Another stone for David’s sling

Mabasa Sasa

It should be the welcome burden of every generation to write its own narrative of struggle.

It is in writing that story that a generation locates and identifies itself within the past-present-future.

This is what the 19-odd contributors to the 15 chapters of “Standing Against Illegal Sanctions: Resistance, Policy Innovations and Advocacy” have sought to do with their groundbreaking scholarship on the restrictive measures a few powerful Western nations imposed on Zimbabwe at the turn of the millennium.

In writing the sanctions story, this grouping of distinguished academics is not merely chronicling the heady mix of intertwined historical, contemporary, political, economic and cultural issues that have brought us as a nation to where we are.

They are, more importantly, reclaiming the sanctions narrative, reframing it and daring to define it on Zimbabwe’s own terms.

My humble participation in the making of this book was premised on my lived experience as a writer involved in the journalistic chronicling of many of the political, diplomatic and economic flashpoints used by the contributors as the basis of some of their contentions and policy advisories.

From the Sunday Mirror to The Herald, New African, The Southern Times and The Sunday Mail, I have seen how the sanctions story has unfolded, not just as a political and economic battleground, but as a theatre of defiance, resilience and renewal.

When co-editor Richard Mahomva opened the door for my participation, I gladly walked through.

As with any work of this nature, the foreword sets the tone for what is to come. President Mnangagwa does this by astutely anchoring “Standing Against Illegal Sanctions: Resistance, Policy Innovations and Advocacy” with the unambiguous assertion that Zimbabwe’s right to self-determination will not be negotiated.

From there, the book journeys through the origins, effects and counterstrategies that have characterised Zimbabwe’s economic, political and cultural realities in an era of sanctions.

This is superbly done by weaving scholarship with policy reflection, and all the while framing this within the reality of lived experience.

Tellingly, and perhaps typically of a Zimbabwean generation that has lived through sanctions and continues to soldier on in the face of adversity, the tone of the tome is measured; it reasons where lesser mortals would rage; and it is hopeful in a situation where it could be easier to be despondent.

The result is a sober, evidence-based account of how a nation has relied on its history of collective willpower to not only look the beast in the eye, but to also innovate and forge alternative paths to growth premised on policy milestones and national and international advocacy breakthroughs.

In short, the scholarship presented in “Standing Against Illegal Sanctions: Resistance, Policy Innovations and Advocacy” declares that Zimbabwe has refused to play the victim.

As I worked through the chapters, my main focus, apart from the standard editing requirements, was to ensure that the arguments presented by the authors were emotionally honest.

Beyond the politics, the reader should feel the pulse of a people who have endured shortages, isolation and misrepresentation, and yet still deploy the vocabulary of hope in singing the songs of freedom.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of “Standing Against Illegal Sanctions: Resistance, Policy Innovations and Advocacy” is its insistence on the need to bring African agency to the centre.

The sanctions narrative is robustly situated within the continental and global justice framework, the confrontation of unipolarism and the amplification of the call for Zimbabwe and Africa to not only find its voice, but to also use it.

Stylistically, the book tries to steer clear of polemic.

It is neither blunt propaganda nor a rhetorical apologia.

This is meticulous research presented in a manner that assists anyone genuinely seeking to understand the sanctions narrative to get a historical, contemporary and futuristic idea of where we have come from, where we are and where we could go.

In that regard, “Standing Against Illegal Sanctions: Resistance, Policy Innovations and Advocacy” is not just about the restrictive measures.

It is about endurance, memory and the capacity of a people to define themselves beyond imposed limits.

This, no doubt, could be attributed to the influence of the publisher, the Institute of African Knowledge, which has made it its business to preserve memory and use it as a foundation for African consciousness and, by extension, a basis for progressive policy formulation.

As a post-script of sorts, we all know that David and his little stone defeated Goliath.

But the reality is that more often than not, the Goliaths slay the Davids.

Regardless, the Davids of this world will always reach for that little stone with conviction, hopeful that perchance this will be one of the rare times that Goliath will be felled.

By providing solid academic arguments demonstrating the illegality of the sanctions, highlighting their moral repugnance and spotlighting their economically debilitative intentions — while at the same time making sound policy suggestions —  this little but heavy book could be another stone for David’s sling.