Columnist / Nathaniel manheru
Tsvangirai clothed in borrowed robes and forgot to think beyond slogans
IT'S been many seasons ever since this column was launched, more accurately ever since I adopted it from its "tired" founder, Professor Jonathan Moyo. While I know Nathaniel to be his middle name, I w...Published: 24 Jun 2017 at 13:29hrs | 31 | by Nathaniel Manheru
How Rhodesia ended tribes
The year 1970 saw the birth of a publication titled "The Passing of Tribal Man in Africa". Edited by a Canadian academic, the late Peter C. W. Gutkind, the publication challenged entrenched Anglo-Saxo...Published: 17 Jun 2017 at 10:03hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe media split into rival camps that parallel various political divides
I don't know what triggered it, but I just woke up craving for hard-reading stuff. Deep and tough reading. If happens quite often, especially when you suffer a surfeit of the mundane, the everyday, wh...Published: 10 Jun 2017 at 17:01hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
ANC the toddler
AM I wrong? I have always thought the goal of opposition is to govern? And I haven't said the goal is to lead. To govern. You can lead anything, at any level, including leading a village co-operative....Published: 03 Jun 2017 at 11:08hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
This nonsense about Mthwakazi is just that - flatulent nonsense
ONE quote which high school history pupils in this country spout out with remarkable ease is one attributed to Otto von Bismarck, the German aristocrat and leader who is credited with the unification ...Published: 14 May 2017 at 14:50hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
South Africans wake up to the horror of white interests in the rainbow
My deepest, heartfelt condolences to the Chidyausiku family on the loss of Godfrey, our recently retired Chief Justice. He was a fine character, an enormous lawyer by any measure.Above all, he served ...Published: 06 May 2017 at 12:27hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Morgan Tsvangirai: Where small planets orbited
For me the important thing about the so-called memoranda of understanding signed between Morgan Tsvangirai on the one hand, and separately Joice Mujuru and Welshman Ncube on the other, was the cast in...Published: 22 Apr 2017 at 10:45hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
South Africa hardly recovered from the race sentiment of apartheid
It is very easy to think it is the flash, not the flame; that burns big logs. The local media excitedly reported on the resignation of an aide of Mujuru's Nats, in the process missing the actual burni...Published: 08 Apr 2017 at 11:54hrs | 2 | by Nathaniel Manheru
In Mujuru's Party, they break each other's knee caps
Of course political pressure comes in many ways, and manifests in many forms.In Mujuru's National People's Party, they break each other's knee caps in order to hurt Zanu-PF! In the MDCs, they ...Published: 02 Apr 2017 at 13:03hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Spectacle of Dead-mouse Mutasa
So it's true after all? That Tsvangirai's MDC benefited from Mai Mujuru and her late departed hero-husband, Chauya-Chauya's Mavambo project? So why was she denying it when this column made that revela...Published: 25 Mar 2017 at 14:21hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Around claims of a dying Zanu-PF
One question many of my readers pose and even criticise me for is taking contrary thoughts too seriously. I fully understand where my readers are coming from. We have become a virtual community of opi...Published: 19 Mar 2017 at 07:23hrs | 2 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Pseudo-Reformists: When Beasts of England Roar
A cryptic but interesting response to my piece last week came from one "yowe" who advised me to read George Orwell's classic, Animal Farm. I can only surmise that "yowe" is unaware that literature, En...Published: 11 Mar 2017 at 07:05hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
When Mugabe goes to Matobo . . .
When Mugabe goes to Matopos(Hayi mani bakithi(!) - MATOBO!!!)- goes to Matobo, Matombo:place of stubborn boulders,the land's mute womb that won't saywhat it has eaten, seen, or car...Published: 25 Feb 2017 at 09:00hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
It's the Zimdollar, stupid!
Gentle reader, I think it is a sheer waste of national time to focus on the collapse of ZimPF, spectacular though that may be. There was nothing unexpected about ZimPF's dramatic finale, especiall...Published: 11 Feb 2017 at 20:52hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
As the Twitter Professora would say, handei tione!
IT has been a week of laughter and good political humour, not least because my party triumphed in Bikita West, but also because of the clotted reasoning and prose which this defeat wrought in lose...Published: 28 Jan 2017 at 08:31hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Keeping ZDERA alive
A key strategy of imperialism is raising false dust so as to cloud national focus and vision. Or to blur a clear identification and knowledge of who the real enemy is. History, including our own, is r...Published: 21 Jan 2017 at 11:16hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Jonathan Moyo stop dabbling in Zanu-PF succession politics
In history and to the outsider, Zimbabwe has always been a fabulous illusion. An Ophir. An El Dorado, a home to the Queen of Sheba. If the wishes of early European "pathfinders" were horses, Zimbabwe ...Published: 14 Jan 2017 at 08:38hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
God is ZANU-PF
The other week I had attempted a very angry piece on the state of thought in our beloved Zimbabwe. I shouted; I railed. After a while I reflected, and then recalled a proverb used by Amilcar Cabral in...Published: 10 Dec 2016 at 17:01hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Bond notes: When mere depositors debate
An interview Donald Trump is alleged to have had with People Magazine in 1998 quoted him as saying: "If I were to run [for US presidency], I'd run as a Republican. They're the dumbest group of voters ...Published: 26 Nov 2016 at 15:49hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
So how was America on November 9, and thereafter?
No surprises for me. Hopefully none for you too, gentle reader, if you didn't miss my September 24 and October 21 instalments. September 24 piece in part read: "However rough one finds him [Donald Tru...Published: 12 Nov 2016 at 18:41hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
We are not South Africans
Denial or deceit: these are the two dominant impulses between which vexed life hovers. And vexations come both by way of agonising expectations, or by way of deep fears, especially fears of hazards on...Published: 29 Oct 2016 at 16:26hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Manheru attacks Nomazulu Thata
One Nomazulu Thata - that angry Zimbabwean beauty whose headgear leaves me breathless - is not too pleased with my snide comments on the sitting arrangement of Joice Mujuru, the leader of Zimbabwe Peo...Published: 22 Oct 2016 at 10:35hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Mawarire left Zimbabwe under hard-to-understand circumstances
One basic rule in politics is never to concede ground, still less to allow shrinkage of the space you hold or dominate.You live true to this motto both by being careful not to tread on doubtfu...Published: 25 Sep 2016 at 09:34hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Mujuru's impending trip to Chatham House where she hopes to impress her British benefactors
THE Tongas have a good saying: Hearts are not far from concord when noses have already fraternised. Let me open my gonamombe, pull out the lid of the cow-horn canister, so you the reader and me, c...Published: 17 Sep 2016 at 12:29hrs | 6 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Imagine a rat dreaming making love to a cat!
This week I enjoyed two statements sure to enrich the national stock of political sayings. The first one came from Kudzai Chipanga, the de facto leader of the Youth Wing of the ruling party, Zanu-PF. ...Published: 03 Sep 2016 at 09:38hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
To Decide is to Govern!
I have made a pledge to you my readers. A pledge I will always endeavour to fulfil for as long as I write. That pledge is to raise difficult questions, break taboos, speak and spill the truth, so this...Published: 27 Aug 2016 at 07:51hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Mujuru - Tsvangirai: When a widow decides to go out on a binge with a long-time lover
Ice cubes in the freezer can never change the weather in the kitchen, I keep telling people. In politics, anything goes, more so for people who delight in pelting opponents. It is downright foolish to...Published: 20 Aug 2016 at 09:37hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Africa: It is the darkness now!
I have no difficulties with insults heaped upon our ancestors by the white world, both before and after colonisation. Much of it arose from overweening Victorian pride and racism anyway, a lot more fr...Published: 13 Aug 2016 at 08:47hrs | 36 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe: Country without a Nation?
Phew what a humorous week I have had! I hope, dear reader, you have found the week just as mirthful. If not, here we go . . . First, the spectacle of tajamuka hoodlums convening under a false brav...Published: 06 Aug 2016 at 11:14hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe: The French connection
Well, like I indicated last week, the pilferage of the uumph of civil servants demonstrations by some externally glamorised fringe political upstarts last week was bound be exposed in the failed lockd...Published: 16 Jul 2016 at 07:50hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe: WhatsApp or Whatsfear?
One seemingly innocuous detail from history I always want to share with Zimbabweans relates to the relationship between a few whites in Bulawayo and King Lobengula soon after the signing of the fatefu...Published: 09 Jul 2016 at 08:26hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe: Not in a thousand years!
Let's start with a series of small, light-hearted but revealing anecdotes. Beitbridge. I am told there was quite some build-up of tension on both sides of the bridge, which means a build-up from South...Published: 02 Jul 2016 at 12:01hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Tsvangi-xit moment?
Our media pundits are at it again, misleading us into thinking that local opposition organisations are about to find each other, hopefully to form what might be called a party to challenge Zanu-PF. Th...Published: 25 Jun 2016 at 09:11hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Grand Coalition: Cdes without a Code
No sooner have they come together than they had forgotten the code that brought them together. That is the story of our opposition, and their famed grand coalition that was hyped to tediousness by the...Published: 04 Jun 2016 at 09:07hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Million Man March: So hard a fact, so harder to accept
BACK in the 1970s, marriage took the form of musical rivalry that pitted families of the bride and the groom. Each side composed songs that exalted the qualities of their side - both real and imagined...Published: 28 May 2016 at 08:43hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
When a Nation lacks self-belief
I AM conflicted. I would have wanted to deal with David Coltart's book or, better still, deal with the whole debate around bond notes, both of them quite urgent and substantive. But I find myself havi...Published: 14 May 2016 at 09:16hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Coltart: (Hi)story and our story as Africans
As I sit down to write this piece, it is February 18, 1978, and David Coltart has just taken off for South Africa, to start his university studies at UCT, the University of Cape Town. He leaves behind...Published: 07 May 2016 at 20:11hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe: One side black, the other side bright
I suppose it is called delayed sight. Last week I drew the ire of opposition MDC-T supporters when I raised the self-evident, dead-end scenario that comes with demonstrations, and the fleeting joy tha...Published: 23 Apr 2016 at 12:56hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe: Politics of Crowds
The generous ones put it at 10 000. The modest ones put it at 2 000. The niggard ones put it at 800. And all claimed to be reading from the same crowd which the MDC-T is alleged to have mustered in th...Published: 16 Apr 2016 at 11:26hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
US: Country without a skin
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-scienti...Published: 12 Mar 2016 at 15:18hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Mujuru: Enter the Super Tuesday party!
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...Published: 05 Mar 2016 at 07:17hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe: Dealing with America
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...Published: 20 Feb 2016 at 17:44hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Holding Tsvangirai up to ridicule
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 in...Published: 16 Jan 2016 at 15:54hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe: New Year, Old Thinking
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 ...Published: 09 Jan 2016 at 07:13hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Tendai Biti, a very small man masquerading as leader of a political party
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 slaver...Published: 05 Dec 2015 at 07:36hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
The fringe that fears Mnangagwa
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 Universi...Published: 28 Nov 2015 at 07:48hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
ZANU-PF: In the absence of the big idea
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, th...Published: 14 Nov 2015 at 07:07hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Zimbabwe police: Old wine in new bottle-skins
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 n...Published: 07 Nov 2015 at 07:23hrs | | by Nathaniel Manheru
Supper that smells too doggy
Zimbabwe: Assassins without gunsOctober 31, 2015 Shingirai Huni Features, Opinion & Analysis, Headlines, Nathaniel ManheruJoram NyathiNathaniel ManheruI will part w...Published: 31 Oct 2015 at 10:53hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
What makes Robert Mugabe rattle his enemies so unfailingly?
What is it that makes Robert Mugabe rattle his enemies so unfailingly? Even when he does nothing at all?We have been having a big debate on the local media, more accurately, on a portion of it...Published: 26 Oct 2015 at 05:59hrs | 2 | by Nathaniel Manheru
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