La estética lyncheana en “Eraserhead” (1977)

The biblical text depicts that the Jews were generally agrarian⁸⁷; they survived on subsistence farming. Cartwright (2004:88) provides significant information about the excavation findings on the agricultural production practised in the ancient biblical lands. She says that Abu Hureyra,

86 This sector is also known as micro- and small-scale enterprise (MSE) sector. See Daniels (2003:675).

87 The agrarian sector or farming as a form of survival strategy will be discussed in detail under “Nehemiah’s Social Justice Reforms” (see §9 below).

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located in the valley of the Euphrates river, was founded by a group of hunter-gatherers whose descendants went on to develop farming around 11,000 years ago. Cartwright further observes that the site was excavated in 1972-73 by a multi-national team of archaeologists. It was discovered that two successive villages were uncovered. The inhabitants of the village hunted local animals, notably the Persian gazelle, and foraged vegetation. A more complex method of food production was practised by the people of the second village. They cultivated grain crops and kept cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs (Cartwright 2004:89). So, the Judeans would grow all kinds of crops, such as grain, fruit and vegetables, both for family or household consumption and for sale on their pieces of land. They also kept animals such as: cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs.

Hence, the outcry by people of Nehemiah’s time for losing their fields and vineyards from which they would get grain and grapes (Neh 5:3), for both family survival and selling to the market.

Zimbabweans are traditionally known for subsistence farming; crops of all kinds, grown on the basis of subsistence farming, or many households thrive and survive. Some of the surplus produce is at the same time sold to the market in order to purchase other household goods.

Besides farming, other informal entrepreneurial activities include: selling second-hand clothes, shoe-repairing, hairdressing, breeding chickens, and cross-border trade. Despite the informal sector’s contribution to the economy as a whole, the sector was critically faced with a sharp decline in recent years, following the clean-up exercise dubbed Operation Murambatsvina by the ZANU (PF) regime in 2005.

Informal sector businesses contribute immensely to national economic development, particularly in the African, Asian and Latin American continents (Meagher 1995:259).

Therefore, commitment from the unity government is needed to reconsider investing in the informal sector. In developing countries, self-employed or informal sector workers work in

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agriculture or in the urban informal sector (Jesse 1999:3). This suggests that Operation Murambatsvina which targeted particularly those in the urban informal sector might have intended to force people to continue their businesses in the agricultural sector. Most of the people in Zimbabwe sustain their lives from subsistence farming in any case.

Reasons for engaging in informal sector businesses vary, the major reason being unemployment and the need for economic survival. Daniels (2003:675) explains that limited opportunities in the formal sector and high unemployment rates in many African countries have led to the increased attention to the micro- and small-scale enterprise (MSE) sector. Daniels (1994) further notes that the MSE sector employs 22 percent on average of the adult population in five Southern African countries⁸⁸ compared to only 15 percent in the formal sector. This state of affairs places the informal enterprise sector in the driver’s seat whereas governments and parastatals are battling to cope with economic challenges, especially in Zimbabwe.

For example, selling of second-hand clothes has become a significant trade for some, whereas for others it has become the means of acquiring clothing. Not many have economic power to buy clothes from established clothing shops such as Woolworths, Edgars, Harrisons, or Metro Trading, to name a few. Clothes sold by individuals on the streets or by vendors at informal markets have become the “wears” for the majority of Zimbabweans. Evidence from recent studies shows that small-scale enterprises contribute significantly to household incomes (Zuwarimwe and Kirsten 2010:18; cf McDade and Spring 2005:17-42).

At the height of the economic meltdown in 2008, food and other products were imported by individuals from neighbouring countries, such as South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.

Even after the formation of the unity government, the informal sector has remained the

88 The five Southern African countries include: Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

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wheel to sustain economic developments in Zimbabwe, as individuals have continued to do everything in their power to buy and sell in order to provide for their families.

On the other hand, the ZANU (PF) government has adopted the “Look-East” policy, which seeks to embark on bilateral relations with countries such China and Malaysia, among others. This move followed the targeted sanctions by the West and the European Union on Mugabe and his cronies in ZANU (PF) for instigating both land invasions and political violence in Zimbabwe. The “Look-East” policy saw the increase in Chinese trade with Zimbabwe.

Volumes of low-quality Chinese products, which Zimbabweans have termed Zhingzhong (Mambondiyani 2011)––also dubbed Fonkong in South Africa––have infiltrated the informal market, including flea markets. It is reported that Chinese investment in Africa, Zimbabwe in particular, is profit-driven. The Chinese have capitalised on both the liberalisation of the economy and the prevalence of poverty to exploit the locals by amassing the informal sector with poor products that the Chinese will not export to developed countries such as those in Europe. As a result, the local industrial production of the same goods and services has been impacted negatively as the market has been split between the majority poor and the minority elite. Low-quality Chinese products generally target the poor section of our population. However, despite all these developments involving various trade players in Zimbabwe, consumers are at liberty to purchase from diverse product sources, depending on their financial statuses. The above observations support my argument for the unity government to seriously reconsider the informal sector as an equally important and competitive economic player to steer the nation towards development. Having discussed the phenomenon of informal sector businesses in detail, I now turn to explore the role of the political leadership in rebuilding Zimbabwe.

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7 POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

Postexilic Judah was one of the provinces that fell under the Persian administration. This was made visible through, among other things, road networks that were built for easier travel, control and communication purposes. Persian roads and bridges linked every part of this vast empire and enabled communication (Briant 2002:357-87). Furthermore, Persian power was projected from wherever the Achaemenid king stationed troops and officials to gather taxes, administer infrastructure, and manage regional agricultural production (Betlyon 2005:9). Even so, the postexilic Judean community was directly “governed” by Judean governors, most of whom exploited them. Nehemiah 5:1 that reads: “Now men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers,” was a result of this exploitation. For this reason, Yahweh had vowed that:

“For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth” (Is 60:1). The situation in Yehud resembles the Zimbabwean context in many respects.

Political instability has been the core of economic instability in Zimbabwe. However, Riveridge⁸⁹ (2011) has articulated that politics by its very nature is not a bad thing; what spoils the broth is “politics of the belly,” that is, family and friends only. This politics of the belly as Riveridge puts it, has caused the “outcry” of the Zimbabwean society for over a decade.

Zimbabweans yearn for economic and political liberties. Some necessary political reforms need to be implemented which should include the resignation of Robert Mugabe as state president, who for now has become the world’s oldest leader (Godwin 2011:281). Robert Mugabe was born

89 Riveridge’s “politics of the belly” is a reality. If this “politics of the belly” is not addressed by those in positions of power, people who are suffering opt to go on the streets in demonstration against the leadership.

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on 21 February 1924. In February 2012, he celebrated his 87th birthday. In my view, the outcries of the Zimbabwean people will not end any time soon as there is every indication that Mugabe

“is not in a hurry to exit the centre stage of Zimbabwean politics” (The Times 22 Feb 2012).

In Africa, once a president, always a president – at least this is the intention and wish rife among political leaders. For example, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has held office of the President for 32 years (i e, 1980–2012). The current Zimbabwe Constitution was adopted from the Lancaster Constitution, which was revised in 1987 when Robert Mugabe gave himself the title of “President.” The Constitution of Zimbabwe provides the framework for the country’s laws, which also states that the President can hold office for six years; it does not stipulate how many of these six-year terms can a President hold office. After the formation of the unity government in 2009, a process of crafting a new constitution was begun. The current draft constitution (Chapter 6, Section 6.8) stipulates that the President will hold office for only one term of five years. If this law is complied with, elections in Zimbabwe will be held every five years. However, in the past election rigging has been a major concern in Zimbabwe.

Moghalu (2008:32) has concurred with this state of affairs where he lamented that the electoral crises that gripped Kenya and Zimbabwe in 2008, fuelled by allegations of rigged elections and marked by ethnic and political violence, are symbols of the problems that confront democracy in Africa. These political crises, as Kingsley Moghalu describes them, pushed SADC leaders to opt for a power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe. However, it has been argued that the thought of someone as power-crazy as Mugabe sharing power with anyone else is laughable (The Herald 23 Dec 2008). This view suggests that Mugabe has the potential of defying the Global Political Agreement in order to stay on as president until he dies.

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Governance is at stake here. I concur with Ile (2008:125) who declares that the cry for good governance among members of the Zimbabwean society during the tenure of office of the ZANU (PF) regime has not yielded any meaningful results yet. The quests for good governance and observance of human rights have been contentious issues over the last decade in Zimbabwe and civil society has certainly made an effort to engage government in order to demand these rights. However, despite their quests for good governance and observance of human rights, as Ile expresses it, the Zimbabwean society has not been successful in confronting the ruling elite to demand justice, because Robert Mugabe has instilled – through previous practices of torture⁹⁰ – a great amount of fear in order to scare people away from revolting against the government’s corrupt policies and violations of human rights.

Meanwhile, although every citizen should play his/her part in developing Zimbabwe, the larger brunt of such a responsibility lies with the government. At the launch of the unity government in 2009, it was hoped that political and economic stability would prevail in Zimbabwe as the country got herself “ready to walk into the future” (Pienaar et al 2008:3). It cannot be disputed that the economy of Zimbabwe at independence in 1980 was competitive and could stand its ground in the region. Reconstruction and development initiatives were rapidly implemented.

During the early 1980s, the ZANU (PF) government had scored remarkable achievements in various sectors including education and training, which is discussed below.

90 ZANU (PF) hawks darken the sky ahead of runoff. s n 2008. Business Day 7 Apr, p7.

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