The Introduction situates the book within a conceptual framework, focused on theorising the relationships between law, state and society, as well as the role of performance in courtroom trials. It then explains why Zimbabwe offers an important case study to examine the questions raised by this framework, and describes the methodologies used to conduct the study. Finally, it sets out the structure of the remaining chapters of this book.

The Conclusion argues that by framing political contestations through and over law in Zimbabwe within the binary of repression and resistance, we obscure the diverse and productive ways that the legitimacy of law, and its relation to state authority, were publicly contested after 2000. Instead, it situates the notion of government as a ‘legal fiction’ alongside the arguments made across the book. Three sites of contestation emerged. In the first, the dynamics within state institutions were shown to shape legal consciousness. In the second, the relationship between legal consciousness and particular imaginations of citizenship proved to be fertile ground for the articulation of critiques of the government in ways that remained embedded in expectations and ideals of law. In the third, we saw how the interactions between different actors’ legal and state consciousness within the courtroom produced narratives that articulated contradictory claims to state authority. Taken together, this shows us that, among Zimbabwean citizens and civil servants alike, the law, as both a set of institutions and practices and as a political ideal, continued to be central to expressions of a particular kind of citizenship.

Analysing Kenyatta’s writings and speeches, chapter 1 uncovers how Kenyatta imagined a postcolonial society. It argues that Kenyatta never imagined state authority as an inclusive authority for all. Neither did he preview a creative role for the state, or for himself. This lack of nationalist perspective was inherent in his Kikuyu ethics (the protection of land property and the civic virtues that promoted land productivity). Although it was reinforced by British colonization, Kenyatta avoided reflecting on how he could reconcile Kikuyu history, which he praised, with a social order disrupted by colonialism. The chapter first attempts to situate the concept of the “family” in Kenyatta’s early writings. It then explores the intellectual legacy of his writings after independence, and shows how Kenyatta was at pains to enlarge and adapt his moral discourse to the new Kenyan nation. After examining how his politics were influenced by his discourse on moral virtues, the chapter emphasises Kenyatta’s constant care for family politics, and his mistrust for any nationalist ambitions he saw as betraying his “tribal” origins.