The Politics of the Corpse: President Levy Mwanawasa’s Death, Funeral and Political Contestation in Post-Colonial Zambia

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

“…Through an exploration of Mugabe's death and subsequent politico-theatrical contests around his corpse, this article continues the debate and demonstrates that, true to Kalusa's (2017) observations, death, mortuary and corpses are intimately connected to contemporary African politics. Writing in reference to former Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa's death in the Journal of Southern African Studies in 2017, Kalusa demonstrated the importance of a corpse in politics.…”

“…His corpse became a contested political asset. This research enters an unexplored territory in Zimbabwean scholarship on the interface of the living and the powerful dead and how corpses mediate power politics between the two worlds since 'the dead and their corpses cannot be legitimately abstracted from the politics of the living' (Kalusa, 2017(Kalusa, : 1138). Mugabe's corpse played a critical role in ZANU-PF and country's politics as the president, Emmerson Mnangagwa attempted to use his power and official position as the head of state to preside over the burial of a man he had dislodged in a military coup 2 years back to 'mobilise [and] fashion political reality and meaning, to secure [his] followers' allegiance and, lastly, to legitimate [his] competing claims to power' (Kalusa, 2017(Kalusa, : 1140 in a divided ruling ZANU-PF.…”

“…The agreement therefore meant Mnangagwa would get a chance to preside over Mugabe's burial, control the ideological narrative and strengthen his contested legitimacy considering the manner he came into power and the killing of protestors by the military during a disputed election which he allegedly rigged. To this end, Kalusa (2017) says mausoleums could be used as burial sites of ex-leaders by those sitting presidents aspiring to entrench their legitimacy.…”

Burying “Zik of Africa”: The Politics of Death and Cultural Crisis

“…The attempt to “depoliticise” Zik's burial was part of a larger strategy of depoliticizing politics in general so as to instrumentalize Abacha's ambition to continue in office as the sole candidate of all existing political parties (all of which later did nominate him as their “consensus” candidate). As Walima T. Kalusa has observed, “The significance of the dead … to the living and to the survival of political regimes should not be underestimated” (2017: 1138). The attitude of the Abacha regime did not stop Zik's associates, made up of the leading members of the Zik-led defunct political parties, the NCNC, the NPP, and the Zikist Movement he inspired, and other politicians including even Zik's political adversaries (see ibid., passim), from announcing plans to be involved in his burial.…”

Dark Humour, Ubuntu and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Subaltern Humouring of Political Elite Deaths on Social Media

“…A dead body is laden with meanings: 'Concrete and protean, sacred and profane, the corpse is a complex, ambiguous and enigmatic object. It is thus a source of no small amount of ambivalence that energizes human and political imagination, evoking multi-vocal meaning and inspiring diverse, if conflicting, political visions and uses among political rulers and their subjects' (Kalusa, 2017(Kalusa, , 1138(Kalusa, -1139.…”