Opposition supporters calling for free and fair elections outside the offices of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in Harare in 2018.
Jeksai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images.
Zimbabwe’s 2023 elections look like their predecessors: stolen. But this one is a bit different. Opposition strategies and regional responses have changed too. What does this mean for the future?
Joanah Mamombe, MP Elect for Harare West constituency, addresses media at a polling station.
© Joana Mamombe/provided by author
Women’s representation in Zimbabwe’s parliament has declined in spite of a quota imposed in 2013.
Nelson Chamisa, leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change, addresses supporters at a rally.
Zinyange Auntony / AFP via Getty Images
Nelson Chamisa defines himself as a social democrat who believes in providing substantial welfare to support healthcare and basic education.
Taffy Theman uses YouTube to deliver funny, scathing critiques of the ruling elite.
Screengrab/YouTube/Taffy Theman
Taffy Theman and Bustop TV are YouTubers who use comedy to criticise the ruling elite.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Tafadzwa Ufumeli/Getty Images
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has not faced official investigation or prosecution over his role in Operation Gukurahundi – 40 years on.
NoViolet Bulawayo, Zimbabwean author of the politically charged novels We Need New Names and Glory.
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Writers have challenged oppression, exposed social injustices and advocated for political change.
Zimbabwe’s repressive new law will further erode civilian rights.
Jekesai Njikizana /AFP/ via Getty Images
Opposition activists have previously been accused of treason and unpatriotic behaviour for expressing concerns about human rights abuses.
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Novelist Petina Gappah’s call for translators on Facebook has resulted in the publication of Chimurenga Chemhuka.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa addressing a rally in Bulawayo recently.
Zinyange Auntony/AFP via Getty Images
Zanu-PF’s anti-American rhetoric is not only deployed to win friends abroad. As elections approach, it is also a prominent campaign tactic at home.
Winky D’s hit Ibotso has seen him removed from stage by police.
Screengrab/Happy Again/winkyonline
In his music, he positions himself within the people’s struggles and identifies with them.
Noviolet Bulawayo, Zimbabwean writer.
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Playing out in an animal kingdom, Glory is a devastating political commentary on Zimbabwe today.
Vincent Nhidza, right, and colleague Mathew Simango, arrange coffins at a street workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe.
EPA-EFE/Aaron Ufumeli
Informal sector organisations in Zimbabwe have the potential to influence politics at a personal and societal level.
A still featuring opposition leader Nelson Chamisa from the film President (2021).
Louverture Films/President/Encounters South African International Documentary Festival
The award-winning documentary - now on in South Africa - follows opposition leader Nelson Chamisa. But it spends too much time in meetings instead of giving insight into the bigger picture.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa meets his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping in Beijing, in 2018.
EPA-EFE/Lintao Zhang / POOL
The more President Mnangagwa’s government fails to engage democratically with its own citizens, the more it will negate any prospect of re-engagement with the West.
Zimbabwe Defense Force soldiers during protests against President Robert Mugabe in 2017.
EPA-EFE/KIM LUDBROOK
A forensic archaeologist and former Zimbabwe police officer uses his investigative skills to find the missing and the dead in his homeland.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe and President Cyril Ramaphiosa of South Africa in 2018.
GCIS
The time is long past that Pretoria’s admonitions of bad behaviour by Zimbabwe’s leaders are backed by a credible threat of sanction and punishment.
Central bank (in the background) can no longer perform its function of being the lender of last resort.
Shutterstock
Zimbabwe wants to issue a sovereign bond to raise $3.5 billion it has agreed to pay as compensation to white farmers, but the economic and political conditions aren’t conducive to such an issuance.
A scene from a play about the Gukurahundi genocide, 1983 The Dark Years, performed in Harare in 2018.
JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP/Getty Images
Artists are filling the state’s silence by revisiting history so that it can be discussed.
Grace Mugabe at the funeral of former president Robert Mugabe.
JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP via Getty Images
Sexist slandering has been used not just to describe Grace Mugabe, but to denigrate any women who aspire to political positions.
Hawkers’ stalls in Harare, Zimbabwe, lie deserted following lockdown in a bid to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.
EFE-EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
The current lockdown in Zimbabwe is going to provide a stern test for its informal economy, which is the country’s dominant economy and employs 90% of people.