adminEditors: Richard Runyararo Mahomva (MSU, AU, UZ); Professor Percy-Sledge Chigora (Senior Lecturer-MSU), Dr Majahana Lunga (Senior Lecturer and Dept Chairperson CUZ).
Publisher: LAN Readers
Publication year: 2019.
ISBN:
Review by: Pofela Ndzozi (Winner of 2018 Bulawayo Arts Awards Non-Fiction Literature Winner, B.A Honors Degree in Language and Communication-LSU)
In this three part series, the first instalment of the book review shall provide an abridgment of the submissions in this “MUST READ” for every Pan-Africanism aficionado and academics.
This is to offer the reader with a structuralist’s appreciation of the petite-paged, yet argument voluminous book.
Borrowing from the academic text, the subject of Pan Africanism in Zimbabwe is one that can never be responded to without talking about the Chimurenga files hence the collaboration of Mahomva, Chigora and Lunga does not only provide scholarly currency, but a re-thought of the need to dismember and remember Pan-Africanism.
Professor Percy-Sledge Chigora, Richard Mahomva and Professor Majahana Lunga, in their recent publication dubbed “Reinventions and Contestations of Thought-Power: Emerging perspectives on Pan-Africanism”, offer a theoretical and practical insight into the relationship between political ideology, historical authority, and the praxis of politics in Zimbabwe and the continent at large.
The publication is a product of a joint academic enterprise by a cohort of emerging and well accomplished academics from diverse humanities and social science disciplines.
The collection is a landmark proof of the contributor’s avid and mutual interests in grappling with the contested question of knowledge production in Africa against a background of contested definitions on who can legitimately articulate the historiography of politics in Africa. Beyond the academic posturing which is pivoted by the lustrous profiles in the book, the publication is a practical manifestation of the role of academics in influencing policy making processes.
Dr Samukele Hadebe launches the first debate in the book; he begins by questioning the meaning of Pan-Africanism specifically in relation to the condition of Africa today.
His choice to diametrically depict the thrust of Pan-Africanism from its historical context with the present, point to the fact that, the continent is either still in bondage or the liberation efforts which succeeded in the collapse of Dejure colonialism have been miscarried.
Dr Hadebe concludes his first contribution by recommending that Pan-Africanism remains a critical tool for the liberation of Africa, his submission depicts Pan-Africanism as an embodiment of the human rights discourse and the legitimate reference for African democracy.
Dr Umali Saidi graduates the debate from the framework of thought into placing it at the centre of policy formulation.
His avid articulation of grammar in the subject of ethnicity; contrast with the continent’s effort to find a viable solution to ethnic differences which are normally exploited by enemies of the continent to mediate conflict and disunity.
Dr Saidi’s contribution is in line with Nkrumah’s vision of a united Africa although in Dr Saidi’s framework, unity can still be achieved without going through the route of abstract if not romantic parameters of regional integration.
Interestingly, Dr Hadebe returns to the debate in an attempt to posit the role of knowledge in state building.
He criminalises the continent’s failure to effectively define itself in the knowledge production paradigm.
In his public policy credence, Dr Hadebe argues that public policy albeit national welfare, is a subject that can never be separate from national consciousness. At the centre of consciousness, Dr Hadebe places patriotic authorship as a crucial factor in influencing national consciousness.
Mediel Hove and Enock Ndawana give yet another interesting contribution which mutually complements Dr Hadebe’s view that literature plays a central role in defining statehood. The two give reflections on patriotic history and how it has its axis of legitimacy in the nation’s body politique. Their contribution successfully demonstrates the role of history in Zimbabwe’s making and state architecture processes. Through sufficient reflections on Chimurenga files; statecraft in Zimbabwe is justifiably embedded on history characterised by the representation of the establishment as an institution whose existence stems from the past; thus its validation in its pursuit for power in the face of new opposition actors. The debate on the Chimurenga’s position in state building is passed on to Kirk Helliker and Sandra Bhatasara who trace the contributions of Professor Terrence Ranger in the making of Zimbabwean historiography.
ν To be continued . . .
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