Sabelo J. Ndlovu Gatsheni Livres

At the beginning of 2000, with the launch of the so-called Third Chimurenga, Zimbabwean nationalism revealed some of its most grotesque aspects, resulting in a polarisation of the nation into ‘patriots’ and ‘sell-outs’ and dividing academics into groups such as ‘regime intellectuals’, left-nationalists, left-internationalists, ‘nativists’ and ‘neo-liberals’. Drawing upon the arguments and insights of an array of scholars, many based in Zimbabwe, this book offers a new analysis of the grotesque character of Zimbabwean nationalism, a nationalism that has provoked ambivalent responses locally, regionally and internationally.

This book examines the triumphs and tribulations of the Zimbabwean national project, providing a radical and critical analysis of the fossilisation of Zimbabwean nationalism against the wider context of African nationalism in general. The book departs radically from the common 'praise-texts' in seriously engaging with the darker aspects of nationalism, including its failure to create the nation-as-people, and to install democracy and a culture of human rights. The author examines how the various people inhabiting the lands between the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers entered history and how violence became a central aspect of the national project of organising Zimbabweans into a collectivity in pursuit of a political end.