Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? [But who will guard the guards themselves?]

Critical Arts, July, 2009 by John Eppel

The easiest way to deal with the collapse of law and order (a number of senior judges in this country, including the Chief Justice, have been given farms by the regime) is to change the terminology: call it politics, a continuation of the Liberation Struggle, the Third Chimurenga, Operation this, Operation that. Why shouldn't the theft of my Toshiba laptop (a hand-me-down, incidentally), the data base of my poems, novels, and short stories, be seen as a political issue, justified as a righteous act against one of Chenjerai Hove's 'white people'?

When Martin Olds and his mother were killed for their farm, it was presented as an episode in the Struggle. Yet, when, in 1987, sixteen white Christians (including a six-week old baby) were axed to death--the issue was presented as a criminal act, Why? The reason is that this killing was carried out by so-called 'dissidents' and not loyal party cadres.

John Eppel is an English teacher at Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo. He is the author of twelve books of poetry and prose, johneppel@gatorzw.co.uk