by Zwe Xaba *

Introduction

Even when the people of Zimbabwe are not on the streets demonstrating, they are in profound protest. Make no mistake, Zimbabweans are effectively organising and ZANU PF is pressed against the wall! The people have consolidated power and the frustrated government has no option but to kill them, literally. The left is siring a much needed protest culture and the response thus far has been overwhelming. The ZANU PF government is a regime that garners and holds power through brutal violence, intimidation and governs by fear. However, the strategy of silencing the people into submission through the use of scare tactics is fast losing steam, Zimbabweans are no longer scared to take to the streets. It should be emphasised that now that the electorate has manifestly divested its political will, the government is ruling with power that derives exclusively from its repressive state apparatus. Now unable to masquerade as having procured a democratic mandate, ZANU PF is signalling the imminent end to its immoral regime. The party’s hold on power is crumbling, with a clueless government and trigger happy militia posturing as administrators. The incumbent dispensation is by far the most disrespected and least appreciated and they have taken notice. The people have lost all reverence for the national leadership, the civilian disregard for the government has disarmed the Presidency of all of its authority and reduced it to common caricature.

Emmerson Mnangagwa and his squad are now resorting to elementary dictatorship, literally going back to basics. This is obviously abhorrent and disgusting and these people should not only be the target of heated scorn but should also speedily receive their just desert. However there is much to be celebrated in the way things have turned out, chief amongst them are 3 impacts. Firstly, this exposes the regime for its indivisibility from its predecessor, secondly such politics are the fuel that runs the radical left, their inflammation and charismatic leadership is the incessant force that encourages effective organisation. The third outcome is that the government’s crackdown and the people’s strategy for liberation are asymmetrical and disproportionate, the dictatorship continues to employ archaic repression apparatus which are diametrically opposed to the modern contemporary resistance that evolves on a daily basis. What you ought to take away from this piece is that if a government perceives the exercise of free assembly as an unwarranted disturbance and only ever responds with shooting at protesters then they will never win unless they shoot everyone. The conclusion then is that protest is a form of dialogue and that the people of Zimbabwe have embraced the tool and that this practice will grow to be a permanent feature of Zimbabwean politics, government’s haranguing and violence will only serve to motivate the resistance.

The history of protest in Zimbabwe

The people of Zimbabwe do not boast of a very rich culture of direct and active protest. Dissatisfaction with the government has always been a difficult thing to express. As a consequence there are very limited episodes of categorical challenges to the methods of the government as well as bold and impactful collective pronouncements of government’s incompetence. There equally has been very limited riot action. To best understand the development of protest culture in Zimbabwe, one must track its history from the post-colonial Zimbabwe to the present day. The history of protest in Zimbabwe can best be broken down into three epochs, the first phase, the mid Mugabe era from the post 2000 (elections) to the post 2013 era. Here protest was incredibly unheard of, the state cracked down on all dissent and the people were silenced by fear. The second phase, the late Mugabe to early Mnangagwa era from the post 2013 to the 2018 elections, under this phase Zimbabweans took their infant steps to seize their constitutional right to free assembly through using riot and demonstration as a means of conversing with the state on its failings. The third phase, the Mnangagwa consolidation period starting from the inception of the 2^nd republic to present date. Here the people have fully embraced protest culture and have staged two paradigm shifting acts of defiance, the August 1 2018 protests and the January 14 National Shut down, meanwhile the drive to express discontent at the Mnangagwa regime continues fearlessly despite fierce bullying by the state through the armed forces. A more detailed summary of the history of protest in Zimbabwe can be found here.

Protest culture today

Following the events of the 2^nd phase, it can now be said confidently that Protest is now a Zimbabwean tradition. Previously  seen as a moral vice and barbaric animalism which only occurs in unkempt democracies like South Africa, government defiance, citizen demonstration and service delivery protests have now found their place in  Zimbabwe. Demonstration is now a tool to express our politics, it is no longer out of the question as it would have been 5 years ago. There has also been a material shift from reliance on more subtle methods such as protest art and Social media activism to hard core demonstrations, protracted Industrial action and national stay aways. National protest action has grown in its magnitude, there are more people actively participating, they last for longer, the calls and executions are far more immediate and the resistance is fierce.

On the 1^st of August In 2018 Zimbabweans staged a march in protest of the irregularities and corruption that took centre-stage during the general elections held the previous day, it is estimated that more than a million people participated in the march that was held in Harare. The government deployed the armed forces to disband the demonstration whereupon they opened fire on civilians killing two protestors. From the 14^th to the 18^th January 2019 there was a National shutdown which saw citizens withdraw their labour from both private and public sector. Today the social media is a place of citizen dialogue, people post on the president’s Facebook expressing discontent and some tag him in their personal status updates. People no longer express their anti-government sentiments in secret under the fear that they might be caught spreading subversive rhetoric.

Why so much protest?

The incumbent regime has itself to blame for the dramatic shift towards increased citizen political expression. This is because of political hypocrisy and its costs. When Mnangagwa stole power from Mugabe he sold himself as a saint who was the polar opposite of the torrid torment that Zimbabweans succumbed to during 37 years of Mugabe’s dictatorship. Mnangagwa postured as a democrat who would champion far-reaching reforms and clean up the mess made by the men on whose right hand he had stood for a decade. The government masqueraded as a regime that would promote human rights and respect the constitution. So when the opportunity came the people decided to taste the waters. After all the people were only exercising the rights they were promised would be promoted and protected in the new dispensation. Furthermore after, holding hands with the security forces on the 21^st of November 2017, the people were under the assumption that things would always be like this. Never mind the fact that we would soon discover how sadly mistaken we were, the bottom line is the government sold us dreams, they led us on. The state thus has itself responsible for encouraging Zimbabweans to exercise their constitutional right to free assembly.

The second explanation for the increase in protest activity is that it is a natural consequence of the country’s historically dismal human rights record. After 37 years of being maimed into silence and submission, the people have come to their breaking point. Zimbabweans have suffered the brunt of POSA and its abuse. The legislation has for many years been abused in order to disarm people of their ability to protest. The government spent 3 decades falsely telling people that they require permission from the police to host a public gathering. For many years the people of Zimbabwe spent their lives wasting away in a rotting country watching and suffering in silence whilst their neighbouring brethren fought for their countries, toppling corrupt politician after corrupt politician and launching demonstration after demonstration. The people of Zimbabwe as a consequence yearned for that ability to experience what it means to be in a democratic country and exercise your constitutional right to freedom of assembly. Once the first opportunity came the Zimbabweans grabbed it with both hands. Recognize also that the conclusion of this idea is also derivative from the issue discussed in the preceding paragraph.

The third reason for the surge in protest activity in Zimbabwe is that the narrative has been reframed and now matters to more people than before. Firstly issues have been recontextualized from bi-partisan strife between ZANU PF and MDC to economic issues and their resultant social impacts on citizens. This has had multiple benefits for organisation both insofar as numbers and resonance is concerned. The apolitical and apathetic bracket of the population have got more reason to buy in because the conversation is based on the neutral policy issues and how they affect them regardless of how or whether they vote or not. Secondly and more importantly, this narrative appeals the most to two high volume groups, the poor semi-skilled and unskilled working class as well as the underpaid public service. The conversation now focuses on the relatable bread and butter issues that are accessible to everyone. People have as a consequence grown more willing to fight for equal work for equal pay, fair treatment and remuneration for public servants, government corruption and the ever so growing hyper-inflation.

Why the state’s conduct encourages harsher resistance?

A reign of terror will always radicalise the victims into extremism. This for the most part explains why the National Shutdown of January 2019 became violent and resulted in mass looting. When you use lethal brutality to maintain your hold on power and to stifle citizen dissent you create an unpredictable and unstoppable opposition. The people have continuously been hardened by the attack of the government, having suffered at the hands of two diabolic police states, the people have seen it all and have absolutely nothing else to fear. Even death itself is not much of a deterrence because the conflict between government and people is fast nearing the stage of revolution and a lot of activists and modern guerrillas are willing to be martyred for a better Zimbabwe.

A secondary premise under the same logic of radicalisation is that when you antagonise a population that resents you, you create a stand-off between the people and the state. The government has been nothing but rude, stubborn and disrespectful to the people of Zimbabwe. The President responded to reports of a shutdown in Zimbabwe by insulting the people. This is incredibly problematic because the people have been encouraged into this brawl between the state and them. There are communities in the slums, townships and squatter camps of Zimbabwe where the fiercest opponents of the regime are to be found, these are places like Mbare, Makokoba, Nkulumane and Epworth. In these places are to be found people who have zero regard for government authority and zero fear for the state’s acts of terror. These are the people who beat up police officers, the pirate taxi drivers who rule supreme in the streets of Harare and operate their commuter omnibuses in undesignated areas, regardless of consistent attempts by the state to shut them down. It is as a consequence of the hardening effects of pain, suffering and persecution that a culture of defiance and resistance grows exponentially in our communities and that our brothers and sisters are soldiers of the revolution. Finally on this idea, the state is oblivious of the fact that targeting the leaders of movements and opposition is another radicalising element because it enables the people on the ground to rally against the government on that basis. Decapitation as a technique of suppression is counter-intuitive, political parties might not necessarily have clear succession plans but they definitely do have capable successors, succession disputes may only sabotage resistance movements in the short term and when they return with new leaders, they are more revolutionary than ever, the MDC‘s transition into Chamisaism is a living testimony of the rejuvenating effects of regime-change so to speak!

The second idea is that government is using old techniques as the revolution modernises. The government has never met such fierce resistance and is out of options and this is quite understandable, ZANU PF never prepared for this day, they never imagined that in this life time the people of Zimbabwe would become disillusioned to the myth that is their “power”. As a consequence they are employing all the tricks in Dictatorship 101, 1970 edition book .By grand design the post-colonial regime always imagined Zimbabwe as a one party state, with the development of political opposition some changes had to be made. In the period immediately preceding the millennium and beyond, Mugabe went on a media shutdown and censorship parade. Private media houses such as the Daily News were shut down in order to better propagate ZANU PF propaganda in the mainstream state owned reporter. In no time community journalism began to sprout. The civic society did the most to provide alternative media, Radio Dialogue had a community radio project, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human rights continues to publish the legal monitor to report on Human rights abuses. The “Bulawayo Agenda” was one of the most prominent citizen bulletins which reported on community issues and justice in the city of Bulawayo. On the 15^th of January 2019 when The government instructed Econet Wireless, the mobile telecommunications service to shut down the internet, the people were readily armed with VPNs and alternative applications to remain connected in the internet of things. It is because of this outsmarting that the regime has now resorted to killing people. The bottom line is, the people understand that they are ten steps ahead of the government and this gives them the confidence to remain resolute in their cause. Meanwhile if the regime’s only way of responding to remonstration is to shoot at crowds then they best have a strategy to shoot down everyone because it’s on like a television.

The state is more concerned with stifling dissent instead of interrogating it. The government has not really expressed a genuine intention to understand why it is that the people are angry. Even where they understand, they never make solid attempts to solve their problems .The ZANU PF regime always strategically shifts the discussion from the reason for protest to the illegality of the protests. The conclusion here is that as long as the citizen’s demands aren’t met, the people of Zimbabwe will protest till the heavens fall. In late January this year the state attempted to pacify the teachers with pocket change and as I write this article, the education sector has been on strike for two weeks. It is absolutely dangerous for the government to ignore the Civil servants because they are the most influential and important group in the revolution. Industrial action has always been the start of most national protests, in January this year the shutdown followed a weeklong strike by teachers in Harare and other parts of the country. Trade unions right now control the narrative and possess the social capital. For every day that the government prolongs their impasse with the public service then protest action will increasingly bleed the national economy of millions of bond notes.

Why protest culture has a bright future in Zimbabwe?

The government might have a stronger hand on the repressive state apparatus but the ideological war has been won. The ZANU PF regime can no longer deceive people with empty propaganda, romanticisation of sovereignty or baseless calls to patriotism. The narrative to the liberation has equally been thrown out the window with the state beating down the National war veterans association. ZBC and other state propaganda media have been rendered archaic and are painfully undersubscribed. All of this has been replaced by an ever so opening free market of ideas. There is an emerging class of young leftist writers, campaigners, activists and scholars who are challenging the status quo and as a consequence the centre cannot hold. Zimbabwe is entering into a discourse mania where there is a market for re-indoctrination. The leftist millennials are shuttering the establishment academically, intellectually and ideologically in literature, social media, multimedia, in debates and in every possible platform. Ten years ago it would have been inconceivable to write, let alone publish a piece such as this one. The protest has been taken to the knowledge economy and the returns are quite material. ZANU PF quite frankly no longer has discourse that appeals to the millennial. The ideological renewal is arguably the most important method of distributing content on why it is that people are frustrated with the regime.

The second reason why I’m convinced that protest culture is guaranteed a long and healthy life in Zimbabwe is because this is rapidly growing international trend. Globally, protest has grown to be the people’s only refuge. All around the world, oppressed minorities, young people and campaigners are voicing out against misdemeanours by the state and it’s a culture that not only has unique benefits for the participants but also matures and strengthens democracies. Whether it be Black players taking the knee in the American Football league, Nancy Pellosi clapping away Trump’s Bigotry or the Argentinian Pro-choice movement lining the streets with their movement’s green scarfs, movements all around the world provide inspiration and guidance to Zimbabweans and their eagerness to experiment with democratic process. In early 2018 the Students at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo staged a riot against the Lecturer strike and government’s failure to deal with it, this is an example of a student protest that was largely inspired by the #FeesMustFall movement. As movements continue to spill over beyond borders like this, there is bound to be concerted action to co-operate more. During the national shutdown, Zimbabweans in the diaspora were marching at embassies in their respective countries of residence in solidarity with their comrades in arms. Friends and allies from across the globe express support on social media and provide technical support to citizen movements that are budding in Zimbabwe. The propensity for international co-operation and the strengthening of networks to improve protest action is undeniable. The world is headed towards the direction of prominent and regular citizen action, the ongoing accommodation protests in South African Universities and The Yellow vest movement in France and Germany are evidence of that and Zimbabwe will not be left behind. All around the world elitism, cronyism and dynasties are falling thanks to citizens taking charge of their own destinies.

Thirdly, Protest art is the next big thing. Protest is hitting at the core of the ZANU PF regime and encouraging alternative protest in all potential fields. There has always been a rich history of protest art in the country but over the years there has been a disconnect between the kinds of artist in that field and the people that form the widest voter base in the country. Champions of art for protest include the Father of Zimbabwean theatre, Mr Cont Mhlanga the founder of Amakhosi Theatre whose play “Workshop Negative” was banned in 1986 for being unpalatable to the government because it exposed hypocrisy and corruption. Owen Maseko a prominent Artist in Bulawayo was also banned from sharing his work which showcased the Gukurahundi Genocide. Despite the government’s attempt to censor these people, their art is experiencing a natural renaissance and its meaning is becoming ever so relevant as things unfold. Moreover the millennials have joined the conversation and are now using their art to detail the failings of the state. This is crucial because they do so in a manner that is relatable and accessible, attracting millions of followers and spreading the narrative in the most expedient of ways. This is a win for effective organisation as well as establishing the counter-culture. Artists like Winky D, Tocky Vibes, Comedians like Comic pastor and several other talented artists are performing pieces filled with innuendo that sends the message across. Last year alone I watched at least 5 plays that were heavily laden with protest as a theme and object. Blood tongue a BAA award winning play captures the selfishness and hypocrisy of government corruption. I also had the honour of watching a production of Charles Mungoshi’s “A harvest of thorns “directed by Raisedon Baya which speaks of broken promises and the utopia of independence.

Finally, the growth of citizen Journalism will inevitably extend the life line of Protest Culture. Government has for years managed to avert civilian unrest by keeping people out of the loop, by erasing its abuses through its tight control on the state media and by propagating harmful state propaganda. The rise of citizen journalism puts an end to all of that. Citizens not only run their own private news sites but there are also thousands of News and current affairs blogs being run by citizens nationally. The internet is awash with real time videos of Zimbabweans being shot at, police beating people, and unarmed school students being tear gassed. It’s no longer possible for the government to deny its actions were there is corroborating evidence. It is no longer possible for government to lie to the international Community. With the surge of Citizen Journalism, news travels faster, people get information that is unfiltered, more accurate and has greater detail. Citizen Journalism will aid defiance in that it creates better informed protesters and tells the truth to the people that have no access to it, in a world where ZBC and Chronicle will for as long as they can pretend that Soldiers didn’t shoot people on August 1, the National Shutdown did not happen and Dzamara was not abducted.

Conclusion

The central thesis of this opinion is that the Government of Zimbabwe‘s attempts will not limit protest culture, neither will they end it. If ever the state’s brutal attack on free assembly deters people from future protest then it only does so in the short term. This is evidenced by the short intervals between successive protests in the country right now. Even after the Armed forces murdered innocent civilians in August of 2016, it took a mere 4 months for the next round of protests to occur. The most important idea to take not of is that even when the people of Zimbabwe are not on the streets staging a riot, they are in deep protest. Naturally all it takes is a spark for the people to hit the streets. There is very little that the regime can do to police that conduct into oblivion as long as the inflammatory issues still exist. Zimbabweans have gone past their experimental stage, they have discovered that they can protest in Zimbabwe and that the practice is not only warranted but is on its own a categorical good. Furthermore they have a plethora of precedents under their belt, they know now that it can be done and that they have massive international support backing them. The greatest factor to the continuity of protest culture in Zimbabwe is that they have all the moral justification to moan as they are and they have a conviction, the hope of a better Zimbabwe, armed with that, not even the fear of death can stop them. The government may win a battle or two but they can never win the war, Aluta!

Not yet Uhuru!

*Zwe is a final year law student and a Paralegal in Zimbabwe .He writes on the leftist revolution exploring effective organisation and the counter-culture. In his spare time Zwe debates professionally and also argues with people who claim that veganism is a white culture.