Category: Zimbabwe (prev. ‘Southern Rhodesia’)

2000s, Other Impacts, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

Interviews: ZACF Interviews Two Libertarian Socialist Activists from Zimbabwe, 2008

From here

A member of the ZACF poses the same set of questions to two activists from Zimbabwe.

The first interviewee, Biko Mutsaurwa, is an anarcho-communist from the Uhuru Network and facilitator for the Toyi Toyi Artz Kollektive in Harare.

The second interviewee is Comrade Fatso, AKA Samm Farai Monro, a cultural activist and artistic facilitator for Magamba! The Cultural Activist Network.

The interviews were conducted in Johannesburg on 21st of June, 2008 – the day before MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai announced his decision to not participate in the June 27 presidential election run-off.

Interview with Biko Mutsaurwa, anarcho-communist from the Uhuru Network and facilitator for the Toyi Toyi Artz Kollektive. Conducted in Johannesburg on 21st June 2008 by the ZACF.

ZACF: Have you heard about the regime’s alleged 3-stage election scheme (“electoral cleansing”, falsify the vote, declare a state of emergency)?

Biko: About the regimes intentions to outrightly rig the Zimbabwe electoral outcome I could say that i am convinced merely from watching the regimes reactions to the 29th March elections results that Mugabe has refused to accept that he was defeated in that election. The state media has continued to propagate the myths that there was no election winner. So I’m clear that their intention was to rig the election. With regards to how the regime is actually intent on cleansing after the elections, decimating the middle lay of activists within the Movement for Democratic Change I could say that I have second hand information, actually I got it from my mother who was forced-marched to a ZANU PF rally this Wednesday, 18th June 2008 where war veterans from the Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association addressed that rally and they came to say that they were not there to campaign but they were there to inform the people that ZANU PF was not going to accept the electoral victory of MDC and also that they were going to come back to beat up the residents of Chitungwiza, where I stay with my family, primarily because Chitungwiza has been traditionally voting for the MDC.

ZACF: Can you tell us something about conditions on the ground in Zimbabwe, the extent of repression etc.. We’d like to hear about something else other than the repeated arrests of Tsvangirai & other MDC big-shots.

Biko: The arrests of senior MDC leaders comes in the wake of ZANU PF’s realisation that this time around the MDC leadership is prepared to call upon the masses of Zimbabwe to rise up and defend their vote using peoples power.The specific incident that gave rise to this awakening in terms of ZANU PF’s Continue reading “Interviews: ZACF Interviews Two Libertarian Socialist Activists from Zimbabwe, 2008”

SAASHA
1990s, Country (of origin), South Africa, Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF), Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

22 January 1998: Email from WSF requesting solidarity against repression in Zimbabwe

The Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF) actively tried to build links with Zimbabwe, providing a free subscription of its paper Workers Solidarity to the library at the University of Zimbabwe (then still the site of a radical student movement), sending copies for sale at the late, lamented Grassroots  Books in Harare, and doing its best to distribute its analyses of the Zimbabwean situation to activists in … Continue reading 22 January 1998: Email from WSF requesting solidarity against repression in Zimbabwe

SAASHA
2010s, Other Impacts, Soundz of the South, South Africa, Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

Analysis: Biko Mutsaurwa, 2013, “The Afrikan Hiphop Caravan: Building a Revolutionary Counterculture”

Biko Mutsaurwa, 2013, “The Afrikan Hiphop Caravan: Building a Revolutionary Counterculture,” The Journal of Hip Hop Studies, volume 1, number 2, pp. 226-231.

pdflogosmall Get the PDF here

EXTRACT S BELOW

Biko Mutsaurwa is a leading Shona poet, Hip Hop artist and community activist. He is the founder of UHURU Network, an educational trust that uses cultural activism and popular education to advance the struggle for freedom of expression and social justice in Zimbabwe. He is also one of the initiators of the Afrikan Hiphop Caravan. In this article, he provides a brief outline of the lessons to be learned from a decade of Hip Hop activism on the African continent. In addition to providing a short historical overview of the roots of the Afrikan Hiphop Caravan, he outlines the vision of the project: the creation of a
coherent Afrikan Hiphop Movement based upon a strategic orientation towards social movements of the working class and the oppressed.

… In 2004, an affinity group of student activists, Hip Hop activists and socialists established Uhuru Network, based in Harare, as a decentralised platform where members of the Toyitoyi Arts Collective, Imani Media Collective, Impilo Permaculture Collective and Ruzivo Study Circle met and forged theoretical and tactical unity. As a social movement, emerging from the concrete struggles of working people in Zimbabwe against the Economic Structural Adjustment Programs (ESAPs) of the ZANU-PF dictatorship, the Network was from the start decidedly anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarianist. Continue reading “Analysis: Biko Mutsaurwa, 2013, “The Afrikan Hiphop Caravan: Building a Revolutionary Counterculture””

Lucien van der Walt
2010s, Other Impacts, Video, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

Video: MC Biko: “Anti-capitalistic, anarchistic /Activist gone ballistic”

Lyrics below the video It’s the anti-capitalistic, anarchistic Activist gone ballistic He didn’t battle emcees he fought with the government Kidnapped the MPs and burnt down the parliament His punchlines overthrew the president He was a bulldozer going through impediments Transferred the power from the state to the residents Bombed cop stations and destroyed all the evidence To him bourgeois democracy was just another pestilence … Continue reading Video: MC Biko: “Anti-capitalistic, anarchistic /Activist gone ballistic”

SAASHA
1910s, 1990s, Anarchist Revolutionary Movement, Industrial Workers of Africa (IWA), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) - 1910s, International Socialist League (ISL), South Africa, Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF), Zabalaza Books, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

South Africa, and South African anarchism, through West African eyes [1997]

South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle and unions (both strengths and limitations), and South African anarchism and syndicalism, were mentioned several times in Sam Mbah and IE. Igariwey’s 1997 classic text, African Anarchism: the history of a movement (See Sharp, Tucson, USA). The authors, Nigerian militants, highlighted the South African movement as one of the oldest and most important in Africa (not much was known of the time, at least amongst English-speakers, of the very important currents that had existed in North Africa, or impacts elsewhere in the continent). The 1990s South African movement, in turn, was deeply impressed by the then-1,000 member anarcho-syndicalist Awareness League in Nigeria, of which Mbah and Igariwey were leading lights; the League joined an anarcho-syndicalist international, the International Workers Association, in 1996, a body claiming direct descent from the 1922 “Berlin” international set up after anarchists and syndicalists broke ties with the Communist International / Comintern. Mbah, sadly, passed away from heart problems in late 2014.

From African Anarchism:

Chapter 1: What Is Anarchism?

“Anarchism as a social philosophy, theory of social organization, and social movement is remote to Africa — indeed, almost unknown. It is underdeveloped in Africa as a systematic body of thought, and largely unknown as a revolutionary movement. Be that as it may, anarchism as a way of life is not at all new to Africa, as we shall see. The continent’s earliest contact with European anarchist thought probably did not take place before the second half of the 20th century, with the single exception of South Africa. It is, therefore, to Western thinkers that we must turn for an elucidation of anarchism.

Anarchism derives not so much from abstract reflections of intellectuals or philosophers as from the objective conditions in which workers and producers find themselves. Though one can find traces of it earlier, anarchism as a revolutionary philosophy arose as part of the worldwide socialist movement in the 19th century….”

Chapter 3: Anarchistic Precedents in Africa

“As for outright anarchist movements, there have existed and still exist anarchist groups in South Africa — notably the Anarchist Revolutionary Movement in Johannesburg, and the Durban-based Angry Brigade [this was apparently one of the incarnations of the Durban anarchist movement that later ended up in the Workers Solidarity Federation and in Zabalaza Books — SAAHSA]. South Africa’s pioneer anarcho-syndicalist organization, however — known as the Industrial Workers of Africa — Continue reading “South Africa, and South African anarchism, through West African eyes [1997]”

Lucien van der Walt
1990s, Anarchist Revolutionary Movement, South Africa, Unrest magazine, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

“Unrest” (ARM) 1994: “Chimurenga! The Lessons of the Zimbabwe Liberation War”

“Chimurenga! The Lessons of the Zimbabwe Liberation War” From Unrest no. 1, Anarchist Revolutionary Movement, February 1994 THE VICTORY OF a seemingly militant ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) in Zimbabwe’s 1980 independence elections, following a long guerrilla war (the “Chimurenga“) against White colonialism, was greeted with jubilation. Today [i.e. 1994], the hopes raised have dissipated; modern Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) is marked by continuity with colonial … Continue reading “Unrest” (ARM) 1994: “Chimurenga! The Lessons of the Zimbabwe Liberation War”

Lucien van der Walt
2000s, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

2009: Interview with Zimbabwean Anarchist Communist

Interview with Zimbabwean Anarchist Communist

A member of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front caught up with Biko, an anarchist communist militant from the Uhuru Network in Zimbabwe, on August 10th 2009 when he was in Johannesburg to attend the annual Khanya College Winter School.

In this interview Biko talks about the changes in the social, political and economic landscape since the Government of National Unity came into being; the state of the unions and students’ movement; the suppression of gays and lesbians; the constitutional reform process and expected Zanu-PF campaigns of violence ahead of the next elections.

The audio is rather poor quality, but can be found here (off-site, seems to be down)

The transcript of the interview is, however, available below. Also seeToyi Toyi Artz Kollektive website

 Could you please tell us how the political, social and economic landscape has changed since the Government of National Unity came into being?

The first thing is that there has been a bit of an opening up of democratic space in terms of people articulating, but in terms of the socio-economic situation things have worsened, particularly with the dollarisation of the economy. This has had much more of a negative impact on the rural communities and, with particular regard to the urban communities and given the fact that 85 percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed, Continue reading “2009: Interview with Zimbabwean Anarchist Communist”

Lucien van der Walt
2000s, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

Zimbabwe: Two radical poems published by anarchist-influenced Toyi Toyi Artz Kollektive

Two radical poems published April 2009 by the Toyi Toyi Artz Kollektive, Zimbabwe. Source: http://www.anarkismo.net/article/12654   Raise Your Fist If you are warrior Raise Your Fist High! Are you a warrior Raise Your Fist! A Bobo lion Babylon won’t give me a visa Coz I’m a toyitoyi teacher, pro-zapatista Anti-capitalista, I’m the counter-culture I’m rooted in the spirit like a Shona sculpture Refuse to lose, … Continue reading Zimbabwe: Two radical poems published by anarchist-influenced Toyi Toyi Artz Kollektive

Lucien van der Walt
2010s, Other Impacts, Soundz of the South, South Africa, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

Soundz of the South/ Unemployed People’s Movement, July 2012: Rhini Festival of Reistance, Grahamstown

Rhini Festival of Resistance (Counter “National Arts Festival” @ Grahamstown)

The [annual] National Arts Festival [at Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa] is an elite festival. Poor people are excluded. Even if art is made about poor people by rich people we can’t afford to come and see it!

Our attempts to engage the current festival management have been fruitless. The hostility to our struggles has been made very clear.

Therefore on 1-7 July the Unemployed Peoples Movement (UPM), Soundz of the South and the UHURU Network [of Zimbabwe – ed.]will host the 1st Rhini Festival of Resistance in Rhini (Grahamstown). We are happy to be able to announce that we will be joined by comrades from our sister organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Our festival of resistance will include poetry, street theatre, a street art and graffiti workshop, music, political discussions, a radical film festival and more. Lesego Rampolokeng will present his poetry and films that will be shown will include Dear Mandela, The Uprising in Hangberg, Che, Injury Time, Hunger and more. Continue reading “Soundz of the South/ Unemployed People’s Movement, July 2012: Rhini Festival of Reistance, Grahamstown”

Lucien van der Walt
1990s, Anarchist Revolutionary Movement, Other Impacts, South Africa, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

Chimurenga! The Lessons of the Zimbabwe Liberation War – ARM, “Unrest,” 1994

THE VICTORY OF a seemingly militant ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) in Zimbabwe’s 1980 independence elections, following a long guerrilla war (the Chimurenga”) against White colonialism, was greeted with jubilation. Today, the hopes raised have dissipated; modern Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) is marked by continuity with colonial social and economic structures. This article examines, from a radical perspective, why the national liberation struggle failed to achieve its basic goals, and the lessons this holds for struggle today. Continue reading “Chimurenga! The Lessons of the Zimbabwe Liberation War – ARM, “Unrest,” 1994″

SAASHA
2010s, Other Impacts, Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

Ballistic – She Govanwa, April/May 2010, Harare, Zimbabwe

Uhuru Network logoIt’s the anti-capitalistic, anarchistic
Activist gone ballistic

He didn’t battle emcees he fought with the government
Kidnapped the MPs and burnt down the parliament
His punchlines overthrew the president
He was a bulldozer going through impediments
Transferred the power from the state to the residents
Bombed cop stations and destroyed all the evidence
To him bourgeois democracy was just another pestilence
These were not just his views, but the working class sentiment
He expressed himself in spite of the censorship
He was a war veteran fighting the dictatorship
His thoughts were anarchy, his words were hardcore
Disturbing the peace, waging war on the status quo Continue reading “Ballistic – She Govanwa, April/May 2010, Harare, Zimbabwe”

SAASHA
1920s, 1930s, Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union of Africa (ICU), Namibia (prev. 'South West Africa'), South Africa, Zambia (prev. 'Northern Rhodesia'), Zimbabwe (prev. 'Southern Rhodesia')

Kadalie and the ICU – graphic from South African radical journal “Africa Perspective” in 1981 (no. 19)

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa (the ICU) was the largest black union and protest movement in 1920s South Africa, also spreading into neighbouring Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South West Africa (now Namibia).  It was influenced by IWW syndicalism, even adopting a version of the IWW constitution in 1925, and pushed for a general strike the next year. … Continue reading Kadalie and the ICU – graphic from South African radical journal “Africa Perspective” in 1981 (no. 19)

SAASHA