From Protest to Parties: Party-Building and Democratization in Africa

315 Pages·2011·1.34 MB·English

by  Adrienne LeBas

FROM PROTEST TO PARTIES
This page intentionally left blank
FROM PROTEST TO PARTIES
Party-Building and Democratization in Africa
ADRIENNE LEBAS
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof
OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries
#AdrienneLeBas2011
Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted
DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker)
Firstpublished2011
Firstpublishedinpaperback2013
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,
withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,
orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate
reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction
outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,
OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove
Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform
andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Dataavailable
ISBN 978–0–19–954686–2(Hbk)
ISBN 978–0–19–967300–1(Pbk)
For my parents
The progress of human liberty shows that all
concessions yet made to her august claims
have been born of earnest struggle. The
conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-
absorbing, and for the time being, putting all
other tumults to silence. It must do this or it
does nothing.
Frederick Douglass
Citizens who are individually powerless do
not very clearly anticipate the strength which
they may acquire by uniting together. It must
be shown to them in order to be understood.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Acknowledgments
Inthecourseofwritingabook,oneaccumulatesmanydebts.Thisisespecially
true in my case, as fieldwork in Zimbabwe in 2002–6 was complicated by
political crisis and economic collapse. I am grateful to the many individuals
who agreed to talk to me, sometimes at personal risk. I am indebted to the
manyotherswhovouchedformytrustworthiness,easedmymovementwithin
and across Zimbabwe’s borders, and “sorted” my petrol and forex, despite
whatwasdoubtlessanannoyingover-usageofthephrase“nownow.”Finally,
to the many Zimbabweans who had to remain nameless or uncited in these
pages,yourhelpisgratefullyrememberedhere.
This book began as a dissertation, and I must thank my teachers who
shaped the arguments here and did so much to point the way. Jack Snyder,
Charles Tilly, and Mahmood Mamdani were excellent advisors during the
writing, and Anthony Marx bears a good bit of responsibility for it being
written in the first place. Jack’s enthusiasm for the project has never flagged,
andIthankhimforpushingmeinthedirectionofbroadercomparisonsand
bigger claims. It is a great sadness that Chuck did not live to see this book
sitting on his shelf, but it heartens me to know that he would find his
fingerprints all over the pages that follow. I am certain that, given a few
more hours and a whiteboard, he and I could have come up with a still
stronger,simpler,andmorecompellingwayofpresentingtheargumentshere.
In addition to my luck with mentors, I have been lucky with institutions.
After funders expressed doubts about the feasibility of research on political
oppositioninZimbabwe,anumberofinstitutesatColumbiaUniversitymade
thefieldworkpossible.TheInstituteforHistoricalSocialScienceprovidedthe
fellowship that allowed me to start fieldwork, and smaller grants from the
Institute of African Studies and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace
Studies allowed me to stay in the field for longer than I had planned. The
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC and
the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia
provided office space and other support during the research and writing of
thedissertation.Ithankthefollowingforaccesstotheirarchives:theNational
ArchivesofKenya;theNationalArchivesofZambia;theNationalArchivesof
Zimbabwe;theZambianConsolidatedCopperMines;theZambianCongress
of Trade Unions; the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions; the National
ConstitutionalAssemblyinZimbabwe;thespecialcollectionsoftheUniversi-
ty of Zambia; and the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) in
Nairobi. In Kenya, the Congress of Trade Unions and the Kenya Human
viii Acknowledgments
Rights Commission also provided access to materials. In the United States,
I thank the United States Library of Congress and the New York Public
Library’s Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture for access to
their collections. In the United Kingdom, I benefited from the newspaper
collections of the British Library. Portions of Chapters 5 and 7 draw on
materialinitiallypublishedinComparativePolitics38:4(2006).Thismaterial
isreprintedwithpermission.
After leaving Columbia, Nuffield College at the University of Oxford
provided a stable home over the course of several years. Nuffield supported
additional fieldwork for the project, as well as for new research that has
informed the arguments that I make here. I thank Christel Kesler, Maria
Sobolewska, and the community of Nuffield post-doc fellows, too large to
mention individually here. The Department of Political Science at Michigan
StateUniversityandtheDepartmentofGovernmentatAmericanUniversity’s
School of Public Affairs also provided collegial environments in which to
write. Michigan State provided funding for field research in Kenya. I thank
bothuniversitiesfortheirsupport.
In Zimbabwe, I owe special thanks to the Movement for Democratic
Change, especially Nelson Chamisa, Last Maengehama, and Dennis Murira.
My colleagues at the University of Zimbabwe and in the Department of
EconomicHistorywereasourceofsupportandadvice.Iamespeciallygrateful
toEiraKramer,JohnMakumbe,andJosephMtisi.Imustalsothank,among
somanyothers,ChenChimutengwende,GodfreyKanyenze,TimothyKondo,
Chris Kuruneri, Andrew Mudharara, Ralph Nkomo, Lucia Matibenga,
Sam Moyo, and Sikhululekile Mkandla. I am grateful to friends David and
MelanieMcDermottHughes,ErinMcCandless,andEzekielPajibo,whowere
in Zimbabwe during portions of the fieldwork. In Zambia, Marja Hineflaar
and Opa Kapijimpanga extended hospitality and guidance. In Kenya, Otieno
Aluokahasbeenanexcellentfriendandfacilitator,andJacobAchieng,Ejidiah
Gachika, Patricia Kubai, and Eunice Ndomo provided research assistance
atdifferentpoints.
As I presented pieces of this project over the years, it was strengthened by
questionsandcriticismfrommanyindividuals.Thoughthisisalmostcertain-
ly a woefully incomplete list, I am grateful for comments from: Jocelyn
Alexander, David Anderson, Nancy Bermeo, Scott Blinder, Cristina Bodea,
Michael Bratton, Kanchan Chandra, Nic Cheeseman, Daniel Compagnon,
Tyler Dickovick, Geoff Evans, Julia Gallagher, Macartan Humphreys, Elisa-
beth Ivarsflaten, James Jasper, Laleh Khalili, Desmond King, Jackie Klopp,
Norma Kriger, Miles Larmer, Johannes Lindvall, Carolyn Logan, Anthony
Marx, Sam Moyo, Ngonidzashe Munemo, Dan Nexon, Brian Raftopoulos,
Philipp Rehm, Rachel Beatty Riedl, Phil Roessler, Antoine Roger, Meredith
Rolfe, Alexandra Scacco, Gilles Serra, Dan Slater, David Soskice, Sidney
Tarrow, Scott Taylor, Nick Toloudis, Nicolas Van de Walle, and two
Acknowledgments ix
anonymous reviewers for Oxford University Press. Diego Gambetta offered
insightsandencouragementatseveralpoints,asdidMichaelBratton,whowas
my down-the-hall colleague for far too short a time. Eric Little, Richard
Norrie,andJenniferYelleprovidedexcellentresearchassistance.Iappreciate
the feedback provided by the Contentious Politics Workshop at Columbia
University, the Junior Faculty Workshop at Michigan State, and the Nuffield
College Politics and Sociology Post-Doc Seminar, as well as audiences at
several universities and conferences. Finally, I thank Dominic Byatt, Jennifer
Lunsford, Lizzy Suffling, and the rest of the OUP production staff for their
patienthelpinbringingthisbooktopress.
Iamgratefultothemanyfriendswhosawmethroughthehighsandlowsof
thedecade-longprocessofwritingthisbook,especiallyCristinaBodea,Katie
Cecil, Thomas Kenyon, Laleh Khalili, Denis Maslov, Cristian Meghea, Mer-
edithRolfe,JenniferTennant, PhilTsui, andRobertTrager. Iamalsodeeply
thankfulforthefriendshipandcareofPatriciaKasiamhuru,whosegenerosity
and sense of humor lightened many loads. Without her, Zimbabwe would
have remained a foreign place, and I might not miss it as much as I do. The
largestshareofmygratitudemustgotomyfamily–myparents,mybrothers
Joe and Will, and my sister-in-law Lauren – for their constant love, support,
andencouragement.Thisbookisdedicatedtomyparents,JoeandEdieLeBas,
who taught me the value of integrity, social justice, and a well-phrased
argument.Ihopetheyseesomeofthatinthepagesthatfollow.