Abstract
Since independence, Zimbabwe’s nation-state has been engaged in various means of memorialisation. In the process, Joshua Nkomo, the arguable founding “Father of the Nation” has been appropriated in a contested way by different ‘memory entrepreneurs’ to make sense of the past for the future. As a result, memories of the liberation struggle have been contested between ZAPU/ZPRA and ZANU/ZANLA with the former accusing the latter of erasing their role in liberating the country. Against this background, this thesis compares how the two archives, Mafela Trust (a trust founded by Joshua Nkomo to archive and reconstruct the history of ZPRA’s contribution to national liberation) and Joshua Nkomo Museum (established after the death of Joshua Nkomo, by the family with the support of the government, with the aim of commemorating and remembering his contribution to the country’s independence) use photographs to construct memories of Nkomo based on three historical episodes that characterise his life. Photography was selected as a mode of communication because it constitutes a “mirror with a memory”, that is, it is able to compress complex issues and also an array of events into one. This study uses a social constructivist approach and Foucault’s theory of representation to explore the key features of the memory of Joshua Nkomo and ZPRA/ZAPU within different historical periods: the liberation struggle (1950s–1989); the Gukurahundi genocide (1982–1987) and the post-Unity Accord period as captured by the Mafela Trust and the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Museum. Additionally, the study aims to find out the differences and similarities in the portrayal of Joshua Nkomo by the Mafela Trust and the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Museum and how these can be explained. The study also sought to find out how the selected ZPRA/ZAPU members make sense of their history as produced about Joshua Nkomo by Mafela Trust and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Museum. Through the use of a multimodal analysis that combined visual discourse analysis, social semiotics and thematic analysis, this thesis observes that the Trust and Museum are immortalising Joshua Nkomo in a good light. However, major findings demonstrate that there are contested memories on the role of ZAPU/ZPRA in liberating the country and there are competing perspectives on the nation that are being constructed by the Trust and Museum. The institutions also differ in their memorialisation of the transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe.