There are several reasons why tyrants close the archives of a nation and why those with wealth and power want a nation to “forget and move on”. Chief among these reasons is to bury accountability.
Admired by Pan-Africanists for his anti-imperialist rhetoric but loathed at home for his authoritarian tendencies, Robert Mugabe was a man full of contradictions. TINASHE L. CHIMEDZA reflects on the controversial life of Zimbabwe’s longest-serving leader.
TINASHE L. CHIMEDZA explores how state-sanctioned violence – a remnant of colonialism and the country’s liberation war – has become normalised in Zimbabwe.
TINASHE L. CHIMEDZA explains why the November 2017 military coup in Zimbabwe and the ouster of Robert Mugabe failed to deliver democracy and sound financial management to a country that has yet to overcome the debilitating effects of authoritarianism and hyperinflation.
What has emerged since that “military-assisted transition” is a Zimbabwe that is now policed by the military. Democratic-constitutional institutions have been subverted and the rule of law has been shredded. The dominant political class has become a network of very powerful military elites, or what can be referred to as military-nationalists.