African Social Studies Series Contested Liberations, Transitions and the Crisis in Zimbabwe

This book examines (counter)cultures of liberation, transition and the crisis in Zimbabwe, focusing on the ways in which culture permeates hegemonic and counter-hegemonic constructions of what and whose liberations matter especially in the context of political transition. How and when does culture enter the discourse on liberation, transition and crisis in an African post-colony such as Zimbabwe? In a deeply polarised nation reeling from a difficult transition and an unrelenting economic crisis, it is increasingly becoming difficult for the ZANU PF regime to prescribe and enforce its monolithic concept of liberation. This book culls, from contemporary (counter)cultures of liberation and transition, the state of liberations in Zimbabwe. It explores how culture has functioned as a complex site where rigid state-authored liberations are legitimated and naturalised but also where they are negotiated, contested and subverted.