Land, Race and Victimhood in Peter Godwin’s When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

Abstract

In this article, I discuss different interpretations of Zimbabwean land in relation to the contradictory notions of victimhood in Peter Godwin’s memoir When a Crocodile Eats the Sun. I also explore the concepts of race, landownership and redress in relation to the legacy of colonialism in Zimbabwe. Through the use of the Cultural Interpretive Theory, Genre Theory and the Theories of Autobiographies, I explore how the politics of victimhood are used by both the Black Nationalist elites and the alienated White citizens to project the essence of ethno-racial grievance before local and international audiences for different ideological and political objectives. I show how the politics of victimhood and retribution which engender feelings of resentment and betrayal in Godwin’s memoir play into the hands of the Zimbabwe state’s anti-Western and anti-Imperialist propaganda. I argue that Godwin’s otherwise important memoir on the destructive effects of Mugabe’s rule undermined its message through traces of “whiteness”, and also by competing on the same turf of victimhood that a politically discredited state had constructed for its own preservation. In the article, I suggest alternative readings of the Mugabe regime’s violent farm grabs to the rather one-dimensional one offered by the memoir.

Opsomming

In hierdie artikel word die verskillende interpretasies van grond in Zimbabwe tot verhouding met die teenstrydige begrippe van slagoffers in Peter Godwin se memoir, bespreek: When a Crocodile Eats the Sun. Konsepte soos rassegroepe, grondbesit en regstellende aksie in verband met die nalatenskap van kolonialisme in Zimbabwe word aangeraak. Die kulturele interpretatiewe teorie word ondersoek, asook hoe die politiek van slagoffers deur beide die swart nasionalistiese elite en die vervreemde wit burgers gebruik word, om die essensie van etno-rassige griewe voor plaaslike en internasionale gehore vir verskillende ideologiese en politieke doelwitte aan te wend. Ek wys hoe die politiek van slagoffers en vergeldings wat gevoelens van wrok en verraad in Godwin se memoir veroorsaak, in die hande van die Zimbabwiese staat se anti-Westerse en anti-imperialistiese propaganda speel. Ek argumenteer dat Godwin se andersins belangrike memorandum oor die vernietigende gevolge van Mugabe se heerskappy sy boodskap ondermyn, deur sy spore van “witheid”, en ook deur mee te ding op dieselfde slagveld as slagoffers in ‘n politiek gediskrediteerde staat, vir sy eie bewaring bou. In die artikel stel ek alternatiewe interpretasies van die Mugabe-regime se gewelddadige plaasvergrype voor, eerder as die eendimensionele een wat deur die memoir aangebied word.