African Studies Quarterly Volume 7, Issues 2 & 3 Fall 2003 Special Issue Zimbabwe Looking Ahead Guest Editor: Todd Leedy Published by the Center for African Studies, University of Florida ISSN: 2152-2448 African Studies Quarterly Editorial Staff Abubakar Al-Hassan Lin Cassidy Leah Cohen Kenly Fenio Jennifer Forshee Kevin Fridy Corinna Greene Aaron Hale Parakh N. Hoon Abdourahmane Idrissa Joseph Krause Andy Lepp Todd Leedy Fredline McCormack Kelli Moore Leonardo Villalon African Studies Quarterly | Volume 7, Issues 2 & 3 | Fall 2003 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq © University of Florida Board of Trustees, a public corporation of the State of Florida; permission is hereby granted for individuals to download articles for their own personal use. Published by the Center for African Studies, University of Florida. African Studies Quarterly | Volume 7, Issues 2 & 3 | Fall 2003 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq Table of Contents The Dualities of Contemporary Zimbabwean Politics: Constitutionalism versus the Law of Power and the Land, 1999-2002 Susan Booysen (1-31) Zimbabwe's Triple Crisis: Primitive Accumulation, Nation-State Formation and Democratisation in the Age of Neo-liberal Globalisation David Moore (33-51) Industry and the Urban Sector in Zimbabwe’s Political Economy Pádraig Carmody and Scott Taylor (53-80) Narratives on Land: State-Peasant Relations Over Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe Bevlyne Sithole, Bruce Campbell, Dale Doré, and Witness Kozanayi (81-95) The Experience of Resettled Farmers in Zimbabwe Sophia Chiremba and William Masters (97-117) Opposition Politics in Independent Zimbabwe Liisa Laakso (119-137) War Veterans: Continuities Between the Past and the Present Norma Kriger (139-152) Crisis in the State and the Family: Violence Against Women in Zimbabwe Mary Johnson Osirim (153-169) Press and Politics in Zimbabwe Stanford D. Mukasa (171-183) Globalizing Land and Food in Zimbabwe: Implications for Southern Africa Carol B. Thompson (185-201) AT ISSUE: Responding to Kitching's "Why I Left African Studies." Africanists and Responsibility: Some Reflections Guest Editor: Marc Epprecht (203-204) Eyes Wide Shut: Africanists and the Moral Problematics of Postcolonial Societies Timothy Burke (205-209) Academic Melancholy, Romantic Cynicism and the Road Not Taken Lisa McNee (211-213) Beyond Blame? Carole Pearce (215-218) African Studies Quarterly | Volume 7, Issues 2 & 3 | Fall 2003 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq Colonial and Post-colonial Latin America David Sheinin (219-224) Why I Love African Studies Marc Epprecht (225-228) Jagged Fragments: Imperialism, Racism, Hurt, and Honesty Gavin Kitching (229-236) Book Reviews The Post-Apartheid Constitutions: Perspectives on South Africa’s Basic Law Penelope Andrews and Stephen Ellmann (eds.). Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2001. 606 pp. Shedrack C. Agbakwa (237-239) Protestant Churches and the Formation of Political Consciousness in Southern Mozambique (1930-1974) Teresa Cruz e Silva. Basel, Switzerland: P. Schlettwein Publishing, 2001. 210 pp. Inge Brinkman (239-241) Why Peacekeeping Fails Dennis C. Jett. Palgrave MacMillan 2000. 240 pp. Josiah Brownell (241-243) The Bang Bang Club: Snapshots From A Hidden War Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva. (Foreword By Archbishop Desmond Tutu). New York: Basic Books, 2000. 253 pp. Derek Charles Catsam (243-245) The London Missionary Society in Southern Africa, 1799-1999: Historical Essays in Celebration of the Bicentenary of the LMS in Southern Africa John de Gruchy, (ed.) Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2000. 229 pp. Proclaiming Political Pluralism: Churches and Political Transitions in Africa Isaac Phiri. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2001. 169 pp. Alan L. Chan (245-248) Understanding African Philosophy: A Cross Cultural Approach to Classical and Contemporary Issues Richard Bell. New York: Routledge, 2002. 189 pp. Muyiwa Falaiye and Oscar Odiboh (249-251) Media and Resistance Politics in Namibia: The Alternative Press in Namibia, 1960-1990 William Heuva. Basel, Switzerland: Schlettwein Publishing, 2001. 166 pp. Wence Kaswoswe (251-253) African Studies Quarterly | Volume 7, Issues 2 & 3 | Fall 2003 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq Workers, War and the Origins of Apartheid: Labour and Politics in South Africa, 1939-48 Peter Alexander. Ohio University Press, 2000. 214 pp. Chima J. Korieh (253-255) Money Struggles and City Life: Devaluation in Ibadan and Other Urban Centers in Southern Nigeria, 1986-1996 Jane Guyer, LaRay Denzer and Adigun Agbaje (eds). Portsmouth NH: Heineman, 2002. 269 pp. Insa Nolte (255-257) The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars. Douglas Johnson, Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press 2003. 234 pp. Lee J. M. Seymour (257-258) The African Stakes of the Congo War John F. Clark (ed.), New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. 249 pp. Stefaan Smis (258-259) Africa Since 1935 (General History of Africa. Volume 8) Ali. A. Mazrui (ed) California: University of California Press 1999. 1072 pp. Jerome Teelucksingh (260) African Studies Quarterly | Volume 7, Issues 2 & 3 | Fall 2003 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq African Studies Quarterly | Volume 7, Issues 2 & 3 | Fall 2003 The Dualities of Contemporary Zimbabwean Politics: Constitutionalism Versus The Law of Power and The Land, 1999-2002 SUSAN BOOYSEN Abstract: This paper explores the dualities in the coexistence within Zimbabwean politics of constitutionalism and legality versus a complex combination of paralegal, supralegal, oppressive and brutal political action, especially as this pertains to elections and land. The analysis is set in the period 1999-2002. The investigation concerns the issue of how the Zimbabwe African National Unity (Patriotic Front) government had been using a complex combination of constitutionalism-legality and the unconstitutional-paralegal to ensure political survival, despite national resistance and international pressure. An epilogue presents a brief thematic comparison between the core arguments in this article, and developments from 2002-2003. The article has three interconnected parts. The first presents the major contours of constitutionalism in Zimbabwe. It argues that the state contested and manipulated both the practice and discourse of human rights, recasting the 'individual' and the 'liberal' in the context of 'African' and 'socialist', but with the slant to favour the government of the day. The second section highlights how ZANU-PF built the extensive constitutional, legal and electoral-domain front of constitutionality and multi- partyism, precisely to defeat and undermine opposition challenges, whilst maintaining itself in power. It argues that in the electoral domain ZANU-PF uses the legality of constitutionalism to aid and veil unconstitutional, arbitrary, and authoritarian means of maintaining power, and simultaneously garners the moral force of land and colonialism to create 'political immunity'. Thirdly, the article deals with the convergence of liberation politics, land and elections. It assesses the way in which ZANU-PF’s anchoring of its electoral conquest in the issue of the land and post colonial liberation superimposed forms of legitimacy and justice that tended to override (in the eyes and minds of many citizens and parts of the international community, including SADC) paralegal and supra- legal action. The abrogation of constitutionalism in the domain of land effected some electoral favour and also conferred a degree of political immunity because of the ‘sacredness’ in the post-colonial struggle for land justice. The conclusion reviews possible Susan Booysen is Professor of Political Studies at the University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and is Deputy President of the South African Association of Political Studies. She specialises in Southern and South African politics and political economy. Her primary current research and writing project is Comparative Liberation Movement Governance and Opposition in “Deep” Southern Africa: South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola. Booysen is the author of more than thirty academic articles, chapters in books and monographs. She has recently published on Zimbabwe in the journals Journal of African Elections, and Africa Insight. She has participated in two election observer missions to Zimbabwe. She serves on the editorial board of the South African Journal of Political Studies (Politikon). http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v7/v7i2-3a1.pdf © University of Florida Board of Trustees, a public corporation of the State of Florida; permission is hereby granted for individuals to download articles for their own personal use. Published by the Center for African Studies, University of Florida. ISSN: 2152-2448 2 | Booysen explanations and notes the extent to which the period of 1999 to 2002 witnessed the convergence of constitutionalism, legality, and the moral force of land reform, with coercion, oppression and legal-institutional manoeuvring to maintain fragile regime power. Introduction By the time of the 2002 presidential election in Zimbabwe, contestation between the worlds of constitutionalism and legality, and supra-legal political practice within the belly of the constitutional epitomised developments in the Zimbabwean African National Union-Patriotic Front’s (ZANU-PF) struggle for political survival. The dualities of constitutionalism, legalism, and formal party-electoral actions, versus actions beyond constitutional provisions and law, contribute to an overall characterisation of contemporary Zimbabwean regime politics as precariously vacillating between these