Human Rights and the Constitutional Movement in Zimbabwe

This chapter analyses the emergence, development and role of constitutional and human rights movements in Zimbabwe, and the alliancing that civil society organisations within these movements did to either challenge or assert the hegemony of the party-state. The chapter argues that while the human rights movement grew in stature during the second and third decades of independence, the party-state’s influence in society massively declined during the same period. The party-state’s attempt to arrest its faltering hegemony collided with human rights organisations’ attempt at offering an alternative hegemony, culminating in the crystallisation of nationalist-redistributionist vs liberal democracy-rule of law rhetoric that was aligned, uncritically, to the activities of the party-state and opposition parties, respectively. The arguments in this chapter show that despite its declining hegemony and a shrinking democracy in the country, the ruling party, helped by its quasi-state allies, still managed to drive a violent anti-imperialist project which was admired by many in the region because of its inherently redistributive promises that never quite came to bear. On the other hand, the human rights-rule of law and democracy alliance emphasised issues of constitutionalism; human and property rights; and neglected questions of redistribution, indigenisation and decoloniality, which meant that it failed to sufficiently embed itself within the socio-economic question as well as the country’s liberationist history. I also argue in this chapter that human rights civil society organisations over-relied on external global influences, which betrayed their lack of class forces, and the absence of a solid ideological grounding capable of sustaining a popular struggle. The chapter also identifies weaknesses immanent in both pro-hegemonic and counter-hegemonic civil society organisations, not least being their incestuous relations with the party-state and opposition parties, which crystallised polarisation. I argue that these weaknesses gifted each side a stick with which to beat the other, and the peripheralisation of each other’s agenda and other important societal questions, leading to the hollowing of the centre phenomenon and weakening of a nascent democracy.