A FOREWORD BY RICHARD RUNYARARO MAHOMVA
The correspondent intellectual tie with the writer during the penning process of the book was an interesting venture. For the first time I had to digest Simbarashe Moyo’s academic opinions on the Zimbabwean political terrain outside the tutorial rooms of the Midlands State University. As stated by Paulo Freire (1972) the classroom affair is a dictated construct of the teacher and the taught. I shared this kind of relationship with Moyo in the second year of my undergrad-degree phase. However being obligated to read the raw-extracts of his work and forwarding recommendations on how the text could be structured was an honour. At least such a task exposed me to the mind-set of one who is not just a teacher, but an intellectual-equal willing to cross-pollinate his ideas with everyone regardless of their rank within the intellectual scalar chain. The merits of such an exercise helps develop a literal piece that speaks to all levels of intellect, even outside the university vicinity. Thus enabling the dispersal of informed thoughts to be consumed by individuals in search of particular truths that have remained locked up in the “reserve-sections” of college libraries. In that regard Moyo’s work communicates with all researchers - from beginners right up to the veterans. Above all, it’s an engaging read for all interested in understanding the politics of regime survival and nationalism in general. I am confident that this tract will appeal to readers of Political Science, International Relations and Diplomacy Studies. The wider audience of this book includes public policy formulators and activists. It is a good read for politicians in general and, above all, is a “must read” for future African statesmen whose time to captain the ship of nationalism is at hand.
This tract succinctly captures the Zimbabwean political conundrum and is intelligently inclusive in how it speaks of nationalism in an African context. Its main framework pillars are nation and regime behaviours and these have a universal application in the appreciation of global politics. This feature of the book exposes it to a wider audience: “the world.” Though the content is Afro-centric, the articulated phenomenon is reflective of international politics. It is a peek into nation-making by a self-informed coterie of realist-minded politicians not averse to using any mechanism to stay in power. The book illustrates the evolution of a nationalist party to a guerrilla outfit to a ruling regime by tracing the “continuity” - using as a template a country whose regime has used ideology as a tool for its own longevity in office.
The conceptual underpinnings of nationhood and regime survival construct the major subject of the book. Through a depolarising intention African nationalism and the struggle for continuity: A case of post-independence Zimbabwe looks at the delayed 1980 liberal dawn as a manifestation of political realism on the part of the regime. In the same manner Moyo expresses how the success of regime survival is at the root of the disgruntlement and joys of diverse sections of the nation. Obviously this means a drawback on the nation-building agenda and is thus a fulfilment of Franz Fanon’s political prophecy on the future of third-world countries:
And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system, is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms; colonization and decolonization are simply a question of relative strength (Fanon, F 1963).
Contrary to the widely propagated anti-establishment discourses, Moyo argues that the manifestation of arbitrary rule in Zimbabwe was a means to an end for regime survival. The offered justifications of regime survival as a politically correct order give life to the “realist” theory in the book. The writer is not concerned with how a state “ought to be”. He is concerned about the genuine political behaviours of the state given the addressed position of Zimbabwe since 1980. In that regard it would not be wrong to recommend this piece of work as a handbook for political scientists interested in making modern day Machiavellian experiments in fulfilling their political consultancy roles. The ZANU-PF government’s survival strategies explored in this book form good experimental ingredients that can help political scientists to prescribe survival models for nations in the making. This book comes as an essential requisite for other regimes in Africa facing internal and external survival challenges.
Vivid analytical illustrations are handy in explaining how Zimbabwean nationalism formed a unique feature of African post-colonial identity. The explained issues on nationalism help the reader to see its two-faced character. The writer doesn’t omit the key issues that favour and sabotage the transitional character of the aims of nationalism. To start with sabotage forces, the listed culprits are violence, hegemony, electoral-fraud, mal-administration, suppressed plurality, poor policy design and implementation. In Moyo’s perspective Zimbabwe harbours all these challenges to African nationalism’s evolutionary process to meet regime survival interests. At the same time Zimbabwe is still playing a significant role in the representation of third-world countries in the international system. Other African states are ordered to emulate Zimbabwe in terms of its resistance to challenges of Western hegemony. Moyo treats Zimbabwe as the most instrumental custodian of nationalism due to the radical policies that the country used to counter Western political interests, a move feared by most African countries.
However, a distant analytical observer of the subject at hand may be illusively deceived to think that the book continues the legacy of “patriotic history.” A closer assessment of the given assertions would reveal that the author decided to focus on politically-correct models of regime survival versus construction of nationhood and its continuity. Above all the text offers justification templates for African nationalism to be a relevant force of pushing the centre. ZANU-PF’s de-link from the West is a sign of Africa’s endless abilities to stand on her feet. Basically, this is the main message in this edition of African nationalism and the struggle for continuity: A case of Zimbabwe.
It would be a mistake if any reader interested in African political identities ignores this piece of work. I would have loved to share more of this book’s rich facts, but that would not be necessary after Moyo’s efforts of preparing this good read for you. I hope its condensed matter will find lodgement in the malleable minds of all its consumers.
Enjoy!
