Names, labels, the Zimbabwean Liberation War veteran and the third Chimurenga: the language and politics of entitlement in post-2000 Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the Zimbabwean Liberation War veterans’ naming and labelling of individuals and groups opposed to the Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP) in post-2000 Zimbabwe. As instruments of political coercion, the two processes participated in the production of images of individuals and groups opposed to land expropriation, particularly white farmers and political opponents in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), that were at once grotesque and indicative of the polarized nature of political discourse in post-2000 Zimbabwe. The article evinces that naming and labelling participated in the articulation of the Zimbabwean Liberation War veterans’ sense of entitlement to land, resources and preferential treatment by the post-2000 Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government of Robert Mugabe. Using the Zimbabwean Liberation War context in which post-2000 Zimbabwean political culture of framing reality in exclusionary terms finds its roots and inspiration, the article explores how veterans of the Zimbabwean Liberation War used names and labels to categorize people and phenomena, separating so-called patriots from exploiters and sell-outs. The discussion also explicates how the Zimbabwean Liberation War veterans held themselves up as yardsticks of commitment to patriotic citizenship in the context of a perceived ZANU-PF war against neo-colonialism.

KEYWORDS:

• Labels
• names
• post-2000 Zimbabwe
• third Chimurenga
• War veterans

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Robert Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 and was deposed in a military coup in November 2017. His successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is yet to send clear signals of commitment to reform.

2. Tsvangirai had left the country for Botswana just before the run-off election of 2008. It was reported, during those days, that he was fearing for his life, while other reports said he had gone to mobilize political support in the region.

3. Interview with war veteran Blah George (which means Big Brother George) in Gweru, 2011.

4. Interview with Mrs. XB, who got a piece of land in Glen Devon Farm in Mazowe District, September 2017.

5. Interview with Mr. Chimwango, September 2017.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Humboldt Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Obert Bernard Mlambo

Obert Bernard Mlambo, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Zimbabwe, a Humboldt Fellow and a Visiting Scholar at the Global South Studies Centre at the University of Cologne, Germany. He is working on a monograph provisionally entitled Veterans, Masculinity and Expropriation in Contemporary Zimbabwe and Republican Rome: A Comparative Study. His research interests include Roman history, veterans and post-war conflicts, and comparative studies of classical and contemporary African societies. Professor Mlambo is a former recipient of the Fondation Hardt’s Young Researchers Fellowship (Geneva, Switzerland) and the Nordic Africa Institute’s Guest Scholar Fellowship (Uppsala, Sweden).

Tavengwa Gwekwerere

Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, USA, and a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of African Languages at the University of South Africa. He received his Ph.D. in African Literature and Critical Theory at the University of South Africa and his MA and BA at the University of Zimbabwe. Prior to joining California State University, Los Angeles, Dr. Gwekwerere taught in the Department of African Languages and Literatures at the University of Zimbabwe and is an erstwhile Visiting Professor in the Department of African and African-American Studies at the University of Oklahoma.