What the past few weeks have revealed about Morgan Tsvangirai

The past few weeks have been a hectic, torrid time for Movement for Democratic Change leader and Zimbabwe coalition government Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai. What is amazing is how most of the damage to his image has been so wantonly reckless and self-inflicted. Even if he gets over this image hump, what the public has learned about him in recent weeks is not particularly confidence-inspiring for a leader whose brand is largely based on the promise of conduct different from that of the politicians who have been in control for the past three decades.

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If Mugabe is 'the most British of all British people,' what does that say about Zimbabweanhood?

 by Chido Makunike

  

All the effort expended into crafting a new constitution is at a certain level about trying to decide what values are important to us a nation in rapid transition in all sorts of ways.

For instance, which laws from the colonial era are still relevant in the new Zimbabwe we are trying to build, and which need to be discarded? Which social practices need to be protected, and which are considered so abhorrent to the society that they need to be expressly sanctioned in the constitution? How do we best balance majority sentiments, values and practices against the protection of the rights of citizens who may have minority, dissenting values?

READ MORE - If Mugabe is 'the most British of all British people,' what does that say about Zimbabweanhood?

Church man Makandiwa’s fascinating Mercedes Benz wedding gift: a critique

Religious entrepreneur Emmanuel Makandiwa made a lot of waves in Zimbabwe in 2011. In status-obsessed Zimbabwe, at year end the ‘prosperity gospel’ preacher and purported miracle worker added considerably to his mystique by giving a young couple the wedding gift of a Mercedes Benz car. What are some of the messages of this gesture that had so much of the country talking?

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Guy Scott as Zambia’s first white vice president says nothing about events in Zimbabwe or elsewhere

Chido Makunike


The appointment by new Zambian president Michael Sata of Guy Scott as his vice president has received a fair amount of attention. It is still a rare novelty for a white person to occupy high political office and wield real power in post-colonial Africa. Among others, the UK Guardian postulated that this represents ‘a significant milestone for the development of a post-colonial non-racial order in Africa.’ It may indeed be a sign that African prickliness over the racial indignities of the past is receding, but it may not be as big a deal as speculated, nor applicable to countries with very different social dynamics from Zambia’s.

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The economic implications of Zimbabwe's growing taste for rice

A leading Zimbabwean food company has just opened a new rice processing plant. It says there is a growing local demand for rice, which is becoming more of an everyday food starch than before, when it was usually eaten on special days or occasions. A seemingly innocuous dietary trend could quite unintentionally have big long term implications on the country’s food security, by contributing to dependence on a staple food the country has almost no prospect of being ever self sufficient in.

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Tradition and the syndrome of the African ‘big man’

Chido Makunike

The details of the recent traditional marriages of two prominent men of power in Zimbabwe may provide some interesting clues to why so much of Africa has failed to rid itself of the ‘big man syndrome.’ Even if a leader is initially elected, all too often he has become powerful beyond what is constitutionally allowed, and has stayed on long after his people are tired of him. While the character of many who have become leaders in modern Africa may be questionable, there are also considerable cultural and social pressures that encourage the emergence of the ‘big man’ mentality once a person gets into a position of power.   

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Militias and the privatization of ZANU-PF, MDC political violence

The leaders of ZANU-PF and the MDC recently made a big show of a joint appeal for the end of political violence between and amongst their supporters. However, the culture of political violence has become so entrenched in Zimbabwe that there are actors aligned to but outside the direct control of the political parties and their leaders who have their own interests in continuing to sponsor violence.

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No gaiety in Tsvangirai gay rights flip flop

MDC leader, current Prime Minister and possible future Zimbabwean president Morgan Tsvangirai has had a change of heart about gay rights. In 2010 he publicly supported President Robert Mugabe’s vocal anti-gay stance. Now he has expressed a defense not of the practice of homosexuality, but of the right of homosexuals to constitutional protections. In different circumstances Tsvangirai’s new position would have seemed a brave defense of an unpopular minority’s rights to civil protections all citizens should be able to count on. But the messy manner of Tsvangirai’s ‘coming out’ with his new stance has left egg all over his face, giving insight into the political smarts, or lack of them, of Zimbabwe’s aspiring next leader.

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Anglican Church in Zimbabwe: the challenges of transforming a colonial church to post-colonial relevance

The deep discord in Zimbabwe's Anglican Church continues in full public view. Whichever way the saga develops, it has touched on and affected many issues beyond the stated reasons for the split within the church.

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Are Econet and ZANU-PF two sides of the depressingly same Zimbabwean customer care coin?

It seems that in Zimbabwe the market leaders in virtually any business segment rarely also have the affection of their customers. Think of the uncontested political dominance ZANU-PF enjoyed for many years, which they rewarded by turning large parts of the overwhelming support for them into fear and loathing amongst many. Think of the rage with which many Zimbabweans think of the service of electricity monopoly ZESA. Think of how little real public sympathy and support struggling Air Zimbabwe enjoys. Is leading telecommunications service provider Econet moving in this same direction with regards to public feeling about them?

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Preacherman Makandiwa's troubles raise troubling questions about a Zimbabwean herd mentality

A prominent, popular Zimbabwean evangelist has been caught up in a controversy in which he is accused of offering a telecommunications-related service that an entrepreneur says was really his idea, and that the regulatory authority says the pastor has no legal authority to offer. However, the most uncomfortable questions about the saga may have nothing to do with these technical aspects, but with how the 'man of god' achieved his prominence, and what it might say about the state of Zimbabwean society.

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Why Zimbabwe's embattled white farmers had little black support

During the 10 year period that the government of President Mugabe was systematically dispossessing them, Zimbabwe's white farmers used many arguments to try to defend themselves, in various fora local, regional and international. One argument they employed that never quite gained traction amongst black Zimbabweans, even those opposed to Mugabe's brutal treatment of them, was that his actions were 'racist.'

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Churchianity, Zimbabwe's biggest growth industry

There is a boom in new churches in Zimbabwe. 

Like many parts of Africa, Zimbabwe may have chaffed under the treatment they experienced under their colonizers, but they developed a strong bond with the religion brought by the missionaries who followed closely behind the colonists.

Christianity has taken deep root in Zimbabwe, although it has evolved over the decades to be in many ways quite different from the forms the European and American missionaries brought. The old Western churches (Methodist, Catholic and so on) are fast losing ground to an aggressive form of pentecostal exuberance that many worshipers seem to find more socio-culturally fitting than the more staid worship types spoon-fed by the missionaries.

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The evolution of Zimnglish and Zimrhetoric, part 1

Zimbabwean English is fairly 'standard' in most ways. But it has increasingly developed its own interesting idiosyncrasies in recent years. There is the natural 'localization' of the language that grows apace as the colonial era slinks further into the past. Then there are also the unique usages that have developed due to other influences. Some of those include the sense of the country being embattled and politically isolated

READ MORE - The evolution of Zimnglish and Zimrhetoric, part 1