Memory, nationalism and the media in Zimbabwe: the ZPRA combatants’ reception of The Sunday News ’s “Lest We Forget” narratives

Nationalism and national identities are sites of contestation in Zimbabwe’s political landscape. These debates centre on how the past is evoked, remembered and used by different social actors for political purposes. This article examines the meanings derived by former Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) combatants in their engagement with the recollection of the nationalist struggle as published in The Sunday News, an arm of the state-controlled media. Some respondents appreciated the move by The Sunday News to document their histories. However, some former ZPRA/Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) members decoded an oppositional reading which rejects the hegemonic narratives produced by the newspaper, as they felt they were selective, and being used to maintain the status quo. Thus, The Sunday News cannot be regarded as a passive conveyer of narratives; instead, it is an active actor in this struggle over collective memory and competition for an authoritative narrative.