adminIn a political space where the market is continuously being crowded by new-fangled entrepreneurs, the revolutionary party needs to rebrand itself. Our political market has revoked itself of political oligarchy and the free market politics have rejuvenated even black market politicians.
They are those who are still bitter about that their father had a political expiry date and quickly carved their space as vocal opponents of the regime. They find themselves scrounging for a niche in the market to sell their political ideas to spaces the regime has either neglected or not reached.
Some of them are no names and they attract the needy and frail, and of course, some of them are telescoping street “coolness” as the new political product that any young person yearns for. I mean — being buffed, fancy accent, telling a bunch of lies, having an extravagant lifestyle and yes . . . sex tapes make young people cool and they have amassed support through that.
Don’t be fooled by conservativeness, there is a large pool of young people who find that cool even if they know it’s not proper; don’t worry as it lasts less when someone much “cooler” without a sex tape appears. These are the dynamics of our political stock exchange market. If we were to have a real political stock exchange report some parties we now have will be the constant inconsistencies.
This week I decided to be very real about what is happening around us in the wake of political “DOOM” — I don’t mean the memes circling around of the Doom spray pastor ( although that would make sense in my context today). I am referring to an impending catastrophe that will see Zanu PF’s consumer preference dwindling. So far so good, attraction of the new revolutionary product consumer has been slacking. As I once wrote some few weeks back, the party is not attracting the key voter. I said it clearly that revolutionary politics are not “coolly” packaged such that a new horde of ideological consumers are attracted to the product. The party has massively focused on retaining the same consumers yet the main point of electoral richness is numbers and quality of the numbers themselves. In that article, someone asked me what I meant by being politically “cool”, he said should the party be Acie “cool” or ANC “cool” I then said I would prefer ANC cool in that comparison although political coolness is beyond the rhetoric of identity politics and reference to apartheid and a dancing president (which is actually cool as well). I promised the lad that I will use this article to explain what political coolness is in the context of our political consumer culture.
Not that I am saying the party has no cool people (eg, Minister Walter Mzembi always drips with swag, its undoubted that His Excellency’s choice of formal wear is second to none and of course the intelligence displayed by most members of the party just intrigues anyone who craves a mental frenzy) all these belong to a certain level of political coolness, but in my view, some still lack the present dynamic of being cool. You see, being cool is being fashionable; I don’t mean following trends of ripped jeans and tops, customised cars, and expensive people’s hair — I am referring to responding to societal expectations of political behaviour, talk and appearance. I shall take this opportunity to conclude my series of “THAT THING” by explaining the “thing” that the party should adopt should they want the new consumer to flock their shelves. Infact in marketing language, when the party rebrands itself, it will save itself a lot of merchandising expenses, dry pushing will sell the product way more than any competitor. Mark my words, today’s consumer wants what is worth their money and they are ready to buy if it satisfies them.
The tragedy of Zvimurenga
With my few years in existence I have known the party to make a lot of allusion to the first and second Chimurenga. The third wave marked land appropriation where some of our parents managed to recover what had been robbed of us. That is plausible and any sane country would celebrate that they got what is theirs back. In this coolness of today, the subject of land is divorced from the biggest political consumer. In as much as land is important, the conclusion by the young consumer is that they are not farmers so the land debate is not relevant to them.
Of course, they are not wrong; they simply do not understand the value of land, no one has taken time to explain to them multiple uses of land, meaning of land to a people and how in their fashionista minds this still serves them best. There has been a narrow narrative of Zvimurenga, it has been about land!, land!, land for agriculture whose purpose they know but still do not see how that purpose is important to them.
In my other life I argued that the post 1980 Chimurenga is no longer just a war of land but has transformed into multiple struggles within a struggle which are referred to by a popular Zimbabwean author (I do not want to reference lest some of my colleagues attack me for referencing people they don’t read). The Zvimurenga to the young consumer faces a war of ideas.
They need answers to a lot of questions that I shall not write today, yet those struggles’ answers are what they need in a political brand. This is about politics of sexuality, the well-being of a USA and UBA (University Spinsters Association and University Bachelors Associations), will they get jobs after being serious about school, what is the essence of sovereignty, what is bad about being a coconut (black skin-white masks), are sanctions real, will they ever be rich? etc. All these are struggles that the young consumer fights today and they define a Chimurenga defined by the fighter. Zvimurenga defines multiple struggles to liberate oneself from any hangover you may think of, colonial, apartheid, neo-imperial etc. It’s a continuing struggle that has to be won by acquisition of answers. It is not enough for the party to drive the melody of how we conquered Smith and the Rhodesian maleficent yet in its importance it speaks to selected survivors of that time and leaves out the most important consumers — yikho lapho okulemali khona.
I do not undermine the role of all Zvimurenga they are central to our being, they were a good narrative in the build-up elections of 1979,1990s and early millennium dawn, but like any other lesson, they should be re-curriculumed to appeal to the new market. If some of you used to watch Tour of Duty on ZBC TV in the early 90s you would agree with me that the series depicted American soldiers in Vietnam as heroes and always successful. In as much as that series was effective in doing so at that time, it will not sway as much today because the market does not resonate that much with Thomas Dudikof’s starring and narration hence preferring Captain America the Winter Soldier. They both present a Chimurenga of America but in a different picture with new challenges that relate to a living American. My thrust is to say, lets model our Zvimurenga to speak to the new market. Perhaps our repetitive heroes’ commemoration should start to encompass not only the sorry emptiness of the gallant sons and daughters we lost but tell the success of those living. Maybe I am the only one who hasn’t heard success stories of heroes living except their misfortunes in the liberation struggle. If only the emerging trend of heroism focused on how some escaped from Gonakudzingwa, evaded arrest, escaped the jaws of Rhodesian repressive laws all for the sake of saving and serving us, that would be a new narration. If only attention is shifted on the multiple struggles the new market faces, the party would attract more political sales. Zvimurenga zvasiyana — it’s a continuing struggle and the revolutionary party should find itself leading the fight against these struggles. When young people are struggling with their sexuality, identity and nominal politics, they are also struggling with tuition, income and individual growth space. That needs to be Zvimurenga reloaded 2.0: rebranding the party.
Latest: The truth about Zimdef
The elusive truth about this matter is that it may be delayed to come to your attention because for a series of weeks journalists followed it up. I am not one to be quick when it comes to scoops, I resent, realise then react, which is actually a delayed action at most times but worthwhile. It’s my style, I am cool like that, I bring out the truth that no one really thought of. Remember, I am still on the “cool” politics and Zimdefgate or anything similar to it is not a cool product in the market, the consumers are grumbling and it will deter lowyal consumers. So what are my thoughts on this subject matter, one may wonder; I am not name shaming, my job is not to imply that so and so affirmatively repossessed the young consumers’ funds, and I am not the jury to declare what should be done to whoever, I am simply suggesting political rebrands in a quickly consumer confidence loss market.
At least this past week I was surrounded by a lot of the beneficiaries of the Zimdef fund in Mutare. I had a nice time there when I resided at Leopard Rock hotel courtesy of Mutare Teachers’ College, the pleasure of being a citizen in a country with Vumba resort where I am in an unAfrican Africa, if you have never been there I urge you to take your family, it’s a good vacation. I am digressing from my plot, anyway it’s a nice place but apart from that the interaction on Zimdefgate is of interest.
So, the biggest consumer, teachers, the ones who lead the revolution from the chalkboard, those who train our STEM students who should realise the benevolence of the party and its governance, those who socialise the young and important consumer, sounded really bitter about what is happening. The very fact that no one has been affirmly incarcerated makes the consumer question the ability of our investigation department.
With that in mind, it opens room for conspiracies that the party tolerates corruption, of which the reverse is true. What the young consumer wants is confidence rebuild through systematic application of justice to the offender in the Zimdefgate, regardless of who it is.
They care less about who it is but when justice delays, they cease to appreciate the political product (Zanu-PF). It’s not my interest to write more about Zimdefgate, but all I can say until I continue next week is Zimdefgate or any other close to it, is a mould on the product and that product should be recalled as it will affect other brands. Next week I shall look deeply into it as I introduce a new approach to my commentary which is more interactive as it involves opinions from people of different political products. Have a great week.
Micheal Mhlanga is a research and strategic communication specialist and is serving Leaders for Africa Network (LAN) as the Programmes and Public Liaison Officer. He also administrates multiple youth public dialogue forums in Zimbabwe including the annual Reading Pan Africanism Symposium (REPS) and Back to Pan Africanism Conference. Feedback can be sent to [email protected]
Online Reporter