Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the meaning and uses of legacy in connection to former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's rule and the futures of Zimbabwe through an examination of four nonfictional texts by Panashe Chigumadzi, Ray Ndlovu, Geoffrey Nyarota, and Douglas Rogers.

Paper long abstract:

Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was overthrown in a coup that was officially not called a coup in November 2017. In September 2019 he passed away, marking the definite end of an era and the almost four decades of his rule. The process to remove Mugabe from power was called Operation Restore Legacy and it has been well documented in a number of nonfictional texts emerging since 2017. This paper explores four such texts by writers and journalists connected to Zimbabwe in various ways: Panashe Chigumadzi, Ray Ndlovu, Geoffrey Nyarota, and Douglas Rogers. The meanings and uses of legacy are at the core of the paper. The act of bearing witness to the developments defines the writing in all four texts examined that also to some extent draw on the autobiographical. Not only was the operation to oust Mugabe built on the notion of restoring legacy, inevitably raising questions about whose legacy was being restored, but the legacy of the former president himself is increasingly being scrutinized since his passing. All four texts in focus ponder his legacy and the future of Zimbabwe, how history and the past continue to mould the nation’s present, and they ask how Mugabe will be remembered. The future eventually builds on the past, but which past and whose past that will be emerge as urgent concerns in the nonfictional texts.