Remembering or re-membering? Life-writing and the politics of narration in Morgan Tsvangirai’s autobiography At the deep end (2011)
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Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
Morgan Tsvangirai’s autobiography is a construction of both personal and national
identities from the 1960s up to 2011. In doing that the autobiography At the Deep End reshapes events from the colonial up to the period of Zimbabwe’s crisis with
a view to staking a specifi c, deliberate identity that privileges the self as more
sinned against than sinning. This paper interrogates Tsvangirai’s autobiography
so as to unpack the conspicuous presences and absences and the motive of
such narration. The paper argues that the politics of narration in the book is
motivated by the reality of his being a leader of the opposition party in Zimbabwe
where he has faced a lot of accusations about his history and leadership qualities.
Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was often
branded as a ‘terrorist’ organisation by the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African
National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU PF). We argue that Tsvangirai’s analysis
of events is compromised by his view of the self as a possible leader in Zimbabwe.
Out of the possible selves generated by his shifty experiences, he privileges
the political identity in order to create an aura of relevance in the rugged political
terrain of Zimbabwe. Thus the autobiography is constructed in a way that shows
remembrance and re-membering of historical accounts.
Description
Keywords
Politics, Morgan Tsvangirai, Life writing
Citation
Moyo, T., gonye, J., Hlongwana, H. & Kangira, J. (2013). Remembering or re-membering? Life-writing and the politics of narration in Morgan Tsvangirai’s autobiography At the Deep End (2011). Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(2): 15-26.