By Takura Zhangazha *
I have recently made very general comments about Zanu Pf succession politics as they are occurring in 2025. And their newfound contestations about current president ED Mnangagwa's term extension beyond 2028.
By Takura Zhangazha *
I have recently made very general comments about Zanu Pf succession politics as they are occurring in 2025. And their newfound contestations about current president ED Mnangagwa's term extension beyond 2028.
By Takura Zhangazha*
In the tragic crossfire that was Zimbabwes liberation struggle, I have only known at a personal level eleven (11) liberation war veterans.
I can only name five (5) who are regrettably late but who also actively always encouraged me to tell stories of their own versions and roles, as they wrote or spoke of it, in Zimbabwe's liberation struggle for national independence.
The first three are/were cde Dzinashe Machingura (aka Cde Dzino) and cde Freedom Nyamubaya (cde MaFree), cde Dumiso Dabengwa (The Black Russian) as we referred to them at the now defunct Ambassador Hotel Press Club (The Quill) in Harare.
With the fourth one being my own blood brother Hamufari Zhangazha (cde Tito) who is now laid to rest at the Harare Provincial heroes acre.
And the fifth being Cde Sigauke (Chihwa) who was very active in seeking reparations for cdes from the state for their role in the liberation struggle. He too is interred at the Harare provincial heroes acre.
The other six (6) I cannot mention by name.
Not only because they are still alive but also because they have never given me permission to make them publicly known by their names and that I agreed to respect their roles in Zimbabwes liberation struggle.
All that they requested is that we understand not only their role, warts and all, with a clear appreciation of the passage of time, history and their important placement in bringing about a democratic Zimbabwe.
Including an equitable recognition of this beyond medals and public holidays like Heroes and Defence Forces Day. (But also to make sure we appreciate the national recognition and go kumusha kwakarwiwa hondo yacho!)
As stated above I only personally know at least eleven (11) war veterans. Even though I have encountered many in various spheres of my minimal and non-struggle related existence.
Except where and when one considers the fact of my small counterhegemonic role in the labour movement in Zimbabwe that almost took power from the ruling Zanu Pf in 2000, 2002, 2008, 2013, 2017 (coup-no-coup) and 2018. The electoral year 2023 is an whole other matter for another article.
Where we fast forward to 2025 and what war veterans, generically, appear to be saying, is that they are no longer interested in being led by the current Zanu Pf president Emmerson Mnangagwa. Even though they argued, back then that he owes his ascendancy to them. Something he has personally acknowledged.
This from their variegated factions such as the Zimbabwe National African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and the Zimbabwe Peoples Army (ZIPA).
This is now evidenced by one war veteran cde Blessed Geza who this week dramatically came out of hiding to declare that there shall be some sort of process to oust the sitting president of Zimbabwe and his government. Even though he (Geza) has been expelled from the ruling Zanu Pf party and is officially wanted by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP).
In his online video statement from wherever he is hiding from, he is encouraging Zimbabweans to 'rise up' against the current post -Mugabe ruling Zanu Pf government. One which he helped put in place as a long standing central committee member.
I hold no brief for his comments but here is the rub or problem with Zimbabwe's liberation war veterans.
And it comes quite respectfully (you can be arrested these days) in four parts.
The first being that cdes who fought in the liberation struggle and are alive, may initially need to disabuse themselves of a sense of entitlement to the country and compensation for the sacrifices they made for Zimbabwe to be free.
And where we as a peoples have sought politically and economically to appreciate the cdes of the liberation struggle we remember instances of where we materially recognised their sacrifices.
From not only the demobilisation funds of 1980, through to recruitment in the national defence forces and also the 1998 gratuities and the then immediate follow up controversial War Victims Compensation Fund.
Before we add in the Fast Track Land Reform Programme of 2000 to present day, monthly pensions, education benefits for their offspring and the more recent/current allegedly unpopular borehole and bicycle distribution programmes led by the newly established War Veterans League and a special presidential advisor.
In the second instance, its given that our war veterans are trying to establish their revolution in historically staggered succession paths. And they know this.
The unwritten rule was/is that in a free Zimbabwe the power succession theory was that there would be allowance for the original nationalists to lead the newly independent country. Based on the following original nationalists and in no particualr order of importance: Chitepo,Nkomo, Mugabe, Tekere, Silundika, Nyagumbo, Chikerema, and others
In the second instance and in their argumentation phase of national leadership succession they would let those that combined nationalism and guerilla training to lead: your Tongogara, Mnangagwa, Mujuru, Ziyaphapa.
And then the third phase by default would be the direct combatants who were also part of the Mgagao crew (Dzino, Masuku, Gava, Chiwenga, Mutinhiri, Sibanda et al and some names I will deliberately leave out)
With a nascent or even current generational phase of cdes who were in refugee camps, keeps and then those who were war collaborators- detainees and their children from the povo/people/masses.
Historically it did not turn out this way. The nationalists stuck around for longer than expected via Mugabe. And as unptredicatably as it turned out the dual nationalists and guerillas decided to take over in 2017.
In terms of this succession politics in ZanuPf it would be now an expected turn of those who were full guerillas to take over the country after the dual nationalists and guerillas.
Hence cde Geza and his 'It's our turn to eat', argumentation. Whoever he is allegedly fronting for within Zanu Pf.
The national question and issue however is that of the revolutionary passage of time.
Or even it's revolutionary stasis (stagnation). Moreso for our own war veterans.
And where and why Zimbabwe's liberation war veterans place themselves perpetually at the centre of state/government change and never revolutionary change in Zimbabwe. As though they have no children who are now adults who cannot ask them as many questions.
Furthermore, this is a development which begs a more general question,
'In the aftermath of the Second Chimurenga, are our war veterans populist and opportunistic? Or they mean what they say in an organic form?"
Or why would they not understand that younger Zimbabweans while appreciating their historical role may quite literally differ with how they seek to see the country go forward?
And why would they seek the support of the same young Zimbabwean population demographic while attacking it for being unpatriotic? All in an effort to deal with their internally unresolved question of power succession in their own "united" ruling ZanuPf party?
But, and I am being frank here, our war veteran cdes cannot assume that 45 years after our national independence the country still thinks the same, feels the same and can only again be liberated, if need be, by them. Again. Given all that has historically happened this would be the height of revolutionary dishonesty on their part as founding fathers.
Something that we can only then call "revolutionary stasis" or to be stuck in their own historical and grudge based past.
Or to simplify it further, an inability to understand the historical fact of the necessity of revolutionary posterity. That is an inability to pass on a revolutionary candlelight beyond personal experiences and what Geza has referred to as bu##s##t.
As argued earlier I am a friend of war veterans of Zimbabwes liberation struggle. And I will always be. Despite what happened in the years 2002-2010. Or even earlier with Gukurahundi in the early to late 1980s though I was too young to know apart from Zapu cdes jumping over fences and being hidden in our houses in Zengeza1 Chitungwiza.
The struggle was the struggle. As painful as it was.
We however cannot for the fifth time be arguing about who the revolution must reward by way of political power or proximity to state wealth. Again. And I know war veteran cdes who will understand this argument. With or without going to school but on the basis of having been on the frontline.
For young Zimbabweans I am sure our war veteran cdes mean well. But their historical consciousness while appreciated is no longer enough. They need to rise above their painful past, understand the present and enunciate a new Zimbabwean future. When asked. And for posterity.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com) (takurazhangazha.com
By Takura Zhangazha*
We may have a new form of what I will refer to as a fake Pan
Africanism in our African immediate consciousness.
One that has recently found voice following the dramatic and
tragic cutting of foreign aid assistance by the new United States government led
by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Accompanied by the quite literal shutting down
of its largest state enabled donor, the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID).
While I am not up to date on the impact of these cuts on global
USAID programmes, I am more familiar with their impact on aid to countries in
the global south. With a specific
interest on what all of this has meant for Africa and its continental political
economy.
A negative impact that has been reported extensively in
mainstream and social media platforms.
With varied reactions from African governments, businesses, opposition
political parties and non-governmental organisations (NGO’s).
Most African government officials have as expected diplomatically expressed regret at the withdrawal of in particular support from USAID for a myriad of health, education and other developmental capacity building programmes. Some have gone further by accusing USAID of interfering in their domestic politics while ironically being recipients of many forms of much needed aid.
While the more opportunistic business circles have, despite
being directly affected in relation to cancelled tenders have taken on an
acerbic and profit eying pan Africanist tone.
One which argues that African governments should look within, shun
corruption and engage their private capital services to fill in the evident gap left by USAID. (Even though we know the money will not be competitively enough for them)
NGO’s have had a different narrative due to the fact that in
most cases they are part of what globally is known as the non-profit industrial
complex (NPIC). Even if by default. One in which the established system of global
philanthropy by either global north governments and wealthy individuals sought
to give a human face to global challenges. All within the context of
international relations determined by the then Cold War between the USA and the
then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), now Russia. And also one which is very much a part of
global corporate culture based on stock-exchanges/markets, investments and
claims at ‘trickle-down’ neoliberal economics.
So thee is no doubt that foreign aid came with conditionalities
determined by global international relations.
But even this fact did not and does not take away what was and still is a
global need to identify and work to resolve humanitarian problems. Be they in a bilateral sense or under the
supervision of the United Nations as the neutral arbiter of humanity’s challenges.
With this background of the matter, it is imperative that we
look at Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s move to shutdown USAID from a more African reality
based perspective.
Its given immediate impact on the African continent are the loss of access to humanitarian aid for health, education, refugees, gender equality, civil society, media and others for ordinary Africans that relied on this aid.
A reliance that for many reasons included war, legacies of colonialism and contemporary neoliberalism that has
left many African governments and peoples quite literally hapless when it comes to
priorities for their own citizens.
I use the turn of phrase ‘hapless’ because most of our African post/neo-colonial states were at the mercy of an historical global Cold War and tended to be pitted one against the other in relation to material and financial support in times of economic, natural disaster national crisis. Whether they looked to the global west or global east.
In the wake of these recent events we have a new false and
ahistorical narrative about for example why should African states rely on USAID
to run their health, education or even governance structures.
Africa’s role in the world has historically relied on international partnerships with established global superpowers and economies. That the USA was one of the then strongest in the last half century does not preclude the fact that we also interacted with others for either direct aid, military support during our liberation struggles or even ideological frameworks to develop.
The imperative was how we negotiated these relationships
and these desires for aid or economic development. And also how we have negotiated our own minerals,
agricultural and human resources within the contemporary neoliberal global
political economy.
So it is relatively naïve to assume that the ending of USAID funding in Africa as of old is a reflection of any fundamental weaknesses of the African state. Or to assume it as a new cause for some revamped but ephemeral Pan Africanism that occurs over things we do not control. Clearly we don’t control American, European, Russian or Chinese foreign policy priorities.
We only interact with them within a highly unfair
and already poisoned global political economy laced with the legacies of colonialism,
neo-colonialism and an ahistorical admiration of the global north.
Indeed African states and governments need to be more
self-reliant and choose their global economic or other partnerships more careful
and organically to the needs of the people of our continent. But that has not been a possibility in recent
history. We have to contend with the
Americans, the Europeans, the Chinese, the Russians and also attempt at our own
non-alignment in international interests that we eventually do not control.
Even as we acknowledge how big USAID on the continent and
its impact on livelihoods was, we cannot assume an own victim mentality when we
know Africa’s placement in the global political economy. Wherein in most cases, we deal the hand with
are dealt with globally.
We however need to interrogate this particular placement in
its holistic nature beyond waiting for changes of government in the global
north. Or having secret and populist admirations for
the celebrity politics of Donald Trump and his techno-acolytes.
As Africans we know that 'democracy or development is not like Coca Cola' as once intoned by Nyerere. It has to be organic and with multiple solidarity partnerships that come with their own warts and all.
But
we can always and should negotiate a better placement of Africa in the world based on principles
and not false-found, ahistorical and ephemeral populist Pan Africanisms. With or without
USAID.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com) (takurazhangazha.com)
By Takura Zhangazha*
You could almost laugh about it. Thousands of adult Zimbabweans flocking to a
Sunday service to ‘see’ the power of ‘prophecy’. Over and about a US$ 1 million pledge on, you
guessed it, the ability to prophesy what was in a religious leader’s
pocket. These thousands of Zimbabweans
were not only in the auditorium. They
were also online and watching live. It
was as dramatic as it was without depth.
And even if you didn’t attend the service physically or
watch it live online, you could not escape it in general conversation or on
social media.
With the narrative being given as that of a self anointed prophet
Emmanuel Makandiwa had decided to challenge all other purported religious (Christian
and traditional) leaders to identify what he would have in his trouser pocket
this previous Sunday.
Being the Catholic agnostic that I am, I laughed about this
when I encountered the story from journalist friends and other colleagues.
What I did not realize was the fact that there are thousands
of Zimbabweans that took this quite seriously.
Or even if they did not, they were willing enablers of the expansion of
its narrative. Be they musicians, celebrities
or just general believers in religion and its import on the lived physical or spiritual
afterlife.
As a writer/blogger, there are some topics you are generally
warned to steer clear of. And one of
these is religion. Mainly because it is
not only a sensitive matter but also because it may have safety and security
concerns for your personal well-being. Not only because of religious fanaticism
but also the reality of the fact that many Zimbabweans are embedded in one faith
or the other. Both by way of their right to religious freedom but also
upbringing or personal experiences.
So I will tread somewhat carefully. But also honestly.
The self-styled Prophet Makandiwa who challenged others of
his ilk and kind to identify items on his pockets is phenomenally influencial
in Zimbabwean society. A thing that he
know and utilizes to maximum public evangelical effect.
His popularity is not beyond question as evidenced by not
only the massive attendance at his weekly sermons(American style). I am not
sure what capacity his auditorium has but I would hazard to argue it can equate
to a weekly seating capacity of 15-20 thousand. More like the Harare City
Sports Centre. And that’s a lot of
people for cyclical weekly religious sermons from a singular individual.
But it is our now lived reality that he commands these
thousands of Zimbabweans almost at his religious beck and call.
So I did a little ask around. Why would men and women of
various professional qualifications or attributes believe that this is as religious
as it can get? For themselves or their families?
And the key question here is ‘why?’ in a Zimbabwean
sense.
As much as we claim to be highly educated or at least to
have one of African’s highest literacy rates, we couldn’t have a decent number
of us flock to cross-checking/prophesying what is in another man’s pocket.
If religion was not a serious functional and social stabilization
business/sector in Zimbabwe, this would be completely laughable. Bordering on crosschecking how we relate to
magic and illusion as shown on television or a community road-show.
But we have to deal the hand we are dealt with. Religion is
intrinsic to Zimbabwean culture. Both in
its traditional and colonial, post-neo-colonial dimensions. And in the contemporary it is more of the Christian
version of the same that influences how we relate to each other and also come
to sort of understand and deal with our national political economy.
This latest popular and popularized incident of ‘prophesying’
or guessing ‘things’ in another man’s pocket for 1 million United States
dollars is a key low for Zimbabwe. Not
only for its government, religious leaders but also for us as a people.
It may be entertaining on social media but it is ridiculous
as a national debate issue.
What it brings into vogue is the fact that we are an over-religious
country that is functioning on high levels of superstition and materialist religiosity
(Protestant ethic, anyone?)
Let me explain this a little further. Where you have comrades believing that one
can become rich based merely on their faith and by themselves, you have a country
that has no future in the context of elite privatization of the state’s
resources. It is like functioning on a
wing and a prayer but with some religious element to spur you on.
Be it in relation to your job or lack of it, school fees or
the life you envy after watching a television programme or a western movie that
depicts life in the way you prefer or aspire to live it.
Without any iota of sensitivity to the historically given
fact that our Zimbabwean society should function on the basis of enabling human
equitability for all. No matter your religious
or economic background.
What is evident is that religion is like our national
politics, a little bit of entertainment and individual populist, cultist
recognition.
What Makandiwa did most likely gained him more followers
(and likes). What those that sought to challenge his ‘prophetic matters’ also
helped them get newer recognition.
It however has not and will not change the country for the
better.
So comrades should go ahead and find their Jesus, Allah,
Buddha or Musikavanhu to help them deal with what are their own real challenges
in their existence.
The imperative however is to understand that religion,
though being some sort of business, cannot fundamentally define the Zimbabwean
state. Even if for entertainment and an
assumed sense of belonging. Nor can the Zimbabwean
state be found in anyone’s religious pockets.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity. (takurazhangazha.com)
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
By Takura Zhangazha*
Zimbabwe’s urban landscape is changing form quite rapidly. Particularly where one considers new modern
urban developments such as shopping malls away from city centres or new residential
housing in the form of either ‘flats’ or ‘cluster’ residential compounds and new
low-income suburbs.
This is also in tandem with the expansion of privatized social
service buildings or amenities such as private clinics, schools, fast food
outlets and fuel service stations.
One colleague who had not travelled as much around for example
the city of Harare’s high density areas was astounded by these new
developments.
So would anyone who has not been around the capital city for
a while since the Covid 19 pandemic or if one is not keen on seeing the new
real estate regime in its geographical physicality.
For many who have studied urban development academically or
otherwise, this is an age of the rapid expansion of at least Harare. And a modernist
and somewhat ‘post-colonial’ one for that matter.
I use the term post-colonial here because to call it
neo-colonial would be slightly off the mark based on either the passage of time.
Or the fact that the Harare city urban masterplan is still officially the one
adopted by the colonial Salisbury city council.
The key point however is that Harare is not physically the
same anymore.
If one was in the Diaspora for at least three years and came
back to the capital, landscapes one would remember have structurally changed. Not only from the road that comes from the Robert
Mugabe International Airport but also from the southern approach of the
Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway. Or in any other direction from Harare’s dysfunctional
Central Post Office.
In any one direction, we will witness multiple housing
developments, expanded road networks, service stations and awkwardly placed
fast food outlets.
In fact it could be classified as witnessing a mimicry of
assumed urban modernization of countries’ in which one is domiciled in the Diaspora. Or if you are coming from a long-duree stay
in the rural areas.
So it is now relatively easy to get awestruck by the
changing Harare infrastructure. Until
you veer off a main road and into the internals of high density, middle or low
density older suburbs only to see the dilapidation of still existent council buildings,
roads, two-roomed housing and tower-lights.
In such instances you get the sense of the new infrastructural
developments being somewhat of a veneer of progress amidst a continual rubble
of administrative decay.
Or to make matters slightly more depressing, a re-ordering
of a former minority white capital into being a black elite capital based on
either individual wealth or proximity to financialised or fast tracked land (reform)
capital in the city or its immediate outskirts.
And this is where the contradictions begin and continually
show themselves.
With the first key point being that new privatised infrastructure
does not mean a new city. It means one
that papers over the colonial legacy poverty cracks that are evident if you move
from the shopping mall to the middle of a high density area.
Or even a middle or
low density one where the more prevalent narratives of residents therein are unfortunately
usually about how Salisbury or Smith was better! One which tends to be followed up by the
undemocratic assertion that our local government councilors are not educated
enough to run a city even with full-time city council professional employees.
The second key contradiction is that of lifestyle
aspirations of Zimbabweans. I have
written on this before but for this analysis I will limit it to the fact of the
following outline.
A majority of us were either born in a rural area or have strong
migratory links to the same. The city or
any urban area, colonially induced, was always viewed as where the ‘good life’
could eventually be lived. Fair enough for
an historical point and reality.
Upon arrival in the city (mainly by African males) to either
search for work or be forced into work, the aspiration was some sort of urban
housing in the designated African quarter or suburb.
Upon attaining national independence the general aspiration was
to leave the previous African quarters/residential area to either the former ‘coloured’
or ‘white’ residential areas. All as
emblems of individual success derived from a limited understanding of the colonial
legacy and structure that is currently the city of Harare.
Or where we cannot follow this trajectory, we will re-create
it in areas where residentialised poverty and wealth can co-exist side by side
(pick any high density area of your choice for examples- I just know that some
cdes are building double-storey houses where others still live in two rooms
with outside toilets).
The third contradiction is that of what I consider to be ‘ vulture
urban capitalism’. Given the colonial
legacy city that is Harare and the above outline of how I think we have
responded to it as residents this is probably the most crippling in how we
envision a new Harare.
As argued prior, privatized infrastructure development does
not change the culture of a city. It generally
reinforces a repressive one as of colonial old.
Making the differences between the rich and the poor more glaring. With the again added contradiction of the
poor wanting to mimic the rich. Except that the corporates (aka the rich) also
now know they made a mistake in assuming shopping mall and fast food outlets
were about niche markets and not about numbers markets.
So Harare is in an historical existential crisis as a city
(as I am sure so are other cities across the country). One in which there is elitist and
privatisation of various infrastructural facilities such as main roads,
expansion of private schools and private clinics. All against the backdrop of a colonially
designed planning system that never envisioned generic equality of access to
water/sanitation, health, transport, education and ease of urban living for the
majority of its residents.
As for the vulture corporates circling around Harare’s
poorer neighbourhoods, they are lucky, who doesn’t want the convenience of a
two piecer and chips over running water and fixed inner roads in their residential
area?
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takurazhangazha.com) takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
By Takura Zhangazha*
I have a couple of friends that like to remember what they
refer to as the good old Zimbabwe days.
Be it when they were in primary or secondary school. Or
undertaking one or the other state sponsored tertiary education. They talk of getting milk at school, eating
well, getting student payouts/loans and how everyone was generally happy in Zimbabwe.
They debate this broadly until you broach the subject of the
Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) of the late 1980s. While we were too young to understand this then
new neoliberal policy thrust of the Zimbabwean government at the time, our contemporary
conversations immediately depart from nostalgic reminiscence to anger at what
then befell us by the time we arrived at adulthood.
And this is largely toward the turn of the century when not
only ESAP was in full flight but the ruling Zanu PF party was now trying to
re-discover some sort of its revolutionary ethos via a now hurried Fast Track
Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in the year 2000.
While at the same time using state and no-state orchestrated
violence on supporters of the newer opposition political party, the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) as then led by trade unionist Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Some of us still remember those terrible years and in particular
the calamitous periods of cholera, hyper-inflation and poverty that were stark
between 2005 through to 2010 when the then Global Political Agreement and government of national unity as mediated by
SADC had sort of got a foothold on our economic predicament.
In this, a decent number of us who were political and civil
society activists at the time assumed we were in some sort of progressive
revolutionary struggle to challenge the ruling Zanu Pf party’s hegemony. And a lot of suffered and are still suffering
for this. Be it here at home or in the
global Zimbabwean Diaspora.
What we may have missed however is the passage of time and
the fact that there are others that while having been young in they year 2000,
are now adults. And they have a
different experience of what they consider their priority realities and
ambitions. They are also referred to as ‘ama
2000’.
These and other younger comrades have a different consciousness
template from many that have nostalgia for a previous Zimbabwe prior to for
example ESAP. Theirs remains an
immediacy of material consciousness. Be
they male or female.
Based on not only the fact that they have greater access to
multiple nodes of information and lifestyles but also because they experienced
the worst of our longstanding economic challenges since the early 2000s.
And their politics and political activism are also more
immediate. Based on both religious
perception as well as celebrity dynamics as motivated by both mainstream and
social media.
They are definitely not going to read Marx, Cabral, Luxembourg, Nyerere, Nkrumah, Gramsci or de Beauvoir unless its for an academic examination.
And this a reality that we now have to accept across class, geographical
location and even claims at ethnicity.
Age, conversations and consciousness have come full circle
in Zimbabwe. With the latter being the
least relevant. Mainly because
consciousness in and of itself is not only less fashionable but it is challenged
by the hegemonic and behavioural moderation media that we can no longer avoid
consuming. Be it via social media or
streaming platforms that are carried over to the mainstream television and
radio stations such as Tik-tok, Netflix, Youtube and Whatsapp (in no particular
order).
So when I am in some sort of debate (online or offline) with people younger than me I am aware that if I overdo any sort of intellectualism I will be met with an equally resistant counter-intellectualism that focuses on everyday realities as opposed to any sort of idealism. Or one that emphasizes one celebrity over another or one faith in challenge to others. And a derisive turn of phrase about age and no knowing whats really going on in the world
This is something I first experienced in a radio interview
in 2010. I had prepared well for it, crosschecked my facts, re-read on the
relevant ideological contexts of how to challenge neo-liberalism for a progressive new social contract. Lo and
behold the interviewer, young as she was didn’t care about that. She just wanted to know about the significance
of the celebrity like infighting in the then inclusive Zimbabwe government and
its constitutional reform process.
I then realized that perhaps because of age, experience and
also being more ideologically oriented, I was beginning to miss new realities about
how young Zimbabweans are beginning to think about their country and their
lives.
As a final example, I once interacted with a young artists
group who vociferously laid claim to being a network of progressive young minds
seeking out new ways of expressing their challenges in the public
interest. This was assumedly in relation
to unemployment, poverty and ambitions to go to the Diaspora.
It turned out that most of them found their best spaces in
quoting the bible and relying heavily on the Christian Gospel for their own consciousness.
It struck me that we (my nostalgic comrades and I) had been
brought up on Ngugi, Marechera, Mungoshi, Vera, Soyinka and many others but
these ones I was interacting with at that time, mainly had the Bible and very
business focused motivational writers and speakers from the global north.
This is still something I still cannot shrug off. And I am not sure who’s fault it is. But it
is a fault. WE need to talk consciousness
age. More-so where we have imperial
presidents like Donald Trump talking about racist ‘Golden Ages’ for their own
countries and controlling social and mainstream media narratives.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takurazhangazha.com) (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com )