Representations of the body as contested terrain: The Zimbabwean liberation war novel and the politics of nation and nationalism

Abstract

The article raises insights on the politics of representation, nation and nationalism in Zimbabwe, as these are linked to the 1970s war against colonial settlerism. They are also at the centre of the contest for political power. In this endeavour, it particularly discusses fictive representations of the body, both male and female, as embodiments of the ideas of  nation and nationalism and the uses to which history is put in Zimbabwean politics today. The article shows that the liberation war historical narratives invest in the geography of the body, which is a vital resource for any given people’s visibility. In the early 1980s, a time when Zimbabwe attained political independence, the narratives cast the  body as larger-than-life, healthy and steely. Narratives published in the late 1980s and beyond depict the body as tormented and vulnerable turf as a result of what the authors identify as the excesses of nationalism. The argument is made that the liberation war historical narratives, which are published in different historical epochs purposefully  engage in selective forgetting and remembering. They ingeniously instrumentalize and operationalize the body as a slate for inscribing historical content and ideology. Thus, the contesting uses to which the body is put in historical narratives on the war evince that historical narratives are a veritable stakeholder in the politics of history and the  politics of contested hegemony in Zimbabwe recent politics.

S.Afr.J.Afr.Lang., 31(2) 2011