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New dispensation, hagiography, Orwellian historical revisionism
guest column:Gibson Nyikadzino
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, and every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day-by-day and minute-by-minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the party is always right.”
The above is an extract from George Orwell’s famous book 1984. Though written in 1984, Orwell’s totalitarian vision of a futuristic world has all-too-real and eerie similarities of the real situation obtaining in Zimbabwe.
As a result, a critical danger is posed by Zimbabwe’s “new dispensation” in its active participation to reconstruct history by presenting events through a strong nationalistic and extremist tendency as portrayed in Orwellian narratives.
On an average weekend before the pandemic, Tshabalala said, he would make nothing less than R1,500 but of late he does not make even a quarter of that. On an average weekday, he would make about R300. Now, he makes less than R50 and sometimes even goes home empty-handed.
“Years are different, prices change every now and then, but right now there is no business any more. I have never seen something like this in my life.”
On Thursday afternoon, Tshabalala had only sold two ice-creams, for R8 each.
“It is painful because you return home with all the stock and nothing else. It s even harder to explain to the children that times are tough.”