Handing down the poisoned chalice: institutionalisation of partisanship, coercion and solipsism in Mlalazi's "They are Coming" (2014)

Abstract

The seizure and maintenance of power does not merely involve physical violence or force. In most in-stances, it is a combination of force through coercive state institutions that are used as props of self-legitimating and/or the creation of self-authenticating narratives that are often unquestioned and seemingly ‘logical.’ This paper argues that Zimbabwe, like Rhodesia, depended on the institutionalisation of partisanship and force, in order to sustain the elite’s tenacious hold on power. This involves the blurring of the distinction between party and state so that in the context of this paper, ZANU-PF became a party and the state, and vice-versa. In this way all state institutions and organs invariably became party organs. The paper uses Mlalazi’s short story “They Are Coming” to problematise the ways in which the ruling elite have sought to shut out the possibilities for change through the ballot and, instead, show how violence has muddied the Zimbabwean political culture such that the vistas for democracy and consen-sus-building have become remote. The paper concludes by arguing that the culture of militarising elections and youths, and the counter violence of the opposition, amounts to handing a poisoned chalice to successive generations.