A Chiefly Succession Dispute in the Mid-Zambezi Valley: Contemporary Challenges and Dynamics
Journal Title: Social Evolution & History - Year 2014, Vol 13, Issue 2
Abstract
Chiefly succession disputes no longer constitute a key idiom of political conflict as they did during the precolonial past, but they must still be considered an important element of rural policies and politics of the post-Independence Zimbabwean state. This article is about the latest competition for the Chisunga chiefly office. It reconstructs a conflict that ran from 2001 to 2007 in the Mbire District in the Zambezi Valley, which ended with an administrative appointment that was not endorsed by the ‘traditional’ leadership. This ethnographic account of the first post-Independence succession dispute in this area situates it within the post-2000 Zimbabwe crisis to clarify the extent to which state politics affected the process. It shows, on the one hand, how the ancestral past of local lineages was used and adapted in the present day to meet the needs of the various actors regarding appointments, and on the other, how significant this ancestral past can still be for the rural administration to legitimize its decisions. The study argues that, despite the politicization of rural local government institutions, this alone does not explain entirely the Chisunga case.
Authors and Affiliations
Olga Sicilia
Keywords
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