2.2. Section One: Practice - Social Conflict Theory and the Matabeleland Violence Practice theory concerns itself with the interrogation of how knowledge is
2.2.7. Historical-Ideological Interpretations
The historical-ideological analysis is not so much preoccupied with the content of a good personal story or the in-depth description of political structures as it is interested in why a story is told or a structure is created to begin with, who presents the story or built the structure in question, and for what motives was the story recounted or the structure developed? In her captivating book on the assassination of Herbert Chitepo, Luise White articulates this narrative approach to history:
“This book charts a different course of interrogation altogether. I’m in pursuit of history, of how narratives about the past are produced and reproduced by these narratives. I’m interested in the many confessions, why some fail and why others surface when they do. My question then is not who did it, but why do so many insist they did it…Texts compete by claiming (and proclaiming) their truth.
Looking at how texts compete, at what they compete over, and what is at stake in their competition, is a way to articulate the relationships between them.”94
Historiography then becomes an undertaking of discovering how and why narrative discourse is ‘massaged’ and managed so as to carefully erect a politico-ideological reality. Terence Ranger expounds on this practice with precision and eloquence in his writings on rise of ‘Patriotic History’ in Zimbabwe. Ranger takes precautions to
extrapolate the distinctions between nationalist historiography (documenting the rise and chronicling the life-progression of nationalist movements), histories of nationalism (illuminating an interpretive turn or the critical dissection of nationalist movements) and patriotic history, defined for Zimbabwe as follows:
“Patriotic history is intended to proclaim the continuity of the Zimbabwean revolutionary tradition. It is an attempt to reach out to ‘youth’ over the heads of their parents and teachers, all of who are said to have forgotten or betrayed revolutionary values. It repudiates academic historiography with its attempts to complicate and question. At the same time it confronts Western ‘bogus
94 White, L. 2003. The Assassination of Herbert Chitepo: Texts and Politics in Zimbabwe. Bloomington &
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2-3.
50 universalism’ which it depicts as a denial of the concrete history of global
oppression.”95
Ranger describes how this ‘patriotic history’ is diffused throughout Zimbabwean society by the strident and consistent use (or abuse) of the visual and print media, educational institutions at all levels, the performance sector and almost all other forums of public space in which a particular political mono-narrative can be promoted. This multi-faceted and comprehensive strategy for dissemination of ‘patriotic history’ has resulted in what Ranger characterises as: “…a coherent but complex doctrine.96”
The media as a conduit for ideological propagation has remained a bastion of political contention since the inception of independent Zimbabwe. Being fully aware of the tremendous influence the media wields as the narrative voice of a nation, the ZANU- PF has exerted a magnitude of pressure, control and repression over the media which has lent itself to a tumultuous relationship between the ruling party, the state-run media and the ‘free’ independent press. Revolutionary strength has required a mastery of the national narrative through the machinations of re-education, indoctrination and the consistent barrage of ‘tailor-made’ affirmative images of the state through the media.
Stanford Mukasa, quoting Noam Chomsky has called this state-sanctioned media message blitzing the creation of “necessary illusions”97. “Ultimately the press in Zimbabwe falls victim to being a propaganda machinery in the creation of necessary illusions necessary because ruling party elites need to create such illusions in order to stay in power.”98
In a contrasting study on the press in Zimbabwe, N. Mathema99 argues for a balance in news reporting so as to counter the perceived or actual bias of Western
countries that currently dominates the international media. Mathema attempts to measure the partiality of Zimbabwean newspapers by contrasting ten topics that clearly emanate from a socialist ideation with the international news articles that appeared in the national newspapers over a designated period of time. In the end, while seeming to prove an
95 Ranger, T. 2003. “Nationalist Historiography, Patriotic History and the History of the Nation: the struggle over the past in Zimbabwe”. Journal for Southern African Studies 30 (2), 1.
96 Ibid.
97 Mukasa, S. 2003. “Press and Politics in Zimbabwe”. African Studies Quarterly 7, no.1&2: Retrieved from the web 2007/11/07. [online] ULR: http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v7/v7i2a9.htm: 1-11.
98 Ibid: 9.
99 Mathema, N. 2001. Newspapers in Zimbabwe. Lusaka, Zambia: Multimedia Publications.
51 imbalance in international news reporting (in favour of Western media partiality) in Zimbabwe, the article seems to be more captivated with promoting a socialist agenda rather than exploring the competitive clash of world-view narratives on the geo-political media landscape.
Jocelyn Alexander and JoAnn McGregor100 expose an intriguing phenomenon in which narrative discourse is transmitted inter-generationally in such a way that the current generation has internalised the particular narrative passed on to them as if it was their own. The authors followed the media internet debate that erupted in 1997 after the release of ‘Breaking the Silence’101 a detailed report on the Gukurahundi massacres. Most of the internet users researched were youth who would not have experienced or
participated in the Gukurahundi violence and many were self-proclaimed future leaders.
Of interest was the degree in which those who were supporters of ZANU-PF confidently defended the ‘genocidal’ tactics of the government in Matabeleland as necessary for the security of the country. In many instances, the debaters subscribed almost verbatim to the official narratives of justification propagated by the ZANU-PF to explain the violence unleashed on the civilian population of Matabeleland. Beyond this, these young defenders of the revolution even elicited historical ethnic grievances of Ndebele raids against Shona peoples that occurred over one hundred years ago, inferring that the Matabeleland killings were a form of excusable if not permissible revenge. What was clear is that these non-Ndebele youth had so thoroughly imbibed the historical-political narrative of the ZANU-PF that they now internalised that script as the only reality:
“…[these] debates demonstrated that discussion was only as free as the political views of the participants allowed, and showed the lasting and profound influence of the
interpretations of the violence propagated in Zimbabwe’s media during the conflict.”102
100 Alexander, J. and McGregor, J. 1999. Representing Violence in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe: Press and Internet Debates, in Allen T. and Seaton, J. (Eds.) The Media of Conflict: War Reporting and
Representations of Ethnic Violence, London and New York: Zed Books.
101 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 1980-1988.
Harare: CCJP / LRF. This publication is hailed to be the most careful and objective compilation of research data, analysis and statistical findings verifying the Gukurahundi violence and its grave consequences. This report was based on over 2,000 direct victim’s statements and other primary source documents. It is believed that up to 20,000 people were massacred in Matabeleland and the Midlands between 1980-1988.
102 Alexander and McGregor, 1999: 262.
52 Thus, in a highly contested historical environment, ‘patriotic history’ can take its defining place as the mediator of authenticity and in so doing it is able to rationalise and protract many forms of oppression, violent repression and the neglect of basic human needs and freedoms.