ABSTRACT
The seizure and maintenance of power does merely involve physical violence or force. In most instances it is a combination of force through coercive state institutions that are used as props of self-legitimation or/and the creation of self-authenticating narratives that are often unquestioned and seemingly ‘logical.’ In this paper we argue that Zimbabwe, like Rhodesia, depended on the institutionalization of partisanship and force in order to sustain the elite’s tenacious hold on power. This involves the blurring the distinction party and state so that ZANU-PF became and vice-versa. In this way all state institutions and organs invariably became party organs. We use the novel They Are Coming by Mlalazi to problematize 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 consensus-building have become remote. We conclude by arguing that the culture of militarizing elections and youths and the counter violence of the opposition amounts to handing a poisoned chalice to successive generations.
