Selfing and concealing: Cephas Msipa and the discourse of “Umlamlankunzi” (separator of fighting bulls) in In Pursuit of Freedom and Justice. A memoir

ABSTRACT

Cephas Msipa’s political autobiography promises a lot in its title. It constructs the self as an indefatigable champion for freedom and justice in the context of colonialism and post-independence where freedom and justice were constantly under siege. But, like all autobiographies, the promise immanent in the title falls prey to strategic silences, elisions and erasures. The construction of the self as moderate, non-partisan, pacific and ethical is undermined by the narrator’s complicity, rationalization and collaboration with injustice and curtailment of freedom, especially after independence. Msipa is a nationalist luminary in Zimbabwean political iconography, but his relationship with Mugabe and participation in ZANU-PF politics from 1980 to 2013 disqualifies him to speak in absolutes about freedom and justice. This article uses literary criticism and a touch of nationalism to argue that the silences, absences and justifications inherent in his narrative bespeak of an attempt to let sleeping dogs be. It justifies Mugabeism. I conclude by arguing that Msipa’s construction of the self as neutral is fractured by his refusal to engage with injustices. There can never be justice without truth. Whose justice? Whose freedom? At what cost?

KEYWORDS:

• Mugabeism
• remembering
• forgetting
• reconstruction
• Msipa

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Thamsanqa Moyo

Thamsanqa Moyo is a senior lecturer at Great Zimbabwe University. His research interests are in Zimbabwean and Southern African Literature.