Special History Department/African Studies Seminar
May 3 12 noon. History Department, Old Horticulture Room 255

AUTHORITARIAN NATIONALISM AND POLITICS IN ZIMBABWE IN THE 21^ST CENTURY

Alois S. Mlambo
University of Pretoria, South Africa

ABSTRACT

Recent commentators on Zimbabwe’s crisis since the turn of the century have drawn attention to the rise of an intolerant, selective and racialized authoritarian nationalism that is becoming increasingly parochial and exclusive. Underpinned by what Terence Ranger referred to as ‘patriotic history’, this latest version of Zimbabwean nationalism has proved to be highly divisive by categorising Zimbabweans as either ‘patriots’ or ‘sell-outs’ and puppets of the West, or as ‘sons of the soil’ versus ‘aliens’. Those labelled sell-outs, puppets or aliens are then regarded as deserving the ill-treatment, political harassment and human rights abuses they are subjected to by state institutions and ruling party supporters, as the new nationalism seeks to suppress any political dissent. This paper examines the nature of Zimbabwe’s new nationalism and locates its birth in the political contestation at the turn of the century. It traces the rise and character of patriotic history as well as how ZANU-PF has used patriotic history to justify its policies and suppression of the opposition. Finally, the paper comments on how Zimbabwe’s pan-African rhetoric employed in presenting the new nationalism as a defence of African sovereignty resonates with fellow Africans across the globe.

Emeritus Professor Alois Mlambo is Acting Head of Historical and Heritage Studies, University of Pretoria. He holds degrees from the universities of Canterbury, School of Oriental and African Studies London, and Duke, and taught at the University of Zimbabwe, Bayero University Nigeria, University of Minnesota, Duke University, North Carolina State University and University of Pretoria. Professor Mlambo has published widely on Zimbabwe’s political and economic history and authored or edited eight books, including A History of Zimbabwe (Cambridge University Press, 2014), with A History of Southern Africa expected later in 2017. He has also written on the history of migration and immigration in Zimbabwe, on Robert Mugabe and land, industrialization, de-industrialization and structural adjustment programs, as well as the sugar industry in Zimbabwe.