60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

212 development dialogue december 2008 – revisiting the heart of darkness against the settlers in 1896-7, and in particular at how the struggle was waged by ZANLA, the armed wing of ZANU. (Moore 1991; and Saul 1979). Like other Southern African anti-colonial movements, ZANU in the 1970s was ‘hierarchical and authoritarian’. More than this, ‘opposition to established leadership and received theory was regarded as both illegitimate and reactionary’ (Southall 2003: 259). 5 Nor did anything much change after independence. Still ‘militaristic, vertical, undemocratic, violent and repressive’ (Freeman 2005: 165), ZANU continued to conduct politics through the barrel of a gun. It may be, as one historian has argued, that it was ‘the heritage of guerrillaism [that] produced hierarchical, bureaucratic, and dictatorial tendencies ‘in post-independence governments (Legassick 2002: 61), or, as another has suggested, that aspects of the colonial system ‘reproduced themselves in the struggle for its abolition and subsequently in the concepts of governance applied in post-colonial conditions’ (Melber 2003: 42), but the conclusion to be drawn from both accounts is that ‘singularly and collectively, the ruling elites of southern Africa have demonstrated that they are less interested in democracy than they are in pursuing their self-interest and retention of power’ (Southall 2003: 268). The making and meanings of the massacres in Matabeleland would appear to be the fi rst but not the last legacy of the form of liberation struggle conceived and practised by ZANU-PF. Along the way, the democratic ideals and aspirations of ordinary men and women were ruthlessly subordinated to the logic of a commandist, intolerant movement whose post-independence policies readily embraced mass violence. That this violence was as regionally bounded as it was undiscriminating arguably brings it within the United Nations defi nition of genocide, which is the attempt to destroy ‘in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group’ (as cited in Chirot and McCauley 2006: 11). But however the Gukurahundi atrocities are eventually defi ned, they occurred in a very particular political and historical context. In April 2005, speaking at a rally to celebrate 25 years of Independence, Mugabe reminded his audience that ‘it was the bullet that brought the ballot’ (Reuters, 8/4/2005). 6 He might have added that in Zimbabwe the bullet has always trumped the ballot. 5 For the same point in a wider context see Phimister (2005). 6 For a critical re-evaluation of elections in Zimbabwe since Independence see Kriger (2005).
Literature Africa Confi dential, 3/3/1982; 21/1/1987; 8/1984; 4/4/1983. Africa Now, 4/1983. Argus (The), 28/5/1984. Anon. (1983), Editorial, Moto, April. Anon. (2005), ‘Gukurahundi – Zimbabweans ready to testify against perpetrators’, SW Radio Africa News Story, 15/12/2005. Askin, S., ‘Zimbabwe’s Two Faces’, The Tablet, 21/6/1986. Business Day, 14 /5/1997. Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and Legal Resources Foundation (1997), Breaking the Silence. Building True Peace. A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands 1980 to 1988, Harare: Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and Legal Resources Foundation. Chirot, Daniel and McCauley, Clark (2006), Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Economist (The), 21/4/1984. Financial Gazette, 4/7/2000. Financial Times (The), 4/2/1983. Freeman Linda (2005), ‘Unravelling the Contradictions: South Africa’s Zimbabwe policy’, in Journal of Contemporary African Studies, vol. 32, no. 2, pp 147-172. Guardian (The), 2 /2/1983; 23 /3/1983. Hammar, Amanda and Raftopoulos, Brian (2003), ‘Rethinking Land, State and Nation’, in Hammar, Amanda et al. (eds), Zimbabwe’s Unfi nished Business, Harare: Weaver Press. Hanlon, J. (2004), Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa, London: James Currey. Herald (The), 19/4/1983; 10/2/1984; 28/5/1986; 5/6/1986; 29/6/1985. Hodder-Williams, R. (1983), ‘Confl ict in Zimbabwe: The Matabeleland Problem’, Confl ict Studies Number 151. Keane, Fergal (2002), ‘Blind Eye to Slaughter’, in The Spectator, 16/3/2002. the making and meanings of the massacres in matabeleland 213 Kriger, Norma (2005), ‘ZANU(PF) Strategies in General Elections, 1980-2000: Discourse and Coercion’, in African Aff airs, vol. 104, no. 414, pp 1-34. Legassick, Martin (2002), Armed Struggle and Democracy: The Case of South Africa, Uppsala: Nordic African Institute. Lindgren, Björn. (2005), ‘Memories of Violence: Recreation of Ethnicity in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe’ in Richards, Paul (ed.), No Peace No War: An Anthology of Contemporary Armed Confl icts, Oxford: James Currey. Mamdani, Mahmood (2007), ‘The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency’, in London Review of Books, 8/3/2007. Martin, David and Johnson, Phyllis (1986), Destructive Engagement: Southern Africa at War, Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House. Melber, Henning (ed.) (1993), Limits to Liberation in Southern Africa: The Unfi nished Business of Democratic Consolidation, Cape Town: Nordic Africa Institute. Moore, David (1991), ‘The Ideological Formation of the Zimbabwean Ruling Class’, in Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 472-495. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo (2003), ‘The post-colonial state and Matebeland: regional perceptions of civilmilitary relations, 1980-2002’, in Williams, Rocky et al. (eds), Ourselves To Know: Civil Military Relations and Defence Transformation in Southern Africa, Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies. Nkomo, Joshua (1984), Nkomo: The Story of my Life, London: The Chaucer Press. Nyarota, Geoff rey (2006), Against the Grain: Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman, Cape Town: Struik Publishers. Nyoka, Justin (1983), ‘Western Media coverage of Zimbabwe during the liberation struggle and after independence’, unpublished seminar paper, Gaborone: 29-30 April. Phimister, Ian (2005), South African diplomacy and the crisis in Zimbabwe: liberation solidarity in the 21st century’, in Raftopoulos, Brian and Savage, Tyrone (eds), Zimbabwe: Injustice and Political Reconciliation, Cape Town: Weaver Press.
Page 1 and 2:
no. 50 | december 2008 Revisiting t
Page 3 and 4:
Revisiting the heart of darkness -
Page 5 and 6:
Acknowledgements The larger part of
Page 7:
Dennis Brutus, born 1924 in then Rh
Page 10 and 11:
8 development dialogue december 200
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165: 162 development dialogue december 2
Page 262 and 263: In short, both the understanding of
Page 264 and 265:
Page 266 and 267:
Page 268 and 269:
Page 270 and 271:
Page 273 and 274:
Behind most mass violence lurk econ
Page 275 and 276:
ehind most mass violence lurk econo
Page 277 and 278:
Page 279 and 280:
Page 281 and 282:
Is there a south perspective on gen
Page 283 and 284:
is there a south perspective on gen
Page 285 and 286:
Page 287 and 288:
Page 289 and 290:
Page 291 and 292:
Page 293:
Page 296 and 297:
Page 299:
The Voksenåsen Statement Genocides
Page 302 and 303:
Page 304:
Page 308:
This Development Dialogue is publis
show all

60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?