The past is the present and future: Ambivalent names and naming patterns in post-2000 Zimbabwe

Abstract

The post-2000 Zimbabwean crisis demonstrates the tendencies and potential in the past to influence the politics of the present. What is widely referred to as the Third Chimurenga (the third liberation struggle) in this crisis epoch is a complex (and at times problematic) cache of nationalist and quasi-nationalist ideologies, philosophies and practices, which are not only connected to the first two Chimurengas through their aspiration for a totally decolonised nation, but also the demand for its political guardianship by the heroes of the armed Second Chimurenga. Many writers have grappled with the hegemonic tendencies of what is now referred to as ‘patriotic history’ (a form of politicised, state-circumscribed history of the nation) without seriously engaging with the deeper crevices of its nature. This paper sets out to argue that in post-2000 Zimbabwean politics, the past and the present are also connected through names and naming patterns that straddle the three Chimurengas with ambivalent meanings and political significance, shaped by spatio-temporal forces peculiar to the historical periods. Comprehending political meanings that such names and nicknames produce in the contexts and circumstances of the three liberation epochs can enhance our understanding of the pre-eminence given to the liberation war’s past in contemporary Zimbabwean politics of legitimation and de-legitimation.