Reading the Zimbabwean National Anthem as Political Biography in the Context of Crisis

Abstract

The aim of this article is to render thinkable the idea of reading the Zimbabwean national anthem, Simudzai Mureza weZimbabwe, as a political biography. Biographies are people’s lives narrated by others. However, the act of writing the lives of the nation in the form of an anthem, and then projecting these experiences as epitomising the lives of the individuals within the nation, is in fact marked by a disjuncture. This happens because by their very nature, acts of narrating individual or collective identities should always be viewed as approximations of that lived reality. Furthermore, national anthems as wish lists are based on some selected themes deemed of national importance by others and not everybody. This problem is at the heart of reading the Zimbabwean national anthem as a political biography. This article argues that if it is remembered that the lyrics of Simudzai Mureza weZimbabwe were composed by a literary figure, and selected and adopted by the Government of Zimbabwe, amongst other compositions, then there is reason to believe that there are, from that competition, some versions of the national anthem that were turned down, whose lyrical content Zimbabweans may never come to know of. Read from this “subversive” perspective, the Zimbabwean national anthem is a political biography “complete in its incompleteness” or incomplete in its completeness.[1]

Opsomming

Die doel van hierdie hoofstuk is om die gedagte van die Zimbabwiese volkslied, Simudzai Mureza weZimbabwe, as ’n politieke biografie denkbaar te maak. ’n Biografie is iemand se lewe deur iemand anders vertel. Die handeling van skryf oor die lewe van die nasie in die vorm van ’n volkslied, en hierdie ondervindings dan te projekteer as epitomisering van die lewens van die individue in die nasie, word trouens deur ’n disjunksie gekenskets. Dit gebeur omdat, uiteraard, narratiewe handelinge van individuele of kollektiewe identiteite altyd gesien moet word as approksimasies van die geleefde realiteit. Verder is volksliedere as wenslyste gegrond op ’n paar uitgesoekte temas wat deur sommige, nie almal nie, as van nasionale belang beskou word. Hierdie probleem is die kern van die lees van die Zimbabwiese volkslied as 'n politieke biografie. Hierdie artikel voer aan dat, as daar in gedagte gehou word dat die lirieke van Simudzai Mureza weZimbabwe deur ’n literêre figuur gekomponeer is, en uit ander komposisies, deur die Regering van Zimbabwe gekies en aanvaar is, daar rede is om te glo dat Zimbabwiërs moontlik nooit sal weet wat die lirieke was van sommige weergawes van die nasionale volksliedere wat in daardie kompetisie afgekeur is nie. Gelees vanuit hierdie “ondermynende” perspektief, is die Zimbabwiese volkslied ’n politieke biografie “volledig in sy onvolledigheid” of "onvolledig in sy volledigheid".

1].         The formulation that a text says more in what it does not say than in what it says suggests that there cannot be any text that can claim to be total, whole, or complete. For further elaboration of this concept see Macherey (1978).