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History, Tyranny, and Democracy in Zimbabwe, In: Africa Spectrum, 51, 2, 117–130

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History, Tyranny, and Democracy in Zimbabwe, In: Africa Spectrum, 51, 2, 117–130 www.ssoar.info History, Tyranny and Democracy in Zimbabwe Southall, Roger Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Rezension / review Zur Verfügung gestellt in Kooperation mit / provided in cooperation with: GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Southall, R. (2016). History, Tyranny and Democracy in Zimbabwe. Africa Spectrum, 51(2), 117-130. https://nbn- resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-4-9810 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-ND Lizenz (Namensnennung- This document is made available under a CC BY-ND Licence Keine Bearbeitung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu (Attribution-NoDerivatives). For more Information see: den CC-Lizenzen finden Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/deed.de Africa Spectrum Southall, Roger (2016), Review Article: History, Tyranny, and Democracy in Zimbabwe, in: Africa Spectrum, 51, 2, 117–130. URN: http://nbn-resolving.org/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-4-9810 ISSN: 1868-6869 (online), ISSN: 0002-0397 (print) The online version of this and the other articles can be found at: <www.africa-spectrum.org> Published by GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Institute of African Affairs in co-operation with the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation Uppsala and Hamburg University Press. Africa Spectrum is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To subscribe to the print edition: <[email protected]> For an e-mail alert please register at: <www.africa-spectrum.org> Africa Spectrum is part of the GIGA Journal Family which includes: Africa Spectrum ●● Journal of Current Chinese Affairs Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs ●● Journal of Politics in Latin America <www.giga-journal-family.org> Africa Spectrum 2/2016: 117–130 Review Article History, Tyranny, and Democracy in Zimbabwe Roger Southall Michael Bratton (2014), Power Politics in Zimbabwe, Scottsville, Pie- termaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, ISBN 978186914 3114, 280 pp. David Coltart (2016), The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, Auckland Park: Jacana Media, ISBN 9781431423187, 646 pp. Keywords: Zimbabwe, political history, power and rule, social opposition/ political opposition, political theory Roger Southall is a professor emeritus from the Department of Soci- ology, University of the Witwatersrand, and a research associate in Political Studies at the University of Cape Town. He is the author of Liberation Movements in Power: Party and State in Southern Africa (James Currey; Univer- sity of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2013). His most recent book is The New Black Middle Class in South Africa (Jacana; James Currey, 2016). E-mail: <[email protected]> Presently, Zimbabwe is very much out of the news. The 2013 elections have come and gone; the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has reasserted its hold on state power; the economy is getting worse and worse; and the world continues to await the dis- placement or death of the country’s nonagenarian president, Robert Mugabe. In a word, it’s pretty much business as usual, except in so far as the climaxing of competing tragedies in such countries as South Sudan and Burundi now render Zimbabwe an African sideshow. True, there is considerable interest in the intra–ZANU-PF power struggles around the presidential succession, but generally the global perspective on Zim- babwe is one of resignation. In essence, this contribution argues that 118 Roger Southall external interventions to change Zimbabwe’s course have been miserably ineffective. Accordingly, a democratic solution to the country’s travails is pretty much a non-starter, and the best that can be hoped for is a not- too-violent political transition to a post-Mugabe order. If Zimbabweans want a democracy, they must be left to create it for themselves. The two books reviewed here throw much light on why this policy position – which I take to be that of the Western and even some African elites – has come about. They are very different books. David Coltart’s volume uses autobiography to explore the bitter disappointments of Zimbabwean history. In contrast, Michael Bratton’s book explains the Zimbabwean impasse by drawing upon the literature on power sharing and institutional change. They will almost certainly be able to engage rather different audiences. Coltart’s account will have more popular appeal, while Bratton’s will draw more academic attention. Furthermore, whilst Coltart – sustained by his Christian faith – remains (perversely?) optimistic about the future of Zimbabwe, Bratton’s realist approach is considerably gloomier. Even so, despite their differences, these contri- butions complement each other nicely. Both are consumed by key ques- tions: How can Zimbabwe grapple with its history and resolve its appar- ently intractable conflicts? What prospect is there for some sort of tran- sitional justice? Is there any realistic chance of transitioning to democ- racy? There is no originality in these questions. They are of concern to all those who have an abiding interest in Zimbabwe. However, both books add considerably to the richness of debate. After a brief review of their content, I will discuss how they address these issues. Bratton: The Dynamics of Power Politics Bratton “analyzes the resilience of authoritarian rule in Zimbabwe through the lenses of power politics and elite political settlements” (10). By cap- turing the state, leaders have been able to entrench lasting arrangements to exercise power, never hesitating to use violence and defy the rule of law. “Power politics” he borrows from the realist tradition of international relations, “which views states as locked in blunt competition to achieve self-defined national interests in the absence of overarching external au- thority” (7), choosing to apply it to the domestic rather than the inter- national arena. While Thomas Hobbes might well protest that Mugabe’s particular conceit is that he embodies the sovereign, Bratton eschews any such emphasis upon a “big man,” providing an alternative emphasis on the broader civilian–military elite coalition which surrounds the president (235). So even when, at critical junctures, such sovereign elites feel com- History, Tyranny, and Democracy in Zimbabwe 119 pelled by circumstance to enter into more inclusive pacts with rivals, they do their best to undermine these pacts and to return to the status quo ante. Beyond his explanation of power politics, Bratton organises the book into four parts. First, distinguishing between “power capture,” “power sharing,” and “power division,” he provides overviews of the different political settlements which have defined Zimbabwean politics. The colonial political settlement, which favoured a small white minority, went through different iterations: rule by the British South Africa Com- pany; settler rule under authority delegated from Westminster; settler rebellion; and, finally, the Lancaster House independence settlement, whereby Britain brokered a compromise between the settler regime and African liberation movements, granting majority rule in return for guar- antees of property and economic continuity. However, under this settle- ment (1980), ZANU-PF’s drive for exclusive power saw it waging ethno- cidal war against its internal rival, Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), and violently cajoling the latter into collapsing itself into the ruling party in 1987. Subsequently, in the wake of escalat- ing economic and political crises, ZANU-PF was to be bundled into a power-sharing arrangement with a new rival, the Movement for Demo- cratic Change (MDC), in 2008. Bratton characterises these settlements as “elite pacts” rather than “social contracts,” with elite interests continu- ously predominating. All of them have been built upon “manipulation of the law, economic exclusion, political intimidation, covert operations, and […] physical violence” (7). In Part 2, Bratton goes beyond other accounts of the post-2008 pe- riod by placing the MDC–ZANU-PF coalition in a cross-national, African context. Power sharing between rival elites was implemented relatively successfully to end settler rule in South Africa and civil war in Sierra Leone. However, it was far less successful in Kenya. Although it brought a momentary halt to violence following the disputed presidential elections of 2007, it enabled a president (Kibaki) to retain power despite having pos- sibly lost the election. Indeed, the coalition period failed to address the deep structural domination long enjoyed by the Kikuyu elite (118). Bratton concludes that whereas in South Africa and Sierra Leone political adver- saries saw advantages in resolving differences by talking rather than fighting, in Kenya, and as he goes on to detail, in Zimbabwe, power shar- ing was used by incumbent elites to regroup and recapture the state. In Part 3, Bratton turns to fundamental reforms that he considers necessary for countries to resolve intractable domestic conflicts. In the Zimbabwean case, he refers to constitution making, election manage- ment, security sector reform, and transitional justice. The first three of 120 Roger Southall these have already received considerable attention, there being wide consensus that for Zimbabwe to make progress towards democracy, it needs a fully inclusive constitutional
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