The past is the present and future¹: Ambivalent names and naming patterns in post-2000 Zimbabwe

Of Bob, Madzibaba Gabriel, and Goblins: The Sociopolitics of Name-Calling and Nicknaming Mugabe in Post-2000 Zimbabwe

“…Nicknaming and name-calling are some of the most understudied, yet pervasive, subtle forms of counter political action in post-2000 Zimbabwe. Studies on this topic such as Nyambi (2016) and Nyambi and Mangena (2015) are only emerging and have already illuminated the various complex ways through which names, nicknames, and name-calling have not only served the political agendas of both the ruled (Nyambi, 2016) and the rulers (Nyambi and Mangena) but also functioned as alternative archives of processes, acts, and mind-sets produced by the post-2000 political conundrum in Zimbabwe. In my earlier article cited above (Nyambi, 2016), I have, for instance, highlighted how nicknaming became a central act in processes of self-legitimating and delegitimating the political other in the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) succession battles.…”

“…In my earlier article cited above (Nyambi, 2016), I have, for instance, highlighted how nicknaming became a central act in processes of self-legitimating and delegitimating the political other in the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) succession battles. Focusing on the factional nicknames "Gamatox" and "Weevils," I hinted at what emerged in my earlier study (Nyambi and Mangena (2015) as a reemerging political practice, in which nicknames are used to whip up political emotions and steering certain affects intended to identify political revivals with political disaster and, consequently, portraying the self as the politically convenient option. In another article (Nyambi, 2017) focusing on political nicknaming as a subtle hegemonic tool in the hands of ZANU PF, I engaged with the aesthetics of the fear generated by ZANU PF's nicknaming practices in the post-2000 period.…”

Unnaming and mis/naming as a thematic strategy in Bulawayo's We need new names and Tagwira's The Uncertainty of Hope

“…The Zimbabwean nation space is a precinct of tension and inexorable distress for ordinary citizens. Both novels project a profound poetic dialogic and thematic intertextual propensity towards what is generally perceived as a turbulent period of Zimbabwean crisis which has received scholarly attention (Nyambi & Mangena, 2015). The protagonists of the selected novels are from sites of the periphery whose existential conditions are deplorable.…”

“…There is a consensus that literary discourse is a veritable medium for depicting sociocultural, economic, linguistic, and political realities which are in some cases considered ineffable and perhaps offensive (Nyambi, 2013, Ngoshi, 2016, Mavengano & Hove 2019. Names in fictive writings cannot be relegated to mere labels of identity because they are fundamental aesthetic aspects of the thematic construction of poetic texts (Likaka, 2009;Nyambi & Mangena, 2015;Ngoshi, 2016). The realisation of the significance of names and naming stylisations in literary works cannot be refuted and has recently triggered a growing increase of interest in the anthroponomastic and toponomastic web of texts.…”

Discontinuity without change? the place and discourse of colonial memory in Zimbabwe’s post- Mugabe Zanu-PF politics.

“…While this study argues that Mugabe's fall from power cannot be wholly attributed solely to the military transition of November 2017, and neither can it be confined to a single factor, his downfall in 2017 is historically contextualised in the context of this study from the party's December 2014 elective congress, during which former Vice President Joice Mujuru was installed and signaled as Mugabe's natural successor (Ncube, 2014;Nyambi, 2015;Nyambi 2016;Chibuwe, 2017;Lubombo 2018;Ncube, 2020). The congress coincided with allegations that Mujuru led a faction called Gamatox, pitted against her strong rival, Mnangagwa, who at the time was Minister of Defence.…”