Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:19:29.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘THROUGH THE NARROW DOOR’: NARRATIVES OF THE FIRST GENERATION OF AFRICAN LAWYERS IN ZIMBABWE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2016

George H. Karekwaivanane
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Given the important role played by lawyers in formal legal systems, the study of legal professionals can help us understand the efforts to maintain law and social order in Africa. This article examines the narratives of two Zimbabwean lawyers, Kennedy Sibanda and Honour Mkushi, about their experiences as legal professionals between 1970 and 1990, and makes three main arguments. Firstly, these narratives reveal the complex interplay between individual agency, politics and law across the two decades. Secondly, lawyers' participation in the social and political struggles of the period were informed by a set of personal and professional ethics that were grounded in concerns about the welfare of the wider communities to which they belonged. This highlights the need to avoid a default cynicism with regard to African elites and move instead towards a more nuanced understanding of the motives of such individuals and their contribution to the social, economic and political struggles of which they are a part. Lastly, these lawyers were cross-cultural brokers who were constantly involved in a two-way translation. On the one hand, they translated the concepts and stipulations of state law for their African clients; on the other, they translated their clients' grievances into the language of the law. This process of translation acted as a catalyst in the reshaping of African subjectivities and their conceptions of their relationship with the state, and enabled Africans to assert themselves as rights-bearing citizens.

Résumé

Compte tenu du rôle important que jouent les avocats dans les appareils judiciaires formels, l’étude des professionnels du droit peut nous aider à comprendre l'action de maintien de l'ordre juridique et social en Afrique. Cet article examine les récits de deux avocats zimbabwéens, Kennedy Sibanda et Honour Mkushi, sur leurs expériences en tant que professionnels du droit entre 1970 et 1990, et présente trois principaux arguments. Premièrement, ces récits révèlent l'interaction complexe entre l'action individuelle, la politique et la loi au cours de ces décennies. Deuxièmement, la participation des avocats aux luttes sociales et politiques de cette période était informée par un ensemble d’éthiques personnelles et professionnelles fondées sur le souci du bien-être des communautés auxquelles ils appartenaient. Ceci souligne la nécessité d’éviter un cynisme par défaut à l’égard des élites africaines et de s'orienter plutôt vers une compréhension plus nuancée des motifs de ces personnes et de leur contribution aux luttes sociales, économiques et politiques dont ils faisaient partie. Troisièmement, ces avocats étaient des intermédiaires interculturels constamment impliqués dans une traduction bidirectionnelle. D'une part, ils traduisaient les concepts et les stipulations du droit étatique pour leurs clients africains; d'autre part, ils traduisaient les griefs de leurs clients en langage juridique. Ce processus de traduction a servi de catalyseur dans le remodelage des subjectivités africaines et leurs conceptions de leur relation avec l’État, et a permis aux Africains de s'affirmer en tant que citoyens porteurs de droits.

Type
Law and Social Order in Africa
Information
Africa , Volume 86 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 59 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adewoye, O. (1977) The Legal Profession in Nigeria 1865–1962. Ikeja: Longman.Google Scholar
Alexander, J. (2008) ‘Political prisoners’ memoirs in Zimbabwe: narratives of self and nation’, Cultural and Social History 5 (4): 395–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, J. (2010) ‘The political imaginaries and social lives of political prisoners in post-2000 Zimbabwe’, Journal of Southern African Studies 36 (2): 483–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, J. (2011) ‘Nationalism and self-government in Rhodesian detention: Gonakudzingwa, 1964–1974’, Journal of Southern African Studies 37 (3): 551–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1987) ‘The force of law: towards a sociology of the juridical field’, Hastings Law Journal 38: 805–53.Google Scholar
Bozzoli, B. with Nkotsoe, M. (1991) Women of Phokeng: consciousness, life strategy, and migrancy in South Africa, 1900–1983. Portsmouth NH and London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Broun, K. (2000) Black Lawyers, White Courts: the soul of South African law. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
CCJP and LRF (1997) Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace: a report on the disturbances in Matabeleland and Midlands 1980–1988. Harare: Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) and Legal Resources Foundation (LRF).Google Scholar
Chabal, P. and Daloz, J.-P. (1999) Africa Works: disorder as political instrument. Oxford and Bloomington IN: International Africa Institute, James Currey and Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Chanock, M. (1985) Law Custom and Social Order: the colonial experience in Malawi and Zambia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chanock, M. (1999) ‘The lawyer's self: sketches on establishing a professional identity in South Africa 1900–1925’, Law in Context 16 (1): 59–79.Google Scholar
Comaroff, J. L. (2002) ‘Governmentality, materiality, legality, modernity: on the colonial state in Africa’ in Deutsch, J., Schmidt, H. and Probst, P. (eds) African Modernities: entangled meanings in current debate. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Cooper, F. (2002) Africa since 1940: the past of the present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, F. and Stoler, A. L. (eds) (1997) Tensions of Empire: colonial cultures in a bourgeois world. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Daloz, J.-P. (2003) ‘“Big men” in sub-Saharan Africa: how elites accumulate positions and resources’, Comparative Sociology 2 (1): 271–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edsman, B. (1979) ‘Lawyers in Gold Coast's politics c.1900–1945’. PhD thesis, University of Uppsala.Google Scholar
Englund, H. (2004) ‘Towards a critique of rights talk in new democracies: the case of Malawi’, Discourse Society 15 (5): 527–51.Google Scholar
Englund, H. (2006) Prisoners of Freedom: human rights and the African poor. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Feltoe, G. (1978) ‘Law, ideology and coercion in Southern Rhodesia’. MPhil thesis, University of Kent.Google Scholar
Geiger, S. (1997) Tanu Women: gender and culture in the making of Tanganyikan nationalism, 1955–1965. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Ghai, Y. (1987) ‘Law, development and African scholarship’, Modern Law Review 50: 750–76.Google Scholar
Gould, J. (2006) ‘Strong bar, weak state? Lawyers, liberalism and state formation in Zambia’, Development and Change 37 (4): 921–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gumede, W. M. (2007) Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Iliffe, J. (2005) Honour in African History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jeater, D. (1993) Marriage, Power and Perversion: the construction of a moral discourse in Southern Rhodesia, 1894–1930. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jeater, D. (2000) ‘“Their idea of justice is so peculiar”: Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1910’ in Coss, P. (ed.) The Moral World of the Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jeater, D. (2007) Law, Language and Science: the invention of the ‘native mind’ in Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1930. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Joireman, S. (2001) ‘Inherited legal systems and effective rule of law: Africa and the colonial legacy’, Journal of Modern African Studies 39 (4): 571–96.Google Scholar
Karekwaivanane, G. H. (2011) ‘“It shall be the duty of every African to obey and comply promptly”: negotiating state authority in the legal arena, 1965–1980’, Journal of Southern African Studies 37 (2): 333–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LCHR (1986) Zimbabwe: wages of war, a report on human rights. New York NY: Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (LCHR).Google Scholar
Mandela, N. (1994) Long Walk to Freedom. London: Abacus.Google Scholar
Mann, K. and Roberts, R. (1991) ‘Introduction’ in Mann, K. and Roberts, R. (eds) Law in Colonial Africa. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Merry, S. E. (2006a) ‘Legal transplants and cultural translation: making human rights in the vernacular’ in Merry, S. E. (ed.) Human Rights and Gender Violence: translating international law into local justice. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Merry, S. E. (2006b) ‘Transnational human rights and local activism: mapping the middle’, American Anthropologist 108 (1): 38–51.Google Scholar
Miescher, S. F. (2001) ‘The life histories of Boakye Yiadom (Akasease Kofi of Abetifi, Kwawu): exploring the subjectivity and “voices” of a teacher-catechist in colonial Ghana’ in White, L., Miescher, S. F. and Cohen, D. W. (eds) African Words, African Voices: critical practices in oral history. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, S. F. (1986) Social Facts and Fabrication: customary law on Kilimanjaro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, S. F. (1998) ‘Systematic judicial and extra-judicial injustice: preparations for future accountability’ in Werbner, R. (ed.) Memory and the Post-colony: African anthropology and the critique of power. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Ncube, W. (1995) ‘Legal history in law: a Zimbabwean perspective’, Zimbabwe Law Review 12: 65–77.Google Scholar
Oguamanam, C. and Pue, W. W. (2007) ‘“Lawyers”, colonialism, state formation and national life in Nigeria, 1900–1960: “the fighting brigade of the people”’, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 13 (6): 769–85.Google Scholar
Plaatje, S. (1997) ‘The essential interpreter’ in Willan, B. (ed.) Sol Plaatje: selected writings. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Rathbone, R. (1994) ‘Law, lawyers and politics in Ghana in the 1940s’ in Engels, D. and Marks, S. (eds) Contesting Colonial Hegemony: state and society in Africa and India. London: German Historical Institute and British Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ross, S. D. (1992) ‘Rule of law and lawyers in Kenya’, Journal of Modern African Studies 30 (3): 421–42.Google Scholar
Sachs, A. (1973) Justice in South Africa. Berkeley and Los Angeles CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Sharafi, M. (2007) ‘A new history of colonial lawyering: Likhovsky and legal identities in the British empire’, Law and Social Inquiry 32 (4): 1059–94.Google Scholar
Tsunga, A. (2009) ‘The professional trajectory of a human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2008’, Journal of Southern African Studies 35 (4): 977–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verheul, S. (2014) ‘“Rebels” and “good boys”: patronage, intimidation and resistance in Zimbabwe's attorney general's office after 2000’, Journal of Southern African Studies 39 (4): 765–82.Google Scholar
Werbner, R. (2004) Reasonable Radicals and Citizenship in Botswana: the public anthropology of Kalanga elites. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
West, M. (2002) The Rise of the African Middle Class: colonial Zimbabwe. Indianapolis IN: Indiana University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widner, J. (2001) Building the Rule of Law: Francis Nyalali and the road to judicial independence in Africa. New York NY: W. W. Norton and Company. Google Scholar
Yarrow, T. (2008) ‘Life/history: personal narratives of development amongst NGO workers and activists in Ghana’, Africa 78 (3): 334–58.Google Scholar
Yarrow, T. (2011) Development Beyond Politics: aid activism and NGOs in Ghana. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Zimudzi, T. (2004) ‘African women, violent crime and the criminal law in colonial Zimbabwe, 1900–1952’, Journal of Southern African Studies 30 (3): 499–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar