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Abstract
This article is about a particular form of memory: heroism. Four years after his murder, MDC-T activist Tonderai Ndira remains a giant in his home township of Mabvuku-Tafara, on the outskirts of Harare. Known throughout Zimbabwe as the highest-profile casualty of the 2008 election violence, his presence is felt in every corner of the township, particularly among the youth activists who seek to emulate his socio-political legend. Rather than simply summarising Ndira's life or the MDC's politicised narrative of it, this article seeks the meaning of Ndira's memory by analysing the subjective personal reception of his heroism. When given the opportunity, youth activists in Mabvuku-Tafara recall a diverse collection of heroes in Ndira, varying across multiple axes from peacemaker to street-fighter, visionary to comedian. What these recitals share is a will by activists to use the story of Ndira's heroism to bring private, contentious imaginations of socio-political achievement into social relevance. From these findings, the article theorises a model of heroism beyond a simple dichotomy of hero and followers, towards a structure that is necessarily triangular: between hero, self and society.
Notes
1 See N. Kriger, ‘The Politics of Creating National Heroes’, in T. Ranger and N. Bhebe (eds), Soldiers in Zimbabwe's Liberation War (London, James Currey, 1995), pp. 139–63; S. J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and W. Willems ‘Making Sense of Cultural Nationalism and the Politics of Commemoration under the Third Chimurenga in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 35, 4 (2009), pp. 945–65; T. Ranger, ‘Nationalist Historiography, Patriotic History and the History of the Nation: the Struggle over the past in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 30, 2 (2004), pp. 215–34; R. Werbner, ‘Smoke from the Barrel of a Gun: Postwars of the Dead, Memory and Reinscription in Zimbabwe’, in R. Werbner (ed), Memory and the Postcolony: African Anthropology and the Critique of Power (London, Zed Books, 1998), pp. 71–102.
2 M. Tsvangirai, ‘Remembering Courageous True Heroes of Our Time’, speech at the ‘memorial service and unveiling of the tombstones of heroes of democracy’, Warren Park, Harare, 6 April 2011.
3 Movement for Democratic Change (2011), ‘Roll of Honour’ (official list of 323 heroes of the party's fight for democracy), released 7 August 2011, http://mdc-youthassembly.blogspot.com.au/p/roll-of-honor.html, retrieved 9 October 2013.
4 Heal Zimbabwe Trust, Public Memorialisation, Ritualisation, and Capacity Building: Tools for Peace Building & National Healing (Harare, 2011), p. 4.
5 Solidarity Peace Trust, Desperately Seeking Sanity: What Prospects for a New Beginning in Zimbabwe? (Durban, July 2008), p. 21.
6 M. Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression and Intersubjectivity (Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002), p. 15.
7 On the private subjectivities of storytelling, see L. White, ‘Telling More: Lies, Secrets, and History’, History and Theory, 39,4 (2000), pp. 11–22.
8 Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling, p. 14.
9 It is noteworthy, however, that only a small minority of interviewees requested anonymity.
10 T. Scarnecchia, The Urban Roots of Democracy and Political Violence in Zimbabwe: Harare and Higfield, 1940–1964 (Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2008), p. 77.
11 Interview, Adam, Mabvuku, 28 March 2012.
12Ibid.
13 Interview, Richard, Mabvuku, 27 March 2012.
14 Interview, anonymous Drug Section member, Mabvuku, 5 April 2012.
15 Interview, anonymous Drug Section member, Mabvuku, 5 April 2012.
16 See J. Alexander, ‘The Political Imaginaries and Social Lives of Political Prisoners in Post-2000 Zimbabwe’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 36, 2 (2010), pp. 483–503
17 Interview, Banabus Ndira, Mabvuku, 20 April 2012.
18 Interview, Paul, Mabvuku, 4 April 2012.
19 Interview, Walter, Mabvuku, 27 March 2012.
20Ibid.
21 Interview, Ward 20 Councillor Enias Gengezha, Mabvuku, 20 April 2012.
22 Interview, Simon, Mabvuku, 19 April 2012.
23 Interview, Walter, Mabvuku, 27 March 2012.
24 Studying youth raises many methodological and analytical questions. There is a wealth of literature on alternative definitions of this term, on how ‘youth’ can be seen as a relative, social category rather than a strictly biological one. Here, I have pursued ‘youth’ as a political category, i.e., I have engaged with the people who actively utilise the ‘youth’ label in the political sphere. Implicitly, this political ‘youth’ is also gendered. There are very few women in the youth structures in Mabvuku, and those in the township who do engage in politics often choose to join the women's wings despite being young enough to join the youth wing. Readers interested in the perspectives of young women on Mabvuku politics will not find answers here. The reason why the political youth category is so gendered (in Zimbabwe and elsewhere) deserves further research. See J. Abbink, ‘Being Youth in Africa: The Politics of Despair and Renewal’, in J. Abbink and I. van Kessel (eds), Vanguard or Vandals? Youth Politics and Conflict in Africa (Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2005), p. 6.
25 P. Carmody, ‘Neoclassical Practice and the Collapse of Industry in Zimbabwe: The Cases of Textiles, Clothing, and Footwear’, Economic Geography, 74, 4 (1998), p. 319.
26 D. Makina, ‘Historical Perspectives on Zimbabwe's Economic Performance: A Tale of Five Lost Decades’, Journal of Developing Societies, 26, 1 (2010), p. 106; Zimbabwe Institute, Progressive Zimbabwe: Sustainable Growth and Transformation (Cape Town, 2007), p. 37.
27 J. Jones, ‘“Nothing is Straight in Zimbabwe”: The Rise of the Kukiya-kiya Economy 2000–2008’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 36, 2 (2010), pp. 285–9.
28 Interview, Nicolas, Mabvuku, 28 March 2012.
29 Success in the informal sector has also become more difficult since Operation Murambatsvina's demolition of temporary structures like tuck shops and market stalls. Interview, Nathan, Tafara, 17 April 2012; Solidarity Peace Trust, A Fractured Nation: Operation Murambatsvina, Five Years On, (Johannesburg, July 2010).
30 Interview, Phillip, Tafara, 31 March 2012.
31 Interview, Ward 21 Councillor Munyaradzi Kufahakutizwi, Mabvuku, 7 April 2012.
32 M. Diouf, ‘Engaging Postcolonial Cultures: African Youth and the Public Space’, African Studies Review, 46, 2 (2003), p. 5.
33 Interview, Andrew, Tafara, 6 April 2012.
34 Interview, Paul, Mabvuku, 4 April 2012. Structural prominence was only one of several factors in council employment. Family connection was another. Interview, Graham, Mabvuku, 7 April 2012.
35 Interview, Francis, Mabvuku, 13 April 2012.
36 Interview, Francis, Mabuku, 13 and 21 April 2012.
37 Interview, Andrew, Mabuku, 31 March and 6 April 2012.
38 Interview, Stephen, Mabvuku, 5 April 2012.
39 Interview, Walter, Mabvuku, 27 March 2012.
40 Interview, Nathan, Tafara, 17 April 2012.
41 Interview, Henry, Tafara, 4 April 2012.
42 W. Adebanwi, ‘Death, National Memory and the Social Construction of Heroism’, Journal of African History, 49, (2008), p. 144.
43 J. Fontein, ‘Shared Legacies of the War: Spirit Mediums and War Veterans in Southern Zimbabwe’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 36, 2 (2006), p. 189.
44 Werbner, Smoke through the Barrel of a Gun.
45 Kriger, ‘The Politics of Creating National Heroes’.
46 H. Becker, ‘Commemorating Heroes in Windhoek and Eenhana: Memory, Culture and Nationalism in Namibia, 1990–2010’, Africa, 81, 4 (2011), pp. 519–43; C. Glaser, Bo-Tsotsi: The Youth Gangs of Soweto, 1935–1976 (Portsmouth NH, Heinemann, 2000); J. Seekings, ‘Beyond Heroes and Villains: The Rediscovery of the Ordinary in the Study of Childhood and Adolescence in South Africa’, Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies, 32, 1 (2006), pp. 1–20.
47 Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling, p. 14.
48 Abbink, ‘Being Youth in Africa’, p. 9.
49 R. Bray, Rachael, I. Gooskens, S. Moses and J. Seekings, Growing Up in the New South Africa: Childhood and Adolescence in Post-Apartheid Cape Town (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2010), p. 294.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sam Wilkins
Sam WilkinsInstitute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne, 78–80 Curzon Street, North Melbourne, VIC 3051, Australia. E-mail:[email protected]