Book contents
- Performing Power in Zimbabwe
- African Studies Series
- Performing Power in Zimbabwe
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 History, Authority and the Law in Zimbabwe, 1950–2002
- 2 ‘Rebels’ and ‘Good Boys’
- 3 ‘Zimbabweans Are Foolishly Litigious’
- 4 ‘What Is Abnormal Is Normal’
- 5 Material and Sensory Courtrooms
- 6 The Trials of the ‘Traitor’ in Harare’s Magistrates’ Courts under the Unity Government
- 7 History, Consciousness and Citizenship in Matabeleland
- 8 Historical Narrative and Political Strategy in Bulawayo’s Magistrates’ Courts
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
1 - History, Authority and the Law in Zimbabwe, 1950–2002
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2021
- Performing Power in Zimbabwe
- African Studies Series
- Performing Power in Zimbabwe
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 History, Authority and the Law in Zimbabwe, 1950–2002
- 2 ‘Rebels’ and ‘Good Boys’
- 3 ‘Zimbabweans Are Foolishly Litigious’
- 4 ‘What Is Abnormal Is Normal’
- 5 Material and Sensory Courtrooms
- 6 The Trials of the ‘Traitor’ in Harare’s Magistrates’ Courts under the Unity Government
- 7 History, Consciousness and Citizenship in Matabeleland
- 8 Historical Narrative and Political Strategy in Bulawayo’s Magistrates’ Courts
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Summary
Chapter 1 expands on the relationship between history, law and politics in Zimbabwe. It traces historical trends in the mobilisation of law’s coercive power by consecutive colonial and post-colonial governments, locates the development of legal consciousness in citizens’ relations to the colonial legal system and examines debates over ‘professionalism’ and ‘justice’ between the executive and the judiciary, and within the judiciary itself. It then situates the attacks on members of the judiciary and the rule of law after 2000 in the context of ZANU-PF’s mobilisation of a selective historical narrative, its ‘patriotic history’, to argue that conceptualisations of justice took on fundamentally new forms which shape the understandings of the legitimacy of law and its relation to state authority explored within this thesis, but which are rooted in this longer history.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Performing Power in ZimbabwePolitics, Law, and the Courts since 2000, pp. 33 - 59Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021