“I Am as Fit as a Fiddle”: Selling the Mugabe Brand in the 2013 Elections in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Robert Mugabe’s dominance in Zimbabwean politics post-independence has led critics to argue that politics in Zimbabwe is personal and patriarchal. Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU PF)’s alleged use of violence, violent discourse, and other unorthodox power retention strategies have been used to justify claims that Zimbabwean politics is the politics of chaos. In this post-colonial (mis)reading of African politics, ZANU PF and Mugabe discourses have been labeled nativism, patriotic history, Mugabeism, grotesque nationalism, etc. However, these studies have either been uncritically pro- or anti-ZANU PF (Moore 2012). The paper, through an analysis of ZANU PF’s rebranding of Mugabe in the July 2013 elections, suggests a new multitheoretical approach to overcome this uncritical reading of Zimbabwe’s political branding practices. The suggested approach utilizes insights gleaned from sign theory, political branding and/or advertising theory, post-colonial theory, and decolonial theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Election campaigns
• Mugabe
• Political advertising
• Political branding
• ZANU PF
• Zimbabwe

Notes

Guruuswa was the area around Great Zimbabwe. Historical accounts say the people of Guruuswa were the builders of Great Zimbabwe and in present day Zimbabwe’s Masvingo, the area around Great Zimbabwe is ruled by the Mugabes. President Mugabe has often referred to this area as the place of his uncles and forefathers. It is a place of origin and the most prominent of pre-independence Zimbabwean states: The Torwa state, the Mutapa Empire, and the Rozvi Empire trace their origins back to Guruuswa.

President Mugabe comes from Zvimba in Mashonaland Central.