Rethinking Zimbabwe

Recent arbitrary arrests of prominent human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa and senior officials of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), coupled with sporadic attacks on civilians and civil society by the state, have been interpreted by some including the MDC

Read the rest of How ZANU-PF stays in power – By Simukai Tinhu »

Recently, the ‘Friends of Zimbabwe’ group of western donors met in London, together with representatives of all of Zimbabwe’s main political parties. The ‘Friends’ group – formerly known as the ‘Fishmongers’ after an expensive restaurant in Harare – is a

Read the rest of Making friends in London: is a new rapprochement on Zimbabwe occurring? – By Ian Scoones »

The International Crisis Group issued on 6 May a very helpful report entitled Zimbabwe: Elections Scenarios. Prepared by Piers Pigou, the ICG’s Southern Africa projects director and his team, this report should be required reading for those outside of Zimbabwe

Read the rest of Zimbabwe Elections Scenarios: New ICG Report Cuts Through the Political Posturing »

Back in 2009 when he took the job as Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti had one of the most challenging jobs in African politics. The country had just experienced a traumatic and almost certainly fixed election, which eventually saw

Read the rest of Tendai Biti: Zimbabwe must stage “a legitimate and credible election” for economic recovery – By Magnus Taylor »

Fourteen years ago, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) launched itself onto Zimbabwe’s political scene with great local and international fanfare. The MDC was seen as having given rise to a new understanding of Zimbabwean politics,

Read the rest of Why has support for the MDC plummeted so much? – By Simukai Tinhu »

Reviews of our book keep piling in; this time prompted by the recent publication of Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land, a more popular summary of the main studies of Zimbabwe’s land reform. The latest is by Martin Plaut – he

Read the rest of When is research ‘really authoritative’? A response to Martin Plaut (and others) on Zimbabwe’s land reform – By Ian Scoones »

    On March 16th, Zimbabweans voted on a new Constitution in a national referendum. The voting was largely peaceful, and the turnout higher than expected, with over 3 million people voting. With all major parties supporting it, the result was

Read the rest of Zimbabwe has a new Constitution, but disputes over the land provisions continue — by Ian Scoones »

On the 16th March, the new constitution of Zimbabwe was approved by an overwhelming majority of voters. Ninety five percent voted ‘Yes’, and many, including the international community were encouraged by the relatively peaceful nature of the elections. The European

Read the rest of Zimbabwe: heading towards elections without political reforms – By Simukai Tinhu »

This past weekend’s referendum in Zimbabwe marks an important transition away from the 2009 Government of National Unity (GNU) formed in the aftermath of the violent 2008 elections.  The low-key referendum, where nearly 3 million people voted “Yes” for the

Read the rest of Zimbabwe: The end of power sharing, the return of brute power – By Timothy Scarnecchia »

Since independence in 1980, there appears to have been an ingrained political psyche peculiar to Zimbabwe’s Matebeleland region, where the political landscape has been painted in ethnic colours.  Historians say today’s tribal politics date back to the 1960s and 70s when nationalists

Read the rest of Ethnic politics on the Zimbabwean campaign trail: do voters really care? – By Marko Phiri »