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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Tyrrany, Parody, and Ethnic Polarity: Ritual Engagements with the State in Northwestern Zimbabwe
Author:Worby, EricISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:24
Issue:3
Period:September
Pages:561-578
Language:English
Geographic term:Zimbabwe
Subjects:ethnicity
political repression
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Politics and Government
Ethnic and Race Relations
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637661
Abstract:This paper explores how the postcolonial State in Zimbabe has engaged in ritual, performative, and, ultimately, tyrannical demonstrations of power, both at its centre and at its peripheries. It also explores how the subjects of rule interpret these actions and how they respond to them. Finally, it shows how ethnicity figures differently in distinct loci of decisionmaking. The article begins with an analysis of the 1984 Independence Day celebrations in Harare and the origins and practice of ethnocidal terror by the Zimbabwean army in Matabeleland. Then the focus shifts to Gokwe District in the northwestern part of the country. The author reviews the ways in which the consolidation of ZANU-PF loyalties through violence was conjoined with authoritarian developmentalist discourse and practice. The last part of the article analyses incidents in some minor theatres of bureaucratic power in Gokwe, in particular at cotton delivery depots and during agricultural field days. These are shown to be scenes in which the authority of the State is both demonstrated and acknowledged, asserted and subverted. In these venues and on these occasions, the play of ethnic difference has less to do with exclusive access to an implicitly 'Shona' nation, and more with the demand to be included within a broader project and ethos of modernity. Notes, ref., sum.
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