Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai

Zimbabwe election: Can Nelson Chamisa win? He appeals to young voters but the odds are stacked against him

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
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A lawyer and a pastor, Chamisa is the most formidable candidate against the ruling Zanu-PF led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Key Points: 
  • A lawyer and a pastor, Chamisa is the most formidable candidate against the ruling Zanu-PF led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
  • The incumbent took over after the coup that ousted the country’s founding president Robert Mugabe in 2017.
  • Chamisa is over three decades younger than his (81-year-old) opponent, and the youngest person running for president in this election.
  • His youthfulness has been a major issue in this election, as it was in the last.

Youth appeal

    • The World Bank puts the country’s battered economy at just under US$ 21 billion.
    • Chamisa’s appeal to the youth vote has been received along partisan lines.
    • For his support base of mostly young urbanites, Chamisa’s youth is his trump card.
    • But will this be enough to help him win his first election as the founding leader of CCC?

Voter apathy, funding and harassment

    • In addition to voter apathy, Chamisa must contend with other hurdles within the opposition movement and the usual obstacles of running for office in electoral authoritarian state.
    • Chamisa founded the CCC following his forced exit from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2021.
    • The married father of three had been mentored by the opposition movement’s founder, the late Morgan Tsvangirai.
    • But Tsvangirai’s death in 2018 ended Chamisa’s career in the party as divisions grew between him and the old guard.
    • Job Sikhala, a senior member of the opposition, has been in jail for over a year on unclear charges.

One man show

    • On the social platform X, where he has more than a million followers, he regularly only shares Bible verses or ambiguous messages.
    • This is a lost opportunity for a candidate counting on the youth vote.
    • Many who hoped for change after Mugabe’s ouster are dismayed by the continuing economic challenges and increasing militarisation of the Zimbabwean politics.

Zimbabwe's rulers won't tolerate opposing voices – but its writers refuse to be silenced

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, August 2, 2023
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The ruling elite in Zimbabwe has always tried to silence opposing political voices and erase histories it does not wish to have aired.

Key Points: 
  • The ruling elite in Zimbabwe has always tried to silence opposing political voices and erase histories it does not wish to have aired.
  • As Zimbabwe heads to the polls again in 2023, it’s worth considering the role that writers have played in engendering political resistance.

The liberation struggle

    • It was used to mobilise resistance against the white minority regime and garner international support for the liberation struggle.
    • Many others like Charles Mungoshi, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Chenjerai Hove produced texts that encouraged resistance against colonial rule.

Independence

    • Since independence in Zimbabwe, there has remained little space for dissenting voices – first under the leadership of Robert Mugabe and then Emmerson Mnangagwa.
    • The Gukurahundi genocide, which novelist Novuyo Rosa Tshuma called the country’s “original sin”, marked the first instance in which the state quashed opposing voices.

The turbulent ‘lost decade’ (2000-2010)

    • The rise of a formidable opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, in 1999 was met with violence by the state.
    • Fresh voices emerged, among them Brian Chikwava, NoViolet Bulawayo, Petina Gappah, John Eppel, Christopher Mlalazi and Lawrence Hoba.
    • Bulawayo’s award-winning 2013 novel We Need New Names depicts the political situation through the perspective of its teenage protagonist, Darling.
    • The stories illuminate the human cost of political decisions and the resilience of ordinary people in the face of hardships.

Literature in the Second Republic

    • Literature after the demise of Mugabe and his four-decade regime – a period referred to as the Second Republic – has continued to grapple with Zimbabwe’s prevailing sociopolitical environment.
    • Batsirai Chigama’s collection of poems Gather the Children captures the vicissitudes of contemporary life in Zimbabwe.
    • These strictures insinuate themselves into the ambience of everyday life and language, something that Chigama observes with careful attention.

The power (and limits) of literature

    • Despite its power, reading remains a luxury that many Zimbabweans cannot afford.
    • Books are extremely expensive and few people have disposable income to read for pleasure.