The construction of “normative Zimbabweanness” through demonisation of rage, anger and emotion in select press coverage of the #ZimShutDown protests

Abstract

Hashtagged #ZimShutDown on Twitter, protests erupted in Zimbabwe in January 2019 in response to a widespread national economic crisis and a drastic fuel price hike. This paper shows how the protesters’ use of citizen rage, anger and emotion was criminalised, pathologised and (de)politicised by certain Zimbabwean newspapers, including the Herald and the Chronicle, as well as the Daily News. In this manner these media outlets became complicit in (de)naturalising and constructing what can be referred to as “normative Zimbabweanness.” Using an autoethnographical perspective, the paper employs a critical diversity literacy reading of texts on the protests in three online newspapers. It examines how these accounts sought to police protester rage, anger and emotion by prescribing “legitimate” forms of protest compatible with the idea of a more acceptable state-sanctioned Zimbabwean identity — what this paper calls a normative Zimbabweanness. The article argues that the protests symbolise resistance against ZANU-PF’s prescribed normative Zimbabweanness, a resistance that offers an alternative way of understanding citizen protest action in the postcolonial Zimbabwean context.