This book considers the historical and spatial dimensions of civil society in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland region, an area suffering from severe development and democratic deficits over many decades.
Transcending an organisational conception of civil society and a simplistic state-civil society dualist understanding, it recognises the dynamic character of civil society as a social space, inclusive of less formalised associational forms of collective life, as well as the colonial character and legacies of civil society both analytically and empirically. This book facilitates a nuanced understanding of the specificities of the social, political, and economic evolution of Matabeleland in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe, and the region’s troubled relations with the central state. Historically, it traces civil society in Matabeleland from the region’s resistance against the colonial-settler state to contemporary struggles for justice given the unresolved Gukurahundi legacy. Civil society is depicted as constituted by a set of complex and shifting struggles for justice, not simply between Matabeleland and the central state, but also internally within Matabeleland along multiple fault lines including class and culture. The relevance of understanding civil society in Matabeleland, for Zimbabwe and Africa more widely, is brought to the fore.
The book will be of interest and value to scholars of civil society, politics and democratisation across the African continent.
List of contributors
Preface
Chapter 1: Decolonialising Civil Society: The Case of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe
Kirk Helliker, Mandlenkosi Mpofu and Dion Nkomo
Part 1: Conceptual Perspectives on Civil Society in Matabeleland
Chapter 2: ‘Matabeleland Civil Society’ and its Relationship with the Central State in Zimbabwe, 1893-2000
Mbuso Moyo
Chapter 3: Centring Civil Society and Organic Intellectualism in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland Region
Zenzo Moyo
Chapter 4: Matabeleland’s Civil Struggle: A Narrative of Resistance, Negotiation and Reclamation of Political Space
Cornelias Ncube, Rodrick Fayayo and Gorden Moyo
Chapter 5: Chiefs, State and Civil Society Relations in Matabeleland
Rodrick Fayayo, Cornelias Ncube, and Gorden Moyo
Part 2: Civil Society and Empowerment in Matabeleland
Chapter 6: Civil Society Struggles in Matabeleland: The Case of Ibhetshu Likazulu
Samukele Hadebe
Chapter 7: Rebuilding Capacity in Post-Conflict Communities in Matabeleland South: The Case of Masakhaneni Projects Trust
Nobuhle Hadebe
Chapter 8: Building Peace in the Context of Curtailed Freedoms in Matabeleland:
A Case Study of Grace To Heal
Dumisani Maqeda Ngwenya
Part 3: Civil Society and the Language Question in Matabeleland
Chapter 9: ‘Inadvertent’ State Actors and Lingo-Cultural Gukurahundis in Matabeleland
Sambulo Ndlovu
Chapter 10: Situational Linguistic Performances in Matabeleland: Insights from Case Studies of CSOs
Dion Nkomo and Mandlenkosi Mpofu
Chapter 11: Bottom-up Agency in Language and Cultural Revival: Opportunities and Challenges for the Kalanga Language in Zimbabwe
Mabed Ngulani and Busani Maseko
Part 4: Cultural Production as Civil Society in Matabeleland
Chapter 12: Artists and the Recreation of Inkundla and Alternative Online Civic Spaces in Post-Independent Matabeleland
Gibson Ncube
Chapter 13: Representation of Socio-economic and Political Injustices in Matabeleland: The Case of the Protest Poetry of Moyoxide
Bhekezakhe Ncube
Chapter 14: Popular Theatre as Counter-Public Spheres in Matabeleland in the 1980s: A Critical Analysis of Amakhosi Theatre Production’s Nansi Le Ndoda!
Mandlenkosi Mpofu
Chapter 15: From Anthems to Lamentations: The Music and Place of Majaivana and Albert Nyathi in the Evolution of Cultural Representations of the Marginalisation of Post-Genocide Matabeleland
Mthulisi Mathuthu
Height:
Width:
Spine:
Weight:0.00