Making heroes, (un)making the nation?: ZANU-PF’s imaginations of the Heroes’ Acre, heroes and construction of identity in Zimbabwe from 2000 to 2015

Mpofu, Shepherd

doi:10.1080/14725843.2016.1175920

Cited by 15 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Just as liberation wars fuse party with state, they also provide the opportunity to meld the party to national identity (Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Willems, 2009). In Zimbabwe and elsewhere, historical accounts, holidays, monuments, and other cultural symbols reinforce a narrative of the heroisms of the liberation leaders and freedom from white settler oppression (Kriger, 2003(Kriger, , 2006Mpofu, 2017). This allows the ruling party to associate itself with the powerful valence issues of nationalism, a strategy not available to the opposition (Ferree, 2010).…”

Section: Mechanisms-capturing Political Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The partisan consequences of liberation mentality: Ruling party support in Zimbabwe across space and time

Friesen

2022

Party Politics

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In autocratic-leaning countries, the level of genuine public support for ruling parties and reasons driving it are often unclear. While such parties often rely on violence, electoral manipulation, and corruption to help maintain power, maintaining legitimate popularity is the ideal. Parties that emerged from national liberation struggles and other extraordinary events are thought to have developed strong branding and organizational structures. This paper tests the determinants of ruling party identification among Zimbabweans through seven geo-coded rounds of Afrobarometer data. First, genuine ruling party support is estimated to be exaggerated in public opinion surveys, but not insignificant. The ruling party’s base of support is centered in rural areas that experienced the greatest concentration of guerrilla activity during the liberation war. Respondents from the liberation generation are also more likely to support the ruling party, and view the party as tied to nationalism. The liberation war generated and solidified ruling party stronghold areas through democratic advantages such as nationalistic branding and robust party organization structures as well as autocratic tools such as the capture of traditional leaders, politicization of the military, and the use of violence against dissidents.

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Section: Mechanisms-capturing Political Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The partisan consequences of liberation mentality: Ruling party support in Zimbabwe across space and time

Friesen

2022

Party Politics

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“…The site where the political nature of Zimbabwe’s post-colonial toponymy is most evident is in the National Heroes Acre, the final resting place for Zimbabwe’s “national heroes” and a “permanent physical symbol of nationhood” (Mpofu 2017:63). The monument, designed by Korean and Zimbabwean artists, celebrates those who sacrificed their lives for liberation.…”

Section: Patriotic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ZANU-PF politburo determined who should be buried in the National Heroes Acre, and Robert Mugabe was the only living Zimbabwean to have the honor of being represented in the National Shrine, featured in one of the murals picturing the Chimurenga wars. However, as Shepherd Mpofu (2017) points out, national identities are always changing, and so are the narratives and symbols of power legitimation, as well as the ways in which they are contested. The disputes around the final resting place of the two most prominent figures of Zimbabwean politics since the beginning of this century reflect not only how the fight over the past is also a struggle for the concept of citizenship and belonging, but also the fragility and exclusivist nature of the civic conceptions provided by patriotic history.…”

Section: Patriotic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Robert Mugabe presented himself as founding leader of the new Zimbabwe and used the Heroes Acre as a site from which to legitimize his power, reward his loyalists, and punish his enemies (Mpofu 2017). But paradoxically, after his death and according to his wish, Mugabe was laid to rest in Kutama, his home village, and not in the National Shrine, thus becoming the site’s most prominent absence.…”

Section: Patriotic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

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From Pioneer Historiography to Patriotic History: Constructing Usable Pasts in Zimbabwe (1890–2018)

Pinto¹

2022

Afr. Stud. Rev.

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Different political projects and ideological positions are founded upon distinct accounts of the past, each with their own emphases, silences, and omissions. The case of Zimbabwe illustrates this connection between power and history. Whereas the myths of colonial historiography provided legitimization frameworks for settler colonialism, “patriotic history” became a key element of the legitimation strategy implemented by the post-independence regime. Pinto analyses how history and historiography were incorporated into narratives of power legitimization in both pre- and post-independence Zimbabwe and how, in the late 90s, history and historiography became critical sites of political polarization and contestation.

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“…This monument serves as an education centre for students, ordinary Zimbabweans and tourists from abroad about a major part of this nation's history. (Cited in Mpofu, 2017: 73) The use of granite, bronze and materials that are enduring and resist the 'ravages of time' (Osborne, 1998: 434) suggest Mugabe's attempt at freezing time, patriotic history and memory, and his legacy in space and time (Mpofu, 2017). The shrine is a paragon of excellence for any commemorative project especially in Africa where politicians are prone to excesses in display and power performances.…”

Section: Deathscapes: Heroes Acre As a Contested Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Ruling from the Grave? The Political Instrumentalization of Robert Mugabe’s Corpse in Contemporary Zimbabwean Politics

Mpofu

2022

Journal of Asian and African Studies

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This qualitative research is a critical analysis of news media reports, political debates, and political and family behaviours to interrogate the centrality of death, corpses, funeral and mortuary rituals in African politics by using the death of Zimbabwe’s former President, Robert Mugabe as a case study. At death, it became clear what a polarizing and yet unifying figure Mugabe was. His dead body became a contested political asset. The paper explores how Mugabe’s family resisted President Mnangagwa’s attempts at gaining control of Mugabe’s dead body for political expediency after he disposed of him in a military coup in 2017. The paper concludes that, true to Mugabe’s wife’s assertions that he will rule Zimbabwe from the grave, Mugabe, as a dead man, caused some considerable political tensions between his family and ruling magnifying the coup architects’ legitimacy challenges and his power in Zimbabwean politics.

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Making heroes, (un)making the nation?: ZANU-PF’s imaginations of the Heroes’ Acre, heroes and construction of identity in Zimbabwe from 2000 to 2015

Cited by 15 publications

References 18 publications

The partisan consequences of liberation mentality: Ruling party support in Zimbabwe across space and time

The partisan consequences of liberation mentality: Ruling party support in Zimbabwe across space and time

From Pioneer Historiography to Patriotic History: Constructing Usable Pasts in Zimbabwe (1890–2018)

Ruling from the Grave? The Political Instrumentalization of Robert Mugabe’s Corpse in Contemporary Zimbabwean Politics

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