Of Bob, <i>Madzibaba</i> Gabriel, and Goblins: The Sociopolitics of Name-Calling and Nicknaming Mugabe in Post-2000 Zimbabwe

Prior to his recalling by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) amid national protests in 2017, Zimbabwe’s former president, Robert Mugabe, had, for close to four decades, managed to sustain his rule even when odds seemed overwhelmingly against him. Many studies have broached several aspects of his power-retention strategies and public responses to his rule, mostly from “pure” political science perspectives. This article attempts a paradigm shift in methodology and approaches to this topic. It focuses on how the cultural practice of nicknaming and name-calling can illuminate the nature of Mugabe’s rule and his subjects’ perceptions of it in new ways. The article uses a critical discourse analysis approach to analyze focal nicknames and instances of name-calling in the context of their everyday use by citizens. Invoking Taska’s notion of “watchfulness” as a psychopolitical process preceding and informing the act of nicknaming and name-calling, the study argues that nicknaming and name-calling Mugabe not only reflect the nicknamers and name-caller’s experiences of (and attitudes to) his rule but also refract deeper issues attendant on the ways in which they relate and respond to certain exercises, performances, and displays of power.