Sara Rich Dorman

Post-liberation Politics in Africa: examining the political legacy of struggle

Abstract This article examines the politics of African states in which insurgencies or liberation movements have taken control of the government. It analyses the impact on governance of reforms introduced by these post-liberation regimes, their relations with traditional authorities and civil society and relationships within and between competing guerrilla movements. It interrogates the nature of the state that emerges from this process. The ‘post-liberation’ state label is argued to be both meaningful and useful, as part of a larger project of exploring and explaining the post-colonial African state, highlighting debates about representation, citizenship and nation building. While post-liberation regimes have advantages in implementing state building projects, they are also subject to contestation when the new state institutions and regime incumbents become too exclusivist or predatory.

NGOs and the Constitutional Debate in Zimbabwe: from Inclusion to Exclusion

Two competing processes of constitutional reform occurred in Zimbabwe between 1997 and 2000. In 1997, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), led by churches, NGOs and unions, was formed and initiated a constitutional debate. In 1999, the ZANU(PF) government of Robert Mugabe attempted to reclaim the debate by launching a Constitutional Commission (CC) with a mandate to consult Zimbabweans and draft a new constitution, to be voted on in a plebiscite in February 2000. The governmental process was unprecedented in its participatory and inclusive nature. Opposition politicians, NGO activists and church people were included alongside ZANU(PF) stalwarts. At the same time, the rhetoric used against those in the NCA who rejected the invitation to participate grew increasingly exclusionary and intolerant. The ruling party was, in this period, beset by revelations of scandals, financial crises and declining social services. The constitutional debate was, at least in part, an attempt to regain control of political discourse, even as the states ability to provide services was weakened. Instead, the public consultations provided a platform for the articulation of devastating critiques of the regimes political and economic policies in public meetings that were covered extensively in the media. The governments defeat in the referendum, in which voters rejected the draft constitution, legitimated the existence of organisations and ideas outside the hegemony of the ruling party/state. The voting public (albeit a largely urban selection of the potential electorate) affirmed the claims made by the NCA to speak and act outside the remit of the state. This rejection of the way in which politics had been done since independence set the stage for the violent and coercive politics of 2000 and beyond.

‘Make Sure They Count Nicely This Time’: The Politics of Elections and Election Observing in Zimbabwe

This article examines the controversy surrounding Zimbabwes elections in 2000 and 2002. It situates these elections against Zimbabwes experiences of elections since 1980. It argues that the conditions for this controversy emerged from the institutions and practices that developed in Zimbabwe from the time of independence. At the same time, election observers – influenced both by criticism of earlier observation missions in Africa and international policy concerns – were positioned to make an example of the Zimbabwe elections. The Zimbabwe elections became an international crisis point not simply because of observer reports or electoral fraud, but because of the interactions between Zimbabwes domestic politics and external relationships.

‘We have not made anybody homeless’: regulation and control of urban life in Zimbabwe

Abstract In May and June 2005, thousands of Zimbabweans were brutally displaced from urban areas. But ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ was not simply an unpredictable ‘tsunami,’ rather it provides a moment in which long-held prejudices and assumptions which shaped the developmental state became visible, reflecting not just the internalisation of the Rhodesian, modernist world-view, but also its imbrication with local understandings of home and home-ness. To see Murambatsvina as simply a politically expedient move is to miss the deep resonance of the political rhetoric, the ways it was embedded in the state, and how it is shaped by norms of citizenship. Contextualised against Harares urban politics, the clearances reveal a long-standing set of policies designed to regulate and control urban life, forming part of a broader crisis of the post-colonial developmental state.

“We Didn’t Fight for This”: The Pitfalls of State- and Nation-Building in Eritrea

Eritrea’s historical and political trajectory is key to understanding the emergence of secessionist aspirations and its post-secession path, including relations between state and society. We first consider Eritrea’s claim for self-determination, international response toward it, and independence war. We then focus on the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front’s (EPLF) post-independence state- and nation-building project, which has militarized society as it has become more authoritarian. Regional and global tensions have further reinforced Eritrea’s isolation. Large numbers of youth have sought an “exit-option” as asylum-seekers, joining a multi-generational diaspora. Although Eritreans do not question the secessionist project, and their allegiance to Eritrean national identity does not seem to have waned, their decisions reflect a deep concern for the future of their nation, shaped as it is by the political legacy of the struggle.

Reconciliation, Christianity and the Politics of Non-Conformism in Zimbabwe: Joram Tarusarira, Reconciliation and Religio-Political Non-Conformism in Zimbabwe (Abingdon, Routledge, 2016) xviii + 240 pp., hardback, £95.00, ISBN 978-1-4724-6599-3; ebook, £24.49, ISBN 978-1-3156-0394-0.

insecurity and downward mobility. Van de Kamp explores a range of historical, socio-cultural and economic answers. She contends that women ‘immobilised’ (p. 23) by burdensome urban kin and deficient partners find Brazilian churches’ transnational mobility and the liberation potential of their technologies attractive. These churches also offer them ways to direct and control new socio-economic and cultural futures. Van de Kamp traces this ‘pioneering’ spirit to twin historical causes: a local belief that one has to transcend boundaries to effect healing or change, and the social and economic ruptures wrought by successive colonial, post-colonial, socialist and neo-liberal forces in Mozambique (see Chapter 2). Beyond these macro-level explanations, she also shows that generational trajectories (Chapter 3), the spiritual insecurities that attend historical ruptures (Chapter 4), and new romantic ideals informed by Brazilian soaps (Chapter 5) shape Mozambican women’s conversion. Violent Conversion makes its largest contribution to the study of Christianity in Africa by bravely drawing attention to the knowing role that women converts play in the destructive social effects of some new Pentecostal churches. Theoretically, however, the book is less brave. Drawing on a broad political economic framework, it overlooks the content and particularities of different Brazilian churches in Mozambique and reduces individual beliefs to the vagaries of economic and social changes. It also does not theoretically elaborate either violence or conversion. These reservations, however, should not keep scholars interested in Christianity and Mozambique from reading this book.

‘We have not made anybody homeless’: Urban development, citizenship, and the Zimbabwean state

Abstract In May and June 2005, thousands of Zimbabweans were brutally displaced from urban areas. But ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ was not simply an unpredictable ‘tsunami,’ rather it provides a moment in which long-held prejudices and assumptions which shaped the developmental state became visible, reflecting not just the internalisation of the Rhodesian, modernist world-view, but also its imbrication with local understandings of home and home-ness. To see Murambatsvina as simply a politically expedient move is to miss the deep resonance of the political rhetoric, the ways it was embedded in the state, and how it is shaped by norms of citizenship. Contextualised against Harares urban politics, the clearances reveal a long-standing set of policies designed to regulate and control urban life, forming part of a broader crisis of the post-colonial developmental state.

We have not made anybody homeless

Abstract In May and June 2005, thousands of Zimbabweans were brutally displaced from urban areas. But ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ was not simply an unpredictable ‘tsunami,’ rather it provides a moment in which long-held prejudices and assumptions which shaped the developmental state became visible, reflecting not just the internalisation of the Rhodesian, modernist world-view, but also its imbrication with local understandings of home and home-ness. To see Murambatsvina as simply a politically expedient move is to miss the deep resonance of the political rhetoric, the ways it was embedded in the state, and how it is shaped by norms of citizenship. Contextualised against Harares urban politics, the clearances reveal a long-standing set of policies designed to regulate and control urban life, forming part of a broader crisis of the post-colonial developmental state.

Rebel rulers: insurgent governance and civilian life during war

peace processes. This serves as an important reminder that although the civil wars dominate southern Sudan’s post-independence history, they are not the only interesting aspect of the history of South Sudan. Commenting on her interviews with people who endured two wars, she notes, “war appears as a context for people’s life stories, rather than as the focus in itself of their narratives” (144). If there is a criticism of this book, it is that it largely avoids discussion of religious life, a central part of southern Sudanese social life. In her conclusion, Leonardi argues that “chiefs have been central to that remaking of the local state, not because they are, or have ever been, the sole interlocutors or authorities, but because chiefship is above all the institutionalised expression of the frontier itself” (220). It would be interesting to know the ways in which Christian leaders have come to occupy similar roles in the way they mediate relationships between a local community and a hakuma that now makes itself known not only as an independent state but also as an overwhelming array of international organisations. Leonardi briefly mentions, for instance, the way in which an Episcopal bishop and a Catholic priest led their people into exile from Yei in the early 1990s, but leaves this largely unanalysed as an example of community-hakuma relations. Are there other such stories that remain to be told? Such issues could form the basis of future research, building on Leonardi’s exceptional effort.

Patrick Chabal: An Appreciation?

Chabal, P. (1983) Amilcar Cabral. Cambridge: reprinted Hurst 2004 Chabal, P. (ed.) (1986) Political Domination in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Chabal, P. (1992, 1994) Power in Africa: An essay in Political interpretation. New York: Macmillan Chabal, P. and Daloz, JP. (1999) Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument. Oxford: James Currey Chabal, P. et al, (2002) A History of Post-colonial Lusophone Africa. Bloomington: Hurst Chabal, P. and Daloz, JP. (2006) Culture Troubles: Politics and the Interpretation of Meaning. Bloomington: Hurst Chabal, P. (2009) Africa: The Politics of Suffering and Smiling. London: Zed Books