Legacies of the Past : The Influence of Former Freedom Fighters and their Rhetoric in Southern Africa

Abstract

The liberation struggle impacts on the current political landscape of Southern Africa. In this regard, some scholars speak of enduring ‘post-liberation states’, whereas others foresee the slow but inevitable decline of the active role of freedom fighters in politics. We aim to enrich the debate over the legacies of the liberation struggle by providing empirical evidence in a three-step analysis. Firstly, we provide figures on the composition of cabinets since independence, demonstrating not only that more than half of today's cabinet members are former freedom fighters, but also that their numbers are continuously decreasing. Secondly, we compare recent election manifestos of liberation-movements-turned parties to older documents of the same movements, showing that in Namibia and South Africa, freedom fighter rhetoric is more subtle than overt, which differs from the case in Zimbabwe. In a third step, we contrast these findings with evidence from practical politics. Through this multilayered comparative analysis, we also reveal the opportunistic use of the liberation struggle as a political tool across all three country case studies.