1,720,959 research outputs found
‘Highlander Ithimu yezwe lonke!’ : intersections of Highlanders FC fandom and Ndebele ethnic nationalism in Zimbabwe
Full text linkAbstract: Football is one of the most emotive cultural forms through which people experience and express nationalism. The study demonstrates intersections of Zimbabwean Premier Soccer League (PSL) team- Highlanders FC fandom and Ndebele ethnic nationalism in Zimbabwe. This nationalism challenges state narratives of a ‘united Zimbabwe’ and advocates for secession of Bulawayo and Matabeleland provinces to form an ‘independent Ndebele nation’. Literature on Zimbabwean football has under-theorised its interface with football discourse. The author was an observer as participant in Zimbabwean football stadia for a four- year period observing terrace rituals especially songs and chants during Highlanders FC matches. In-depth interviews were also conducted with selected fans to get clarity on observed issues. The study concludes that while discussing secession is criminalised and condemned as ‘tribalism’ in Zimbabwe, Highlanders FC fandom is a critical site where some people express feelings and aspirations towards establishment of a separate ‘independent Ndebele nation’
Experiences of female journalists in Zimbabwean male-dominated newsrooms
Full text linkBaseline surveys on the gender distribution in Zimbabwe’s media industry indicate a male dominance in newsrooms in general, as well as in media leadership positions. This gender disparity reflects the persistence of patriarchy and heteronormative beliefs in the Zimbabwean society, despite the country’s constitution upholding gender mainstreaming and principles of equality. However, thereis a dearth of systematic academic studies exploring the experiences, aspirations and attitudes of female journalists in these macho newsrooms. The article is theoretically guided by Raewyn Connell’s hegemonic masculinity theory. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively selected female Zimbabwean journalists to discuss their experiences and struggles in such environments. Findings indicate that gender remains an unresolved question in Zimbabwe. Due to alleged unprofessional conduct by some male journalists, Zimbabwean newsrooms resemble phallocentric and misogynistic “carnivals”. Women experience and battle against various forms of sexual harassment despite the presence of mechanisms to protect victims. Despite this violence, female journalists persevere and also find ways of speaking back to power
`Bhora Mugedhi Versus Bhora Musango': The interface between football discourse and Zimbabwean politics
No full textFootball is the most popular sport in Zimbabwe and across the globe. It has been asserted elsewhere that the game is not limited to scoring goals on the pitch but that this also occurs in politics and power struggles. This study explores the interface between football discourse and politics during elections in Zimbabwe in July 2013. The study is based on the premise of a neo-Gramscian perspective which views popular culture (including football) as a terrain of ideological struggle. It utilises an ethnographic approach to make a 'thick description' of the relationship between football discourse and contemporary Zimbabwean politics. The study employs critical discourse analysis on purposively selected political campaign speeches, political advertisements, songs by
politicians, and comments posted and circulated in social media such as Facebook and Whatsapp during and after the election period by 'ordinary' Zimbabweans. The findings suggest that political parties,specifically the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) appropriated football images, symbols, metaphors and discourses in their campaign communications. Zimbabwe symbolically became a football pitch where these two main rivals battled to score political points. 'Ordinary' Zimbabweans resembled the fans and/referees in the game whose vote symbolically became the act of scoring goals for ZANU PF; while for MDC-T it was akin to giving a red card to the ZANU PF party
What is in a song? constructions of hegemonic masculinity by Zimbabwean football fans
Full text linkAbstract: Hegemonic masculinity is defined as the most ‘honoured’ way of being a man, requiring all men to try to meet its standards. It may be encountered randomly, sometimes at such dispersed, everyday sites as sporting events. This article explores the authors’ ethnographic encounters with hegemonic masculinities amongst football fans in Zimbabwe, particularly in the songs they sing. Utilising Raewyn Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, the article argues that Zimbabwean football fandom is tangled with hegemonic masculinities. The article demonstrates a simultaneously covert and subtle, but always complex, relationship between football fandom and masculinities, specifically hegemonic masculinity. The study’s major conclusion is that hegemonic masculinity is strongly discursive and occasionally occurs even in the seemingly most harmless mundane banter such as stadia songs. Despite the sometimes jovial nature of these performances, there are power undercurrents involved
Sports journalists and corruption in Zimbabwean football : reflections on the Asia-gate scandal
Full text linkAbstract: Zimbabwe experienced a high profile match fixing scam between 2007-2010, commonly known as the Asiagate scandal. The Warriors - men’s senior national football team, reportedly fell victim to Asian betting syndicates. Four journalists from the state-controlled media were sanctioned by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) for allegedly participating in the scam. Burgeoning literature on ‘brown envelopes’ and freebies in journalistic practice in Africa at large and Zimbabwe in particular, has under-theorised this phenomenon in Zimbabwe’s sports journalism fraternity. Focusing on the Asia-gate scandal, the article utilises ‘brown envelope journalism’ theoretical lens to examine the subject and its repercussions on sports journalism practice, from the view point of sports journalists. In-depth interviews were conducted with selected sports journalists both from the publicly owned and privately owned media in Zimbabwe. The article avers that due to the deteriorating socio-economic environment, some journalists were ‘seduced’ by ‘brown envelopes’ and ‘recruited’ into a ‘patronage’ corrupt network by match-fixers. Consequently, ‘patronised’ journalists became pliant tools in hands of match-fixers and failed to ‘bark’ at malpractices masterminded by their ‘benefactors’
See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil? The press, violence and hooliganism at the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’
Full text linkAbstract: Matches between Zimbabwean Premier Soccer League (PSL) teams Dynamos FC and Highlanders FC are popular but controversial. In 2004, Robson Sharuko, senior sports editor of The Herald newspaper, dubbed this game the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’. The fixture usually explodes into ugly scenes of violence. Such incidents hardly evade the eyes of the mass media. However, growing scholarship on Zimbabwean football have under-theorized this violence. The essay deploys the framing theory and Foucauldian discourse to analyze the framing of selected episodes of violence at the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’ by two state-controlled newspapers – The Herald and the Chronicle, which fall under the Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers) stable. The study shows that contrary to the common perception that The Herald and the Chronicle provide monolithic accounts on events, they furnish heterogeneous narratives on violence at this fixture. This heterogeneity is influenced by ethnic tensions between two dominant ethnic groups in Zimbabwe – the Shona and the Ndebele
Watch my back and I watch yours’: Beyond Habermas’ public sphere concept in democratic and participatory dimensions of pre-colonial Shona society public spaces
Full text linkAbstract: Debates on communication media and democracy including in Africa are largely anchored in the western Habermasian public sphere concept. Studies employing indigenous African communication platforms and symbols are scarce, prompting Zimbabwean philosopher Tafataona Mahoso to argue that while Africans have a philosophy, we have become ‘illiterate’ such that we cannot read our constructions and symbols. Thus, this article broadens discussions on participatory communication practices and democratic principles by engaging pre-colonial Zimbabwe communication and solidarity relational philosophies of Dariro and Dare (ubiquitous circle) largely located in traditional Shona societies. The philosophical democratic dimensions of these platforms are discussed in relation to Habermas’ public sphere theory. We show that despite western thought generally regarding the non-West as a place of antiquarian traditions and unprocessed data, pre-colonial indigenous African communication systems were characterized by democratic participation, agency and public contest; at times beyond democratic practices and principles espoused by the Habermasian public sphere
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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