International Terrorism Potential in Southern Africa

This article discusses the potential factors for the development of international terrorism in southern Africa. While the region has seemingly been spared the terror attacks that have ravaged most other parts of the continent, and the globe at large, it is not immune to these attacks. Using a survey of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania, which illuminate some of the permissive factors, the article asks, largely, first, to what extent is southern Africa at risk of global terrorism? And, second, in what ways can southern African states reduce the risk of terrorism in the region? Broadly, the article contends that, like most developing countries, including those from other parts of Africa, there exist permissive, both root and trigger, factors including insecure borders, democratization challenges, poverty, urban centers and variegated forms of both sub-state and state terrorism, that could provide useful platforms for the growth of international terrorism.     

Mass Graves and Imagined Identities in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the construction of imagined identities of Zimbabwean nationhood in two televised documentaries, Nyadzonia Massacre and Colonial Era Atrocities, aired on Zimbabwe national television. Using qualitative semiotic analysis and borrowing from post nationalism, this article analyses how the two documentaries interweave memory and violence with the politics of nationhood and belonging during the Third Chimurenga in Zimbabwe. The paper also analyses how the films were packaged in order to undermine the semiotic resistance and autonomy of the viewer to create oppositional readership of the films.