Necropolitics, Zombification and Zimbabwe’s Polemics of Governance in Julius Chingono’s Not Another Day

Political contestation over governance matters in sub-Saharan states like Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe continues to fracture postcolonial African humanity and generates untold suffering. The relational gulf between the ruling elites and the civilians is dauntingly widening. Attempts by civic society organizations, regional organizations and some Pan-African critics to advocate for peace, justice, and the restoration of dignity to postcoloInial African subjects do not yield the desired results. In some cases the political situation is graduating towards anarchy, threatening socioeconomic and national stability. Various forms of authoritarian leadership are aptly theorized by Achille Mbembe’s political model of necropolitics, rulership, and zombification, punctuated with the grotesque exercise of power. In Zimbabwe, despite dialogs of restorative measures and rehabilitative commissions to quell the looming governance crisis, incidences of violence, despotism, contested elections, patronage, greed, corruption and other political impunities continue to be an enduring thorn in the nation’s body politic. Continued scrutiny by critics, however, is beginning to unmask some of the unquestioned truths about how the sad story of postcolonial Zimbabwean society has been sustained. This study employs sociopragmatics and Mbembe’s notions of necropolitics, rulership, and zombification to examine how contemporary Zimbabwean fiction writer, Julius Chingono’s text, Not Another Day, articulates the nuanced political polemics that are hampering a potential rebirth of the Southern African country. The study offers a thoughtful context-specific enquiry into the governance crisis generated through political arrogance as it is enunciated in selected stories from the collection.