Mugabe the Man-Nation: Two Views of Culture in the Construction of Masculinities in Zimbabwe

Abstract

There is no one overarching and conclusive meaning of Robert Mugabe the man and the phenomenon; although there are certain ways he can be read as a coherent subject via the sighting of recurrent motifs in the modes of his thinking, feeling, and operation. These leitmotifs denote who he is although not necessarily who he says he is. There is always tension between the gown and the man, the face and the intentions, the mirror and the image. The image that informs how we construct what we consider to be his meaning and what he chooses to project in order to control the proliferating and undisciplined meanings generated about him can best be considered to be the result of long and frustrating peeks through the flyblown windows of his shadowy world. Since his private life instinctively turtles in unless probed by a trusted and coached state-employed journalist for vote-catching purposes, he is nowhere as legible as the peekaboo personal life of the iconic Nelson Mandela. Mugabe the man is assembled by the public through rumor and gossip—and the fragmented patchwork of self-narratives that come across as part of the elaborate mirages he throws around for political gain. In the absence of a coherent and patiently and soberly constructed autobiography,¹ researchers have to rely both on the art of restorative masonry as well as that of scrap iron sculptors: the arts of recovering and reading significances in broken shapes and found objects. The curiosity of a bricoleur is required in both instances.