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The other Side Nathaniel Manheru— I HAVE always been struck by how local sayings often betray an advanced scientific sensibility traceable to our so-called ‘non-scientific’ forebears. All this against rooted allegations of pre-scientific living, a myth cultivated and nourished under the Victorian imperial ethos. Interestingly, the Shonas were immemorially aware of the value and role […]
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Nathaniel Manheru— LIKE my favourite muzukuru always warns me: when you are among vultures, don’t die. I don’t know whether there was much forethought to Mai Mujuru’s party launch date: Super Tuesday! Maybe her schemers thought Zanu-PF would be distracted by a session of Cabinet. But for how long, if at
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Nathaniel Manheru THE OTHER SIDE— OUR long history — before, during and after colonisation, and since Independence — presents an image of America that is ambiguous, an America appears, disappears, appears and disappears from our radar screen. That long history presents an image where America is an opponent, an enemy, a partner, just
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Call it a week of key economic news and I agree with you. Firstly, there were very good pointers in a bad analysis ran by the South African Financial Mail. The analysis dwelt on the pitfalls of running monocultural or single industries/commodities economies on the continent. It gave the example of
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Nathaniel Manheru The Other Side About 1898 when the British South Africa Company (BSAC) thought it had broken the back of African resistance in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, a Methodist missionary, John White, penned an article in the Methodist Times of London. The article reflected on the smouldering rebellion from the perspective of the missionary who […]
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The Other Side Nathaniel Manheru— Give it to our African heritage. You don’t go very far in search of a proverb appropriate to express strange happenings in your neighbourhood. Our forefathers will have something for you, itself an indication of the expansive experience they have accumulated and distilled for our future use and
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Nathaniel Manheru— 2016 arrived nine days ago. Or so we allege. As before, and before, on New Year the sun still rose from the east, still set in the west. The clock — not time — ticked as before, giving us an illusion of recording reality, of time past, time present, time future. Arguably, there […]
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Nathaniel Manheru THE OTHER SIDE My inclination was to write on developments in South Africa, specifically on what must have been a traumatic week for President Zuma. I am still keen to understand what the issues are, what really is at stake. It cannot be about a good finance minister who must make way, who […]
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The Other Side Nathaniel Manheru As I write this piece, I am reminded of one Dennis Brutus and his “Gore’e”. “Gore’e” is a poem about an island off Senegal by that name, an island from where Africans were loaded into ships for slavery in various parts of the world, including and especially the Americas. Gore’e […]
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The Other Side – Nathaniel Manheru As I write this piece, I am looking at a piece in the New York Times done by one Alexander Noyes. It is on Zimbabwean politics. The writer introduces himself as a doctoral candidate at Oxford University, a profile no doubt meant to impart some aura to the piece. […]
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Nathaniel Manheru THE OTHER SIDE LET me work and play with an observation by a Marxist literary critic, Walter Benjamin, who noted: “All great works of literature found a genre or dissolve one”. Elaborating this great observation, the maverick Susan Sontag added: “However rich in precursors, the truly great work must seem to
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Nathaniel Manheru THE OTHER SIDE I SEEK reader indulgence in breaking a promise I made last week. I had committed this column to a follow-up article on the wider pointers beyond the media issues I dealt with. Little did I know that new developments would occur, developments calling for immediate intervention to the extent that […]
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Nathaniel Manheru THE OTHER SIDE I will part with tradition and dedicate this piece to Joram Nyathi, deputy editor of The Herald, for his inspirational “There is a method to the fine madness”, published in yesterday’s issue of the daily. The piece fitted his intellect, matched his new station in the Zimpapers group. It took […]
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Nathaniel Manheru THE OTHER SIDE What is it that makes Robert Mugabe rattle his enemies so unfailingly? Even when he does nothing at all?
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Nathaniel Manheru THE OTHER SIDE Last week gave us a hilarious story of Honourable Chinotimba seeking some kind of restitution for his “long lost” cellphone. Many will remember that the missing cellphone was blamed on the late Mahlangu who had to go through a trial before he was eventually cleared.
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