Zimbabwe has always had a very active and in some parts organic political culture. Since our national independence it has been largely characterised by a general sense of optimism about the future as relating to liberation struggle promises/values that also came with what we then referred to as 'morari' (morale).
Which in turn meant cultural and popular music elements to accompany our then optimism in the early 1980s.
All in the name of our own version of socialism that we referred to as 'gutsaruzhinji'.
Even as the historically infamous Gukurahundi period ended as we approached the 1990s, we still had a generalised optimistic approach to our national political future.
We had the then Mugabe government declaring five year programmes of development which had various themes and names that are now hard to fully recall what they meant.
Until the after effects of Economic Structural Adjustment (ESAP) hit us hard in the early 1990s. Particularly after the 1992 drought that brought us down to earth via eating the infamous 'yellow maize'.
And the emerging of more radical trade unions due to job cuts and a rising radical pro-democracy political activism that followed global post cold war trends.
Particularly in the late 1990s when there was the formation of the labour backed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to challenge the hegemony of the ruling Zanu Pf party.
This challenge was from an initial organic standpoint. Where the narrative was that the ruling establishment had betrayed the values of the liberation struggle.
In turn, the establishment racheted up its populism and started the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) from 2000 to present as a counter narrative. As well as a claim to a 'return' to historical values and principles.
And as a justification for retaining power by hook or by crook in order to finish off the purported next phase of the liberation struugle (the 3rd Chimurenga).
We then moved to the political impasse where the past clashed with the present in 2008 and had to accept a SADC mediated government of national unity until 2013. Thats when the 'past' in the form of Zanu Pf recovered and reconfigured its own internal politics until the coup-not-a-coup in 2017.
The 'present' in the form of the opposition attempted at populist reinvention in 2018 and 2023 via mixing religion and political activism.
A strategy that proved to be highly inorganic and ephemeral as well as also highly dependent on a short term electoral cycle for relevance and optimism.
Now here we are in 2026 and we are at yet another national political crossroads. The 'past' i.e Zanu Pf has decided that the 'present' i.e what remains of opposition political sentiment, and the country in general must be harnessed to an ambiguos and elitist political future.
It has changed the constitution and electoral cycle to stay in elitist power and protect its own economic interests for the long haul until at least 2030. With a very co-opted and defeated political opposition.
What however is missed by the powers that be is that they have placed Zimbabwe in an impasse where the past, the present and the future are no longer in sync.
I know this is a complicated point to make. But I will explain it in relation to our national political culture and consciousness.
In the first instance Zimbabwe as a country and society is one that is acutely aware of its origins. Even if by default of propaganda, education and lived experiences.
Most of us can easily put two and two together in order to establish political meaning of the state we live in or want to depart from.
This means the recent elitist constitutional amendments are viewed as being at best technical and not democratically people-centered.
Almost as though they reflect a Rhodesian UDI moment of 1965 which sowed the seeds of future resistance to such politics. Either by those in the present or those from the future.
In the second instance, there is now a general public understanding that populism works in tandem with materialism.
Hence the role of money, patronage and religion as a new cornerstone of assumed political legitimacy. Without direct general elections at all levels of government. And in cahoots with private capital which really has no problem with a Chinese model of elitist governance for profit.
The third and final instance is our national contemporary consciousness dilemma.
Particularly for young Zimbabweans. This is where populism, materialism (religion) and ideology are findimg new interactions that are complicatedly defined in the social immediate.
If one goes anywhere in Zimbabwe to interact with young cdes on our country's political future, they will argue in at least three ways.
First is 'Zvakavarwa' (it is closed).
Second is 'make money!' As instructed by the incumbent president Mnangagwa.
Third is in order to deal with the aforementioned first two, 'find Jesus'.
In this connundrum of false and sometimes ephemeral national consciousness we are losing the heart and soul of Zimbabwe.
Not only as an historically ideologically grounded people centered state but also its future political value in the world as an exemplar of progressive global politics.
We are in a dilemma. We however, I am certain, will recover!
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity.
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