Resistance, power and geopolitics in Zimbabwe

In 2006 two pieces of Zimbabwean political ephemera began circulating, caricaturing senior political and military officials. The anonymously produced objects – a Guide to Dangerous Snakes in Zimbabwe and a deck of playing cards – present criticisms of an authoritarian regime within a curtailed public sphere. They capture and represent context-specific power relations, politics and resistance in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Critical engagement with these ephemera highlights challenges to the process of democracy, contests over power and resistance within Zimbabwe, and engagement with international dimensions to these concerns. The paper also extends recent critical geopolitical work on political satire in Africa.