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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Debates on nation in Zimbabwean theatre
| Panel |
6. Zimbabwe: Callenges and Opportunities
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| Paper ID | 181 |
| Author(s) |
Gloerstad, Vibeke
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| Paper |
View paper (PDF)
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| Abstract | This paper discusses representations of the nation in two Zimbabwean satires in the "community theatre genre". The background is the understanding of cultural expressions as a form of mass media; they are utterances which take part in hegemonic battles. The context is the political situation in Zimbabwe in 1999, when the opposition was gaining a foothold and there was a certain silent optimism concerning future development of democracy and strengthening of human rights. The plays criticise the regime. "The Members" (Amakhosi) criticises corrupt MPs and "Ivhu versus the State" (Rooftop) recounts the intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The plays are analysed in relation to how they narrate actual conflicts in Zimbabwe. The analytical concepts derive from cultural studies and post-colonial theory which emphasise how the public sphere consists of conflicting discourses, and that political struggle is also a politics of representations. How do the characters experience their nation? - do they provide space for a multiplicity of national identities? Do they join counterhegemonic strategies for political change? It is demonstrated that both plays anticipate the crisis which been developing in Zimbabwe since 2000, and the plays’ strategies of resistance are also the basis for the present opposition.
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