Zimbabwean: Identity, Nationalism and State-building

Abstract: This lecture explores the processes of identity-making and state-building in a multi-ethnic and multiracial society recently emerging from a protracted armed struggle against racially ordered, settler-colonial domina-tion. It explores the extent to which historical factors, such as the nature of the state, the prevailing national political economy, and regional and interna-tional forces and developments have shaped notions of belonging and citi-zenship over time and have affected state-building efforts. The role of the postcolonial state and economy, political developments and the land ques-tion in shaping the postcolonial dispensation is also examined. The lecture argues that, like most African states created by colonialism, Zimbabwe is not yet a nation and that it is only in the process of becoming. It also comments on the role of historians in shaping notions of nationhood and identity