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Zimbabwe's 1985 Elections: a Search for National Mythology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

When Zimbabweans went to the polls in June and July of 1985, they decisively returned the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) to formal power, provided regional support for the Patriotic Front–Zimbabwe African People's Union and, in the case of the white roll, endorsed Ian Smith's Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe. Questions raised in the wake of the elections tended to focus on the changes that the Z.A.N.U.(P.F.) Government could institute in the next three to five years – a one-party system, a complete abrogation of the Lancaster House privileges for whites, a vigorous turn towards Marxism.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

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Page 229 note 2 Ranger, Terence O., Peasant Consciousness and Guerrilla War in Zimbabwe (Berkeley, 1985).Google Scholar

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Page 230 note 2 Gramsci, Antonio, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (London, 1971), pp. 332–3, stresses the importance of constructing an intellectual-moral bloc that ‘can make politically possible the intellectual progress of the mass and not only of small intellectual groups’.Google Scholar According to Adamson, Walter, Hegemony and Revolution (Berkeley, 1980), p. 178, that social group or class ‘will by definition be hegemonic vis-à-vis itself, but its political alliances with other such groups may or may not develop into a hegemonic relationship’.Google Scholar

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Page 231 note 1 Thompson, Leonard, The Political Mythology of Apartheid (New Haven, 1985), p. 1.Google Scholar The synonyms appear in Edelman, Murray, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (Urbana, 1964), Gramsci, op. cit.,Google Scholar and Ashley, Richard, ‘Political Realism and Human Interests’, in International Studies Quarterly (Guildford), 25, 2, 06 1981.Google Scholar

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Page 231 note 4 The first case is vividly described by Ranger, op.cit., and by Lan, David, Guns and Rain: guerrillas and spirit mediums in Zimbabwe (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1985).Google Scholar The second case is noted by Poulantzas, Nicos, Political Power and Social Classes (London, 1974).Google Scholar

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Page 235 note 1 Weitzer, loc.cit. p. 357.

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Page 236 note 2 Gordon, David, ‘Development Strategy in Zimbabwe: assessments and prospects’, in Schatzberg, (ed.), op.cit. p. 128.Google Scholar

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Page 240 note 2 Ranger, op.cit. p. 177.

Page 240 note 3 Ibid. p. 303.

Page 240 note 4 Ibid. p. 291. Most of the time Ranger refers to the peasant programme as ‘radical’, thereby confusing militancy in pursuit of goals which, in this case, proponents of Marxist–Leninist mythology would not consider ‘radical’, with radical outcomes.

Page 240 note 5 Ibid. p. 307.

Page 240 note 6 Bush, Ray and Cliffe, Lionel, ‘Agrarian Policy in Migrant Labour Societies: reform or transformation in Zimbabwe?’, in Review of African Political Economy, 29, 1984, p. 93.Google Scholar

Page 241 note 1 For additional commentary and examples, see Sylvester, loc.cit.

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Page 246 note 1 Collier, op.cit. p. 14.

Page 246 note 2 Preface, ZANU(PF) Party Manifesto, 1985.

Page 246 note 3 ‘Gweru Crowds Hail Premier’, in The Sunday Mail, 23 June 1985.

Page 246 note 4 ‘Comment’, in The Herald, 1 July 1985, p. 1.

Page 246 note 5 ‘ZANU(PF) is for Peace: Zemura’, in Sunday News, 30 June 1985.

Page 248 note 1 ‘Vote Should Seal Fate of Colonial Era: Shamuyarira’, in The Herald, 29 June 1985.

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Page 252 note 1 ‘Whites Have Nothing to Fear, Says Irvine’, in The Chronicle, 20 June 1985.Google Scholar

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