Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29872
Title: Reading Robert Mugabe through the Third Chimurenga: Language, Discourse, Exclusion
Contributor(s): Ndhlovu, Finex  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2021-03
Early Online Version: 2019-06-22
DOI: 10.1007/s10767-019-09333-8
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29872
Abstract: This article interrogates narrow forms of nationalism and nativist ideologies that are hidden beneath post-colonial African political leader statements and rhetoric about reversing colonial imbalances. The focus is on Zimbabwe's Third Chimurenga spearheaded by Robert Mugabe during the last ten years of his presidency. An analysis of the linguistic and discursive aspects of economic nationalisation, land reform and indigenisation programmes in Zimbabwe—also known as the Third Chimurenga—enables us to see the elements of policy discord and inconsistencies that characterised the second half of Robert Mugabe's nearly four-decade rule. The argument is that the reified and reductionist framing of the Third Chimurenga resulted in two unintended consequences: (i) alienating the majority of the very same black people that the policy sought to empower and (ii) diminishing opportunities for beneficiaries to contribute towards realisation of the ideals and aspirational goals of pushing back the frontiers of colonially inherited social and economic inequalities. I conclude by suggesting that Robert Mugabe's language and discursive rhetoric around social transformation in Zimbabwe betray unhelpful commitment to political exigencies at the expense of sustainable economic empowerment of ordinary men and women.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 34(1), p. 85-103
Publisher: Springer New York LLC
Place of Publication: United States of America
ISSN: 1573-3416
0891-4486
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 200405 Language in Culture and Society (Sociolinguistics)
200403 Discourse and Pragmatics
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 470411 Sociolinguistics
470405 Discourse and pragmatics
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture
950201 Communication Across Languages and Culture
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 280114 Expanding knowledge in Indigenous studies
130201 Communication across languages and culture
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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