Zimbabwe's 1985 Elections: a Search for National Mythology

Christine Sylvester

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00006868

Zimbabwe's 1985 Elections: a Search for National Mythology

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Christine Sylvester

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When Zimbabweans went to the polls in June and July of 1985, they decisively returned the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) to formal power, provided regional support for the Patriotic Front–Zimbabwe African People's Union and, in the case of the white roll, endorsed Ian Smith's Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe. Questions raised in the wake of the elections tended to focus on the changes that the Z.A.N.U.(P.F.) Government could institute in the next three to five years – a one-party system, a complete abrogation of the Lancaster House privileges for whites, a vigorous turn towards Marxism.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 1986 , pp. 229 - 255

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00006868 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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^{Page 229 note 1} Weitzer, Ronald, ‘In Search of Régime Security: Zimbabwe since independence’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 22, 4, 12 1984, pp. 529–57.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{Page 229 note 2} Ranger, Terence O., Peasant Consciousness and Guerrilla War in Zimbabwe (Berkeley, 1985).Google Scholar

^{Page 229 note 3} Sylvester, Christine, ‘Continuities and Discontinuities in Zimbabwe's Development History’, in African Studies Review (Los Angeles), 28, 1, 1985, pp. 19–44.Google Scholar

^{Page 230 note 1} Collier, Ruth, Regimes in Tropical Africa (Berkeley, 1982), p. 18n.Google Scholar

^{Page 230 note 2} Gramsci, Antonio, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (London, 1971), pp. 332–3, stresses the importance of constructing an intellectual-moral bloc that ‘can make politically possible the intellectual progress of the mass and not only of small intellectual groups’.Google Scholar According to Adamson, Walter, Hegemony and Revolution (Berkeley, 1980), p. 178, that social group or class ‘will by definition be hegemonic vis-à-vis itself, but its political alliances with other such groups may or may not develop into a hegemonic relationship’.Google Scholar

^{Page 230 note 3} The specific sources are The Herald (Harare), The Sunday Mail (Harare), The Sunday News (Bulawayo), The Chronicle (Bulawayo),Google Scholar and Zimbabwe T.V. specials on the elections (all monitored from 21 June to 12 July 1985), plus Moto Magazine (Gweru) and Hansard (Harare) from 1 January to 1 August 1985. In addition, election manifestos were analysed and interviews were conducted with official representatives of all but the three smallest parties contesting the elections.Google Scholar

^{Page 231 note 1} Thompson, Leonard, The Political Mythology of Apartheid (New Haven, 1985), p. 1.Google Scholar The synonyms appear in Edelman, Murray, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (Urbana, 1964), Gramsci, op. cit.,Google Scholar and Ashley, Richard, ‘Political Realism and Human Interests’, in International Studies Quarterly (Guildford), 25, 2, 06 1981.Google Scholar

^{Page 231 note 2} Adamson, op.cit. p. 150.Google Scholar

^{Page 231 note 3} Gramsci, op.cit. p. 420, cited by Adamson, ibid.

^{Page 231 note 4} The first case is vividly described by Ranger, op.cit., and by Lan, David, Guns and Rain: guerrillas and spirit mediums in Zimbabwe (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1985).Google Scholar The second case is noted by Poulantzas, Nicos, Political Power and Social Classes (London, 1974).Google Scholar

^{Page 231 note 5} Collier, op.cit. p. 10.Google Scholar

^{Page 231 note 6} Plamenatz, J. P., Consent, Freedom and Political Obligation (London, 1968), p. 170. It may be assumed that his comments apply to female as well as male citizens.Google Scholar

^{Page 231 note 7} Young, Crawford, Ideology and Development in Africa (New Haven and London, 1982), p. 18.Google Scholar

^{Page 232 note 1} These points are brought out anew by Sithole, Masipula, ‘Experiences with Democracy: the case of Zimbabwe’, African Studies Association Conference, New Orleans, 1985.Google Scholar

^{Page 232 note 2} For a discussion of Zimbabwe's development eras, see Sylvester, , loc.cit., and Cokorinos, Lee, ‘The Political Economy of State and Party Formation in Zimbabwe’, in Schatzberg, Michael (ed.), The Political Economy of Zimbabwe (New York, 1984), pp. 8–54.Google Scholar

^{Page 233 note 1} Quoted in Martin, David and Johnson, Phyllis, The Struggle for Zimbabwe: the Chimurenga war (London, Boston, and Harare, 1981), p. 1.Google Scholar

^{Page 233 note 2} Chabal, Patrick, Amilcar Cabral: revolutionary leadership and people's war (Cambridge, 1983), p. 218, cited by Weitzer, loc.cit. p. 530.Google Scholar

^{Page 233 note 3} Weitzer, loc.cit.

^{Page 233 note 4} Ibid. p. 548.

^{Page 233 note 5} Davidow, Jeffrey, A Peace in Southern Africa: the Lancaster House Conference on Rhodesia, 1979 (Boulder, 1984).Google Scholar

^{Page 234 note 1} See Weitzer, loc. cit.

^{Page 234 note 2} Ranger, op.cit. pp. 303–7.

^{Page 235 note 1} Weitzer, loc.cit. p. 357.

^{Page 235 note 2} For a discussion of common versus good sense, see Adamson, op.cit. ch. 5.Google Scholar

^{Page 235 note 3} The phrase ‘consensual decolonisation’ is used by Weitzer, loc.cit. p. 529.Google Scholar

^{Page 235 note 4} See, in particular, Zimbabwe African National Union Central Committee Report. Second Congress of the Party, 1984; Z.A.N.U. (P.F.), Draft Constitution, 1984; and Zimbabwe News, passim.Google Scholar

^{Page 235 note 5} Z.A.N.U.(P.F.), Draft Constitution, p. 4.Google Scholar

^{Page 236 note 1} Ibid.

^{Page 236 note 2} Gordon, David, ‘Development Strategy in Zimbabwe: assessments and prospects’, in Schatzberg, (ed.), op.cit. p. 128.Google Scholar

^{Page 236 note 3} Astrow, André, Zimbabwe: a revolution that lost its way? (London, 1983).Google Scholar

^{Page 236 note 4} Cf.Martin, and Johnson, , op.cit., and Sithole, Masipula, Zimbabwe Struggles Within the Struggle (Harare, 1979).Google Scholar

^{Page 236 note 5} Z.A.N.U.(P.F.), Central Committee Report, p. 1.Google Scholar

^{Page 237 note 1} Ibid. my emphasis.

^{Page 237 note 2} Mugabe, Robert, ‘Our Socialist Programme Will Come From the People’. Interview with Martin, David of The Observer (London) and Phyllis Johnson of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Ottawa), 7 October 1978,Google Scholar in Mugabe, Robert, Our War of Liberation (Harare, 1983), p. 180.Google Scholar

^{Page 237 note 3} ‘The History of ZANU(PF)’, in Zimbabwe News, 14, 1, 1983, p. 1.Google Scholar

^{Page 237 note 4} For a discussion of the rural class struggle, see Ranger, op.cit. ch. 6, especially p. 273.Google Scholar

^{Page 237 note 5} Z.A.N.U.(P.F.), Central Committee Report, p. 6.Google Scholar

^{Page 237 note 6} Weitzer, loc.cit., and Friedland, Elaine A., ‘Public Policies to Improve the Living Conditions of the Poor: a comparison of Mozambique and Zimbabwe’, American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., 1984.Google Scholar

^{Page 237 note 7} Callear, Diana, The Social and Cultural Factors Involved in Production by Small Farmers in Wedza Communal Area, Zimbabwe, of Maize and its Marketing (Paris, 1982).Google Scholar See also Ranger, op.cit. pp. 325–6.Google Scholar

^{Page 238 note 1} Senior official of Z.A.N.U. (P.F.) as quoted by Caute, David, ‘Mugabe Brooks No Opposition’, in The Nation (New York), 31 08 1985, p. 140.Google Scholar

^{Page 238 note 2} See Martin and Johnson, op.cit.

^{Page 238 note 3} See discussion by Cliffe, Lionel, Mpofu, Joshua, and Munslow, Barry, ‘Nationalist Politics in Zimbabwe: the 1980 elections and beyond’, in Review of African Political Economy (Sheffield), 05–08 1980, pp. 44–67.Google Scholar

^{Page 238 note 4} Mugabe, op.cit. pp. 45–6.

^{Page 238 note 5} Ranger, op.cit. p. 178.

^{Page 238 note 6} Ibid. pp. 284–333, especially pp. 287–9.

^{Page 239 note 1} Cf.Libby, Ronald T., ‘Development Strategies and Political Divisions Within the Zimbabwean State’, in Schatzberg, (ed.), op.cit. pp. 144–63.Google Scholar

^{Page 239 note 2} The Transitional National Development Plan: 1982/83–1984/85 (Harare, 1982), p. 1.Google Scholar

^{Page 239 note 3} For a discussion of this nationalist model, see Bratton, Michael, ‘Patterns of Development and Underdevelopment’, in International Studies Quarterly, 26, 3, 1982, pp. 333–72.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{Page 240 note 1} Gordon, loc.cit. p. 129.

^{Page 240 note 2} Ranger, op.cit. p. 177.

^{Page 240 note 3} Ibid. p. 303.

^{Page 240 note 4} Ibid. p. 291. Most of the time Ranger refers to the peasant programme as ‘radical’, thereby confusing militancy in pursuit of goals which, in this case, proponents of Marxist–Leninist mythology would not consider ‘radical’, with radical outcomes.

^{Page 240 note 5} Ibid. p. 307.

^{Page 240 note 6} Bush, Ray and Cliffe, Lionel, ‘Agrarian Policy in Migrant Labour Societies: reform or transformation in Zimbabwe?’, in Review of African Political Economy, 29, 1984, p. 93.Google Scholar

^{Page 241 note 1} For additional commentary and examples, see Sylvester, loc.cit.

^{Page 241 note 2} Chidzero, Bernard, Budget Statement, 1984 (Harare, 1984), pp. 28–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 242 note 1} ‘Nkomo; “We Want Free and Fair Elections’”, interview in Moto Magazine, February 1985, p. 6.Google Scholar

^{Page 243 note 1} See Sithole's discussion of the ideological spectrum in Zimbabwe's party politics, in ‘Experiences with Democracy’.

^{Page 246 note 1} Collier, op.cit. p. 14.

^{Page 246 note 2} Preface, ZANU(PF) Party Manifesto, 1985.

^{Page 246 note 3} ‘Gweru Crowds Hail Premier’, in The Sunday Mail, 23 June 1985.

^{Page 246 note 4} ‘Comment’, in The Herald, 1 July 1985, p. 1.

^{Page 246 note 5} ‘ZANU(PF) is for Peace: Zemura’, in Sunday News, 30 June 1985.

^{Page 248 note 1} ‘Vote Should Seal Fate of Colonial Era: Shamuyarira’, in The Herald, 29 June 1985.

^{Page 251 note 1} ‘Muzorewa: “We Won the Last Election’”, interview in Moto Magazine, February 1985, p. 10.Google Scholar

^{Page 251 note 2} ‘Nkomo: “We Want Free and Fair Elections’”, interview in ibid. p. 5.

^{Page 251 note 3} Interview with high-ranking member of I.Z.G. before white-roll elections.Google Scholar

^{Page 252 note 1} ‘Whites Have Nothing to Fear, Says Irvine’, in The Chronicle, 20 June 1985.Google Scholar

^{Page 252 note 2} ‘Vote Should Seal Fate of Colonial Era: Shamuyarira’.

^{Page 255 note 1} See the discussion of ‘virtual’ representation in Jackson, Robert H. and Rosberg, Carl G., ‘Popular Legitimacy in African Multi-Ethnic States’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 22, 2, 06 1984, pp. 177–98.CrossRef Google Scholar

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