The United States Dollar as a Deity in Zimbabwe

 By Takura Zhangazha*

The Zimbabwean government recently did the unfathomable, at least according to social media pundits, some civil society organisations, unions and influential urbanites.  It arbitrarily and abruptly re-introduced a local currency for all domestic financial transactions.  At least at law. 

As expected there was an immediate outburst of anger on social media, in press conferences, statements and I am pretty sure in the near future in anticipated or provisionally announced forms of physical protest.  

All of which can be easily pointed out to be as a result of the general mistrust of the government’s monetary policy and as awkward as it sounds, the lack of trust in any form of a national currency.  The origins of which appear with the massive inflation that coincided with the global financial crisis in 2007/8 and lasted in Zimbabwe at least until the introduction of a multi-currency regime just before the formation of a unity government in 2009.  In this we had relatively liberal use of the United States dollar (USD), the South African Rand and a host of other not so readily available currencies. 

This led to the stabilization of inflation albeit at great cost to our ability to retain the global value of the USD in tandem with developments in the global financial markets. 

While I am not aware of any economic books that were written about this multi-currency monetary , by 2015 it became almost unsustainable to rely on these multi-currencies (we had begun purchasing them from their respective central banks).  So the government introduced the relatively unpopular but utilitarian ‘bond coin’ in order to deal with challenges of transactions by retailers.  It was pegged at 1:1 with the popular USD.  The then government went a step further and decided to introduce bond notes almost a year later and suspicion were heightened that it was about to re-introduce a full fledged currency.  Again the bond note like its predecessor, the coin, was pegged at the same value as the USD.  Suspicions were abound but both forms of currency were utilized widely, especially by poorer Zimbabweans who did not have regular access to the USD.

In between these ambiguities about currencies and suspicions about government, a ‘coup that was not a coup’ happened in 2017 and a disputed but legitimized election occurred in 2018. By the time we got through the heady disputes over presidential election results, in early 2019, the government introduced a third form of a version of a local currency called the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) in early 2019.  This essentially meant we had a surrogate currency, one that would with time set the ground for the introduction of a somewhat formal one depending on our ability to meet the ‘fiscal requirements’ of global financialised capital (i.e IMF, World Bank, AfDB).

In no short while the government introduced a ‘rated’ multi-currency regime.  It began officially at least with the RTGS trading (somehow) at 2.5 to the USD.  This was to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Again, in no short time, we were at higher official ‘bank rates’ via the RTGS to the USD.  It did not work as politically planned.  Instead what we had was a quasi-free market currency trading system underpinned by state regulation. 

Arguments about the capacity of the state to respond to the ‘financial markets’ quickly abounded.  

Acceptable as these were in a neoliberal sense, the key questions that emerged were around the sustainability of the same.  Either in relation to imports of goods or just even the ‘extractive political economy’ trying to lure foreign investors.

And now the Zimbabwean government has gone the whole hog with the introduction of a new currency. The end effect of which is more in keeping with neoliberal economic policy than it is intended at being populist.  It is a move designed to satisfy domestic and foreign capital’s requirements to do business at a much lower cost.  All in the now proven vain hope that there will be a trickle down effect for the creation of jobs as well as that the ‘free market’ will be able to resolve social and economic challenges faced by the majority poor.  All of this done under the mantra of a ‘return to normalcy’.

The knee-jerk and for now populist rejection of a local currency in favour of the USD is however intriguing in two specific respects.  The first being the political dimension of a general mistrust of government with a currency whose (commodity exchange) value is not, in the view of the public, guaranteed by global capital. This public mistrust is also being buttressed by the previous hyper inflationary period (2007-2009) and the ‘stability’ brought in by the introduction of a multicurrency system thereafter. This essentially means the general mindset of the (urban) Zimbabwean public is in sync with global capitalism’s expectation of an economy i.e one that follows its laisses faire rules and despises contextual protectionist economics.  

The only difference being that apart from a currency, global capital understands with great sophistry there are many other ways to bell the cat beyond a multi-currency system.  The latter point being rather ironic because it is also one that Finance minister Mthuli Ncube and his boss Mnangagwa understand too well, hence the general approval of their economic policy by the gatekeepers of global capital, namely the World Bank and the IMF. With the added approval of most Southern African governments that are implementing similar economic policies. 

The second astounding aspect is that of how Zimbabweans now view ‘money’ and in particular the USD as a commodity.   In classical Marxist terms, we have now come to view it more like a ‘fetish’ or even a ‘deity’.  It has come to mean more than it is in transactional terms.  Its value now transcends what it actually is in reality. We are quite literally under the spell of 'commodity fetishism'  because it has also become a commodity that has/had become a social arbiter of how we relate to each other without really acknowledging it.  All of this until now when talk of a local currency from government became louder and is now a reality.  And even if an economist of repute were to explain to an educated Zimbabwean that money is really imagined, they will find great resistance to that universally given notion.

To conclude, it is evident that the introduction of a local currency does not mean there will be economic abundance for all.  But neither did the retention of a multi-currency regime.  It is therefore imperative that we being to examine the system behind the monetary policies in whatever form they come.  And to do so at the point of ideology in order to counter it.  In our case, neoliberalism (as an ideology) and austerity (as a strategy) are informing the current and previous currency exchange systems and economic malaise we have had to endure.  But then again, where money or the USD becomes a fetish in and of itself, it is a hard ask to call on cdes to understand the system more than the deity.

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

Africa in Global Cold War 2.0: A Return to Struggle Consciousness

By Takura Zhangazha*

The British daily, the Guardian recently published a story on how Russia has new plans to exert its influence across the African content.  All in return for the usual imperial desires such as natural resources, geo-political military strategic positioning and of course loyal allies. 

I do not think the story made any headlines in African newspapers.  Not least because it had a tone of the ‘Russians are coming’ or as of old, the ‘red peril is coming’.  For many Africans, the Russians have always been here.  So it’s nothing particularly new or scary.  We are used to imperial interests on our continent.  We also fought against colonialism, with the aid, wait for it, of the Russians! But at that that time they preferred to be called the Soviets. 

But now they (Russians) have changed.  They are no longer Soviets or socialists.  Like their historical rival, the United States of America (USA), they are cut throat capitalist.  Not only domestically but also in their foreign policy objectives and intentions.  The only difference is that they are not too hung up on ‘human rights’ in their relations with Africa (or any other continent for that matter). 

While they repeatedly argue that they do not interfere in the domestic affairs of African countries, and in particular their allies, the report by the Guardian indicates otherwise.  And the same is true for all global superpowers.

As academics have already noted, there is a new scramble for Africa under the ideological ambit of neoliberalism and global capitalism- one academic, Slavok Zizek has gone so far as to call it a new ‘global apartheid’. 

This revival of neo-colonial interest in Africa by global superpowers is playing out increasingly as of the historical Cold War.  There is the West and there is the East.  All wanting essentially the same things from the African continent and its divided states. It’s a combination of the ‘usual suspects’ or objects of desire-  mineral wealth/natural resources, markets for their many businesses, land (yes quite literally, one German cabinet minister recently suggested that African states should allow developed countries to own land and develop it for African economies to improve!)

It should be relatively easy to assume that Africans know the global superpowers are here and have ratcheted up their interests on the continent.  Especially post Gaddafi in the disaster that is Libya and its mineral wealth and geo-strategic positioning. 

Knowing and thinking about it at the same time are however not the same thing.  In the relatively recent anti-colonial past as Africans, we were much more discerning of the interests of the then two global superpowers, USA and USSR. We were also very good at understanding the major colonial states’ (France, United Kingdom, Portugal) interests and countering them in order to become free of the yoke of repression by racism and economic exploitation.

Regrettably this consciousness has all ebbed now.  Not just because liberation and anti-colonial struggles ended but also because the rapacious nature of global capitalism in the aftermath of the Cold War left us, as Africans, more vulnerable to our own weaknesses than we anticipated.  We lost our bearings in wanting to be similar in lifestyle to the global north that our leaders became not only willing appendages for global superpowers, but also chose the path of corruption and long dree stays in power to the detriment of contextual, people centered and democratic African political economies. 

Even in the contemporary we remain faced with the serious challenge of an African leadership that sees limited value in itself without recognition from the leaders of global superpowers and global capital.  Hence from southern, eastern, western and northern Africa the mantra of free trade, markets and the ‘ease of doing business’ is the same.  All, in most cases, to impress again, global political superpowers (Russia, China, USA, Europe) and their attendant global capitalism. 

It is easy to argue that we are between a rock and a hard place.  But that might only be as a result of a lack of concerted trying and the false assumption that our contemporary African leaders hold that global capitalism is the panacea for each and every problem that we have.  When in reality it is the fundamental ideological cause for a majority of problems that we encounter regularly. 

Structuring a way forward out of our conundrum is no doubt difficult.  We initially tried it with the changing of the OAU to being the African Union. It was a brave attempt at modernising a liberation struggle organization.  The complexity however remains that it is now viewed largely as less organic and still steeped in divisions that are orchestrated again by global superpowers.

Where the Leninist question what is to be done is asked it can only be answered with historical nuance. We need to learn that there is indeed a re-emerging regressive view of Africa (and Africans) by some of the leaders of the global superpowers.  One that is shared by an increasing number of their citizens. 

Hence the antipathy toward African migrants and strict visa regimes for would be African visitors.   We probably need to work on our own African consciousness to believe more in the fact that being African does not require affirmation by global superpowers and their citizens. 

We will need to be more assertive of our own being as Africans.  All the while embracing progressive values that contest racism, neoliberalism and its attendant global capitalism.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)

On Trying to Be Better at Being Zimbabwean: Eight (8) Brief Points

By Takura Zhangazha*

I always try and do my best to avoid any accusations of being self-righteous.  I do however also  always try to learn, in part, from how I grew up.  The formal and informal education I received to try and construct a better understanding of my own specific personal settings as well as those shared in the communities and schools and country I was fortunate to have grown up in.   

The lessons learnt from these experiences have been important in my own specific political, economic and social consciousness.  But what is more significant is the fact that I and others in my own migratory peculiar circumstances  need to perpetually understand the fact that we all live(d) in a collective polity called Zimbabwe and take into account the lessons that we were taught by our parents (particularly our mothers), brothers, sisters, community members and teachers.   Our lived lives were not rumours but realities that still inform our national consciousness (for) now. 

Depending on the period in which you grew up in country, Zimbabwe,  post 2000s ,  the lessons learnt may not always have been the same.  Especially because of contextual and time bound experiences.  But there are some common value threads that will run through them to help with a collective national progressive consciousness despite the different struggles (personal and collective)  a majority of us have had to endure. 

But even beyond that, is the fact that we are here and in the now.  And there are now emerging newer traumatic and/or enlightening experiences.  The greater number of which relate to a lack of individual as well as (separately) collective, rural and urban economic well-being in a globalized age of  the global north's highly unpopular austerity.

Our perspectives as are now widely shared on the internet are also increasingly about (hedonistic) individualism and its now compulsive commodity consumerism/fetishism that sometimes put us in a place where we think more in the short than in the long term or deliberately choose to not see whats coming. 

Or in tragic circumstances, we seek to escape by any means, materially, from situations in which we cannot have similar lifestyles to what we would have liked on the internet/social media and our mobile phones.  Even if this may not be via direct experience but as told or shared by family, friends, online acquaintances/celebrities in the global or national cities and/or the greater part of the Diaspora.   

And because we should be free to experience what we prefer, this, all in in some sort of order.  Especially where we can do so in a political and economic framework in which we are guaranteed basic human rights.  Or where we do so with an organic understanding that whatever slights occurred in the past, we must be able to, while seeking justice, think more of the future than the past. 

Taking all of the above into account there are specific key points that I am deliberately choosing to share with colleagues and comrades online about what it would possibly and 'in the secular/non-religious' it would  mean to attempt at being a better Zimbabwean. All in the hope that younger Zimbabwean cdes may understand that we are always the progressive sum total of our past experiences, our organic understanding of the present and our equally organic envisioning of a better future for Zimbabwe.  Even if we are not always the ones that literally and physically inherit the same said future.   

So here are some basic thought points on how you or your friend or anyone else can consider as to how to try and be better at being Zimbabwean:

1.       It is Not Always About You as an Individual:  Whatever happens in your life in Zimbabwe it is not always that you must make it a completely personal experience.  It is always a shared one even if you do not know with immediacy anyone else in the same tragic or happy circumstance.  Even if you do not want it to be a shared one.  We must always have empathy for the next Zimbabwean. With or without the money or access to political or economic privilege.  We need to always think about what happens next door in our rural and urban living spaces.  Not in a competitive sense but in more a collaborative and solidarity sense.  Or to put it even more simply, even if you eventually decide to have, for example, a pre-paid water meter, I will still give you not just glass of water if you and your children are  not only thirsty, but require gallons of the same for uses that keep you and your family healthy.  While at the same time being part of the push-back at the inhumane privatization of as natural a resource such as H-2-0.  Basically, solidarity always matters. Same goes with public health, transport, education, energy and welfare. 

2.       Ideas Really Do Matter:  Thinking is sort of hard now in Zimbabwe.  We tend to go with the flow, as given by some religious prophecies and proclamations from the mainstream media. Or even behavior modifying social media platforms.  Whatever is put out on global satellite broadcast media appears to be enough for this side of the world. Almost like an immediate validation in its negativity (the Russians are out to get us already!) Or as given by particular experts primed to persuade a specific type of politically important audience.  With the incorrect assumption that we, in Zimbabwe (and probably Africa) do not take time out to think, examine emerging trends, perspectives or intellectual ideas from a contextually informed perspective.  Almost like we have to play catch up in intellectual thought as in the period of our struggles against colonialism.  Always remember that universal and contextual ideas matter (go ahead, Google: Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere, Bessie Head - in no particular order).   As in the past, thinking through what ‘austerity’ and ‘neoliberalism’ means really matters. Including that all important question 'what is ideology?'  And also understanding what is the ‘ease of doing business’  from a non-partisan but fully regionally and global perspective.  Try and read more outside of whatever would be deemed your academic syllabus (Disclaimer: if you do, not my fault)

3.       Always Strive to Share Knowledge in the Public Interest.  Expertise and knowledge can always be copyrighted.  And in any event a lot of comrades hold on to try and ensure that for example a popular online perspective is patented (somewhere, somewhere while waiting for a vacuous intellectual property fight)’ the key issue is that even if you need the copyright, the personal attention, do so in the public interest of sharing knowledge to advance democratic ideas and values in Zimbabwean and other societies. (as idealistic as that sounds)

4.       Technology Now Matters but, Regrettably Technology is Not Enough: The mobile phone is the new medium of democratic consciousness.  Except that it desperately always, always, requires ‘content’.  In particular, content that leads to a questioning of what is seen as the ‘norm’ or the ‘unchallengeable’.  That is its own supremacy i.e Google, Facebook, Instagram and in our own national context Whatsapp.  Always query what the medium brings to you in the morning.  Is it another populist or false/fake message or is it of realistic and critical utilitarian value when it beeps on your phone to show ‘notifications’ before or in your bathroom chores. 

5.       Understand the Global Political Economy: To borrow from journalism’s lexicon, always know who owns what, when, how and why? It helps clear up the picture as to why certain things happen the way they do. For example, how is fuel distributed in Zimbabwe? Or alternatively wheat? Not in an intellectual way but in the pragmatic sense.  By the time you get to a pub conversation, the knowledge is shared not on the basis of populism but pragmatism. 

6.       Always Remember to  Struggle for Racial and Gender Equality: Zimbabwe’s struggles for national independence did not occur in an ‘equality vacuum’.  Books on the equality of women during the struggle have been written and historically captured in narratives of Mbuya Nehanda and Cde Freedom Nyamubaya’s collection of poems such as ‘On the Road Again’.  Including the racial ambiguities of Dambudzo Marechera’s ‘ The House of Hunger’ or  ‘The Black Insider’.  All pointing to a necessity to embrace racial and gender equality in the then struggle of liberation and human equality that occur every day across the globe.  It is not semantics.  We are all equal.  Even if in the global north now occasionally demonstrates ambiguity over migrants or the global south accepts offers of payments to stem the flow of migrants, we have to insist, in common struggle that we are all equal. 

7.       The Environment Matters : In University postgraduate school we had to read a book titled ‘ The Lie of the Land, Challenging Received Wisdom on the African Environment’ as a departure point to perceptions on how Africans are perceived to perpetually contribute to negatively affect the natural environment.  It turns out in 2019 we, as Africans, contribute less than 1% in damaging the environment as opposed to those in the global north.  In our national context, and to be a better Zimbabwean, always understand that judgment calls from the global north do not mean we are the worst. Nor would we prefer to be the ‘Frankensteins’ of the global environment. We may eventually end up being at the forefront of protecting it (the World), warts and all. 

8.       Democracy and Good Governance Remain Relevant:   We may have found ourselves in a position where we are ostracized for either being Western influenced or not understanding our own history but the fundamentals are increasingly in place.  To govern a state legitimately there is need for the observation of human rights and democratic governance.  Even if you claim to have fought a liberation struggle against colonialism.   The reality of the matter is that there is now a regional, continental and global understanding of the same.  We just need to make it a popularly understood knowledge of the same.  In our context.  In our regions. On our continent.  And as always, with the future in mind. It will work for organic progressives. It may not for others.  

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