?  Is it the school we went to?  The churches we attended or the political processes that we witnessed or experienced?  Let alone the economic success desires we harbored, did not achieve and blamed multiple political establishments as to how we did not get to where we wanted?

Or how we got to where we materially wanted to get to via affiliation to particular political and economically linked political establishments? 

The truth of the matter is that we do not have to.  We generally live in the moment.  And we do not also have to overthink our existence as individuals or as a society.  Mainly because we assume everything is already established is unchallengeable.  At least not in the short term.

This might appear like a complicated concept but it basically means, there are now things that we think can no longer be challenged economically or even in a societal equitability sense.  At least in terms of our own opinions.

And this is the point of this blog or brief write up.  

Where we remember how we all grew up, the aspirations our parents or even grandparents had of us, we suffered an initial primary weakness.  One that was embedded in an ahistorical desire for success that remains essentially one of mimicry of colonial and post-colonially defined material success.

This is a debate I occasionally have with comrades that tends not to go beyond organic discourse because at our (multiple) ages, certain decisions and social behavioural standards have already been conservatively set. 

The questions we must however begin to ask ourselves, even if you are a rich person in the now, an urban or rural urban worker, a nascent youthful or successful entrepreneur (as is the global trend), a pensioner or civil/public employee, is how did you come to your specific political and/or economic consciousness in Zimbabwe?   

I am talking here about you, if you are reading this, at a personal level.  It is always something to reflect on as it relates to what your value the most, individually and in relation to like-minded individuals.  Be they from your workplace, your place of worship, your sports club(s), Whatsapp groups or any other social activities that motivate you to feel you are human and belong to some sort of social value based community. Beyond what you earn or what you can earn. 

This is a non-gendered introspection since we are all equal intellectually. Though gender remains not only a societal construct but a lived repressive reality for many women in Zimbabwe.  

 But back to the main question.  What informs your political and economic consciousness?  What makes you have an opinion on either anything or everything?  Do you read, do you feel it, do you pray it? Do you pay for it?

 Or in some cases do you experience it based on personally lived pains and experiences (Zimbabwe’s national economic and drought crisis of 2008 as an example?)  Including the possible reality of you being in the Diaspora across rivers or across seas and oceans and its multiple identity and economic implications for yourself or your immediate or extended family back home?

These are questions I also ask myself on a regular basis.  I have at least two immediate answers. 

My consciousness is based on what I have read.  It is based also on my own political activism and understanding of Zimbabwean politics.

And here I will give a specific example of once having been a progressive constitutional reform activist based in Marondera, Mashonaland East in Zimbabwe.  And how you get to grasp the reality of a dual Zimbabwean society (urban and rural) as you interact with the people for various activist reasons. While in the process realizing that at some point, in your preferable consciousness, you do not quite understand your country.  Until that experience of those moments of grasping differentiated national realities in Murehwa, Mutoko or Mudzi districts.  Before going home to Bikita for a Christmas or other holiday break.

Which included an emergent understanding of both rural and urban poverty, its attendant political economy and how our national cyclical electoral politics have never really changed since the year 2002.

The key issue however is how we as individual Zimbabweans view our political opinions and what inspires or dissuades them. 

In the majority of cases these are about our families’ survival ( school fees, rent, home construction, small scale entrepreneurship, tenderpreneurship, marriage, the Diaspora and some sort of material satisfaction or happiness). 

Where you mix this up with political ambitions you have politicians that are hard pressed to see an organic national political and economic future beyond their personal interests. Particularly those that choose to live in the moment of either their ascendancy or their victimization en-route to some sort of power ascendancy. 

But if you ask them and yourself this key question, “What motivated you to have these ideas, these values, these beliefs?” The answers you will get and you will reply even yourself remain ambiguous. 

These answers are generally multifaceted.  They will begin with history from both collective national history and also an individual’s role in it.  And end with the necessity or pragmatism of the contemporary situation. A pragmatism that essentially points either to a desire to return to the old or embed our society in a global neoliberalism and as the Chiyangwa adage goes, “Make Money!” Even before you get arrested  on allegations of corruption.

What is more of a reflection exercise that most Zimbabweans remain to talk about is that their knowledge, their personal experiences, beliefs do not make our society revolutionary.

We are now more incrementalist politically, economically, collectively and individually.  And this is historically understandable. To simplify it again, we are now a ‘slow change society’.  Even if we think  of the next general election in 2028. We are not waiting on a revolution. But a new reality of our politics.   It will be slower and less populist.  

What Zimbabwe has gone through, given the diversity of our views, and the influence of global capital on our economic systems and our politics, our collective and individual thought processes about our own consciousness, we are clearly not yet ready for what we really want. 

Rethink what makes you politically conscious. Individually and collectively in your next WhatsApp post.  

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

 

 

 

 

Africa’s Religious Misunderstanding of Palestine and Israel.

By Takura Zhangazha*

The much referred to Middle East has multiple and diverse meaning(s) for many Africans.   The majority of these meanings are religious ones.  Given our historical interaction with the slave trade,  pre-colonial trade routes, colonialism and neo-colonialism, these ‘meanings’ of that geographical place that straddles what is referred to as the Arabian Peninsula are in the contemporary mainly religious.  Stretching from North Africa, past Palestine, Israel and through to Iraq as Africans we have been influenced either by Christian, Muslim or Judaic faiths and social practices. 

Hence almost every year we have thousands of Africans making annual pilgrimages to what they consider holy sites in various religious capitals of that region.  Be it in Jerusalem, Mecca or elsewhere within the ambit of their preferred religiosity.

So as Africans and given our general propensity to religion, we also sort of have what I consider an awkward sense of belonging to this region.  Moreso where we recall various colonialisms and their creative plays on what should be considered the ‘promised land’. 

What we do not discuss as much, beyond faith, is the fact of the geo-political global dynamics behind the wars that we are witnessing in this ‘promised land’ region.

Pastors, Rabbis, Imams, Priests generally tend to leave Africa South of the Sahara to go and give libation at ancient walls and monuments on our behalf but rarely tell us about the fact that the contemporary conflicts in the region are essentially non-religious.

Instead they are historically man-made and follow a string of colonialist contestations over land and natural resources.  Be it over gas, oil as well as falsely constructed assumptions of religious superiority. 

But a bit of background to my argumentation may be necessary.

In what is a fairly complicated history we, as Africans, began to interact with Middle East issues politically during the First World War as recruited soldiers from mainly British and French African colonies. 

We however had limited interaction with this where and when our racially limited access to global affairs through the Syke-Pikot agreement of 1916 made us only know after the event. Religiously so via missionaries of various faiths. 

This was when the then global superpowers including Russia assigned each other territories in the Middle East.   

We however had no direct role in the establishment of the initial parameters of what was to become a Jewish state that we now call Israel.  

That was the Balfour Declaration wherein, as is historically now known, the British foreign secretary of the same name in principle agreed with a British Jewish community leader named Rothschild to establish a future Jewish homeland in a then independent Palestine.  This was in 1917. 

The pattern of Africa’s non-political but religious involvement in what remains a colonialist exercise did not change much after the Second World war.  Or when the state of Israel was established and its subsequent Western backed wars against Egypt and its allies.  Especially where we consider the Nakba (the first ‘Catastrophe’) of Palestinians in 1948.  The second Nakba was to happen in 1967.   

However, by that time we were too engrossed in coming into a new liberatory consciousness of fighting for our own African independence to have a full comprehension of what was happening in the Middle East.

Mainly because a majority of African countries were in full flight fighting against colonialism and repression.  

Despite this we began to understand the Middle East and North Africa struggles against occupation better.  In some cases almost as how they were similar to our own.  So we became allies of the Palestinian peoples in and many of our liberated African countries hosted the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).

With the recent 2024 International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Israel as led by South Africa and as supported by many African, including Zimbabwe and other global south countries since the recent war and alleged genocide against Palestinians, it appears we have remained true to this historical and liberation narrative.

Despite this a majority of us as Africans have an unfortunate misunderstanding of how to balance our religiosity with historical fact.   

Try for example telling a die hard Christian that Israel is not a ‘chosen’ nation and see their vituperative response.  Or that Jerusalem is only biblically referred to as a ‘city on the hill’ but in reality it is a city that was historically diverse until the first Nakba and the animosity that comes with the current displacement and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. 

Or alternatively tell a Muslim brother/sister that there was never an historical argument between either the Muslim or Christian faiths until colonial and post/neo-colonial geo-politics got involved. 

Again arguments will revolve around religiosity that dehumanizes either faiths and creates generational animosity that will probably see no end in our lifetimes.  Even as far away in Zimbabwe as if we are geographically or even culturally from the Middle East. 

But these are debates that are increasingly emotional.  Either based on the rise of a newfound false religiosity that embraces materialism on earth and in heaven as the reason why to read the Bible or Koran in its literal sense.  Or on the basis of manufacturing some sort of African consent to a conflict that is historically distant to who we are apart from, again, the interface between our religious contemporary beliefs and their often ignored repressive religious historical colonialism. 

The historical reality of African and Palestine is that we can only act in solidarity with the latter.  It is an historically necessary objectivity.  Despite our own complicated religiosity and how it affects our everyday lives and future generations.

The violence and genocide we are witnessing in Palestine and of late the bombings in Lebanon is not of our African making.  But we have to know where its racist origins are from and what it means to the peoples of those regions.   Or how it has over a long period morphed into a false religious war between what were previously amicable religions in more recent global history. Including why the United States of America and the European Union still support the callous and inhumane actions of Israel in the region. With or without religion. 

Now we are at the brink of wars that will not only have religious overtones for many a pious African but more of a global impact that may regrettably signify the beginning of a Third World War.  One with nuclear implications.  All I know is that Africa needs to remain aware of the fact these are not directly our wars or conflicts.  But we have to understand that they mean more than they portend on television and social media. Solidarity remains key with all the oppressed and occupied people of the world. As we were once oppressed and occupied. Religion and all.   

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

Zimbabwe has Misread the UN General Assembly 2024

 By Takura Zhangazha*

Zimbabwe’s president Emerson Mnangagwa recently announced that he will not be attending the 2024 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).  Through an official statement from his office, he cited what he referred to as a ‘dense schedule’ as the main reason why his Foreign Affairs minister will undertake Zimbabwe’s address to the UNGA. 

As to be expected there has been mainstream and social media speculation as to why he is not attending.  These speculations range from fear for his own safety, divisions within the ruling Zanu PF party and the most ridiculous one being some assumption that he would lose power by attending what is essentially a four day global summit for heads of state and government.

These are relatively abstract speculations which have not yet proven to be based on any facts. 

And to also immediately add that not all heads of state/government make the annual pilgrimage to the UNGA. They can choose to attend in person, send their representatives or in some cases address the UNGA via online platforms where and when it is permitted.

What has however been interesting is what I consider an African and Zimbabwean misunderstanding  of the importance of the United Nations as an organization.

Both in its historicity and in the contemporary as it works toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) .  As well as what its secretary general Antonio Guterrez has referred to as the ‘Summit of the Future’. 

Historically, the UN has been a friend to the African decolonization process.  Barring of course the intransigence of some members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) such as the United States of America (USA),  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) since its formation. 

The recognition of struggles for independence by African countries was always finally sealed at the UNGA.  Addresses by liberation struggle and post-independence leaders in solidarity with others who were still fighting for self-determination as determined by the UN Charter were always progressively accepted by the UNGA.  From Nyerere to Cabral among many others, the UNGA served as a global platform to draw the attention of the world to Africa’s liberation struggles and to change what was then a colonial global narrative of who we were and who we can be as free peoples. 

By the time Nelson Mandela addressed the UNGA as the president of South Africa this historicity had come full circle barring the struggle for the independence of the Saharawi Republic from Morocco. 

In the second instance, the UN and its agencies have been arbiters of progressive societal change.   Not only when we consider global human equality relations but also development and modernization of previously racially and colonially marginalized societies. 

The UN therefore is centrally placed in how we seek to address global challenges as a collective and equal but diverse human family.

Naturally there are those that challenge its broad global importance. Mainly via the UNSC where global superpowers argue and veto each other over mainly the doctrine of liberal interventionism,  global dominance as most emblematized by the historically contested reach of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).   

Add to these contestations, the desire of the African Union (AU) to want at least three permanent seats of the UNSC and we have a Pan African perspective on how serious let alone important the UN as global organization is or at least should be. 

But the essential point of this brief write up is that Zimbabwe’s president has chosen not to go to the UNGA in 2024.  As argued above, this is permissible in terms of the UN’s own inclusive regulations.    

The import of this decision is at least two-fold. 

The first is its own contradiction of Zimbabwe’s foreign policy directive of global ‘re-engagement’ at the highest possible levels.  The UN is one such platform of engagement in any country’s foreign policy.  Even if it appears tedious, as does international diplomacy, the significance of world leaders attending this meeting creates a global cultural understanding of the UNGA’s importance and necessity.

The second element is that Mnangagwa decided not to attend to this years UNGA because of the likely assumption that there are too many global challenges in which Zimbabwe quite literally has no say except to its evident strongest allies, China and Russia.  And whatever they say, we will likely vote with them.

From the war in Ukraine through to the Israel genocide in Palestine and also the pending international relations impact of the elections in the USA, there may not be an urgent reason why Mnangagwa should be at the UNGA. 

More so when Zimbabwe as a country is nowhere near any other global superpower’s agenda for violating statutes of the UN Charter or its supporting declarations.  Or when we, as a country, have been reported in the mainstream media as wanting to be one of the African countries that want to be on the UNSC. 

When we look at it, in the final analysis, president Mnangagwa’s decision not to go to the UNGA this year does not give good Pan Africanist optics.  

Historically, most progressive African presidents have ensured that they at least officially make their struggles, issues known at the highest possible levels at the UNGA.  Not out of just a country focused foreign policy but also in order to recognize the global significance of the UN in keeping the world marginally politically stable and working to prevent war and improve human lives.

Arguably the noble intentions of the UN are not giving the impression that they are being adhered to.  But we must always hold on to the progress we have made.  Globally.  And under the auspices of the UN.

Our president may not have the time to attend the #UNGA2024, but I hope he recognizes its importance.  At this time and in this moment of global uncertainty induced by regional wars, emergent racism and climate change challenges.  And in this, as Kwame Nkrumah opined “Africa Must Unite!” More-so at the UNGA2024.

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

 

 

 

 

Discussing Race and the Global North in 2024

 By Takura Zhangazha*

So in the American (USA) presidential campaign that is underway in 2024, there have been multiple racist overtones from the Republican candidate, Donald Trump and his vice president nominee, JD Vance.  They have both ridiculously argued that Haitian immigrants are stealing cats and dogs to eat in a town called Springfield, Ohio.

The local mayor has dismissed these claims as unfounded and therefore false.  But the Republican campaign team has continued with the narrative as the USA presidential campaign has continued. 

In the United Kingdom, even after the Labour party’s recent electoral victory there were also  anti-immigrant riots in Rotherham which peaked with an attempt to ransack an asylum seekers hotel in the same city. 

In other European countries elections and other political processes have seen the rise of immigration and of course race as big electoral issues.  Not necessarily against Ukrainians but with implied and alleged bias against immigrants of colour.  Especially where it concerns the illegal immigration across the English/French channel and also the awkward Rwanda repatriation plan for asylum seekers. 

What is however apparent as a result of this is that a lot of Western European and North American societies are fixated on immigration, race and racist narratives of where their societies are at.

Even as they seek to recruit people from Africa, Asia and South America to come and undertake social care and health work in their societies. 

In this, the striking irony is the politicized nature of these global north societies and their perceptions of immigrants, voting and prioritization of the protection of Israel in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.  

And also newfound censorships of social media accounts that are deemed to be not in line with their various governments key foreign and domestic policy positions. (A very popular platform AfricanStream has been banned from Youtube, Facebook and Instagram) 

As an African living in Africa, these issues should be relatively distant from my own consciousness.  But because we are all invariably connected to the great African Diaspora in the global north, we still have to debate these developments as objectively as we possibly can. 

And a key starting point is to acknowledge that the Global North countries or the Western world as it has been historically referred to by mainstream media is in what I would consider a societal populist crisis about race relations and racism in its presentations of its democratic and social set up.   The colonial style cultural othering of black and brown faces is back in full political and electoral vogue in Western, Eastern Europe and also in North America. 

And as Africans we need to contend with this reality whether we are living there or not.  Or at least advise those that are close to us and sending their remittances back home that we are aware of their increasingly difficult positioning in societies that have prominent politicians either accusing them of eating cats and dogs.  Or deliberately taking jobs that their own ordinary people will not do or are under qualified for. 

This goes beyond popular movements such as the Black Lives Matter.  This is quite literally a  cultural and historical phenomenon of identity based nationalism that has multiple conspiracy theories.  From arguing that mass migration leads to changes in which race(s) take control of their societies via electoral numbers crunch games through to questioning the authenticity of black or brown peoples’ birth places and right to pursue political leadership. 

What is more insidious is the evident subtlety of the racism as presented by mainstream and social media platforms.  Almost as though this were completely acceptable public interest language and debates.

But hegemony is what it chooses itself to be in its historicity.  Yes, racial discrimination was long ended by the United Nations and concerted struggles of humanity across colour lines but it now has new populist versions that are sanitized by a gullible mainstream media, social media corporations, billionaires and exceedingly self-absorbed, narcissistic political leaders.  With the latter pandering to the reflectively worst forms of xenophobia, racism, gatekeeping and ahistorical assumptions of radical nationalism. 

The point however as an African is not to get angry at these new but relatively old historical developments.   Instead it is better to seek to understand and debate them in not only their racial but also economic and mimicry terms. 

With the full knowledge that because of ‘mimicry’ and material desire, a lot of our young African comrades will still continue taking both legal but often times illegal perilous journeys to the global north.  

Now there are many progressive comrades in the global north who are aware of these developments.  And they are trying their best to mitigate the racism and fighting the corner for racial equality and justice.   Some of them are even policy makers.  But recent electoral results show their influence to be waning and they with almost apologetic regret acknowledge this. 

Then there are also the African brothers and sisters who tragically are also part of the racist narrative either telling their black or brown colleagues to sort their papers and go home.  Or how newer immigrants do not deserve to be in the global north unlike them who have already started families or have been there long duree and acquired either green-cards or citizenship.  All of which does not change the fact of racism and its multiple end effects where they are living. 

But as a final point, it is evident that the Global North, while being arguably democratic, has re-emergent serious issues with race, immigration and racism. At a populist and electoral level that should make every black or brown person pause and reflect on what is going on there.  Or ask questions about how this is increasingly affecting global politics and international relations.

And for sure, just like they comment on our democratic credentials in the Global South, we can most certainly comment on their flailing ones in the Global North.

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

 

 

 

 

 

ZimDanceHall(ing) to a Changing National Consciousness

 By Takura Zhangazha*

I did not know that what is now referred to as Zimbabwe Dancehall (ZimDancehall)  music has captured a lot of young Zimbabweans’ cultural hearts and minds.  At least not to the reported extent that it appears to have now done.  

At the end of August 2024, there was a major event called Cup clash for the genre at the local City Sports Centre in Harare.  I watched snippets of the show and also asked some young comrades what the excitement was all about. 

The answers varied but all boiled down to almost the same thing.  Basically it is what is the new urban and peri-urban ghetto culture in Zimbabwe.  Some considered it spontaneous, others more of a reflection of economic and drug-abuse related existential frameworks for many youths in the country.   Others still saw it as just the transformation of our local music industry to keep up with global trends, social media platforms and the immediacy of the popular need for any form of radically different entertainment. 

What is relatively apparent is that it is more or less an emerging, entertaining, even if for now ephemeral, cultural lifestyle for many young Zimbabweans.

I laughed the other day when a young man was walking up and down my local neighbourhood apparently chanting his rhymes.  All the while with earphones straddling his head.  I was a little bit shocked and asked him if everything was ok.  He replied that he was practising his song for the latest ‘tune’ coming out of a Dzivaresekwa studio.  And moreso that if I could possibly help him with at least $US5 for a studio session in the same suburb.

Apart from asking him to give me a sample of his music, I did go on and help him with the required studio session amount. I have not really heard from him since.  Perhaps because he probably did not meet the required chanter standards.

What however is more interesting about this ZimDancehall genre has been what it associates itself with vis-a-vis its actual content and how government and older Zimbabweans view it.

I will start with its content.  It is highly creative and also generally mimics what comes out of its founding Jamaican counterpart genre of music. 

It has a global feel in relation to its instrumentation (dancehall reggae rhythms and chants).  It is also highly materialistic and individualistic. Wherein attendant to the ‘riddims’ are lyrics that either talk of a rags to riches story or alternatively how much more of an indefatigable ‘champion’ one is in either music, money, women or global travel. 

This also being a reflection of the general ‘dog-eat-dog’ status of Zimbabwean society where individualism, materialism in its neo-liberal capitalistic sense rides roughshod over a majority of both the urban and rural poor.  In this is is also linked, tragically so, with a serious drug abuse pandemic that ironically is not limited to Zimbabwe but wherever this type of music is popular.

Then there is the manner in which it is also viewed by government and the ruling Zanu Pf party.  Almost in similar fashion to how government  and Zanu Pf relate to religious organisations, this music trend is viewed as a party supporter and voter mobilization tool.  Young and popular ZimDancehall artists will be roped in to compose or perform music palatable to ruling party cultural and mobilization functionaries.  Especially toward national elections or  national events presided over by the President or his functionaries.

In this politicized role, ZimDancehall artistes are also well aware of their own financial and material interests and will openly defy urban opposition political expectations of either neutrality or support.

This has been the case with a number of the most popular of these artists including some who initially sang songs more sympathetic to the opposition and eventually changed tack.  Ostensibly for the financial benefits that were evident for those that do not cross the ruling party. 

Beyond the politicization of the ZimDancehall genre, it is clearly here to stay for a while.  Its almost both age based (generational) and urban lifestyle driven. With a very awkward over romanticizing of the ‘urban ghetto’ and how someone got out of it in relation to poverty.  Only to want to go back and flaunt their success in the same never changing urban ghetto poverty.  Be it in a Special Utility Vehicle (SUV) or with wads of money. 

This brings me to the perception that older generations of Zimbabweans’ have of this music and expanding cultural genre.  On the face of it, it is a popular with older Zimbabweans where it has either catchy or trendy gospel or family value related themes.  It is highly unpopular however where it concerns the drug abuse related lifestyles that it organically depicts.  This is because some of its best musicians and creators are reportedly associated with varying forms of drug abuse.   And in most cases are also still viewed by many young Zimbabweans as role models because of their musical and material success. 

So older generations of Zimbabweans understandably worry about this. But even as they worry, they would do well to remember that when they were younger there were phases of specific popular types of music that they listened to that also meant specific lifestyles.  From country music through to reggae and even sungura.  Every music genre has its own time and influence.  And it cannot always be harnessed to be moralistic if your society remains economically unjust. 

That’s why after the late 1980s, with the advent of Economic Structural Adjustment (ESAP) and a breakdown in the Zimbabwean social welfare state, the music genre that ruled the roost was Christian gospel music. 

And why now, in our own age of state neoliberalism ZimDancehall reflects high levels of individualism and materialism.  Or even borderline pretensive egotism. Even where it does not materially apply.  

ZimDancehall music as a genre and a cultural lifestyle is a product of its contemporary time.  It reflects  Zimbabwean economic reality and the sometimes convoluted aspirations of many urban and peri-urban youths.  And yes, it cannot be censored or wished away.  Especially not in the age of social media. 

If you ask, “Will it come to pass?” The quick answer is only with the passing of time/ and changing age of its ardent fans.  And for sure those that come after them will re-invent another genre that reflects their lived social and economic realities.

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