Redemptive or Grotesque Nationalism: Rethinking Contemporary Politics in Zimbabwe

At the beginning of 2000, with the launch of the so-called Third Chimurenga, Zimbabwean nationalism revealed some of its most grotesque aspects, resulting in a polarisation of the nation into ‘patriots’ and ‘sell-outs’ and dividing academics into groups such as ‘regime intellectuals’, left-nationalists, left-internationalists, ‘nativists’ and ‘neo-liberals’. Drawing upon the arguments and insights of an array of scholars, many based in Zimbabwe, this book offers a new analysis of the grotesque character of Zimbabwean nationalism, a nationalism that has provoked ambivalent responses locally, regionally and internationally.