"Some people are afraid of an election."

Newsday Zimbabwe  is reporting Mugabe's speech from the ZANU(PF) Conference: "Some people are afraid of an election.".   Not surprising.

March 2008

These posters from 2008 give a sense of the tone of debate, and why indeed many people are afraid of an election.

This 'classic' poster to the right is from the original March election and very much resembles posters from pre-2000 elections. 


But I wondered if the two below were from the run-off election that was held in June.

They were all taken in April.  Anyone recall if this 'generational' approach is right?

'Revolutionary'

'Fearless'

The posters here were all photographed by Busani Mpofu, who was doing fieldwork for his PhD in History at Edinburgh, but who kindly agreed  to 'feed' my curiosity about election ephemera. 

Where it all began...

This poster was 'collected' on one of my first trips to Zimbabwe.  I had to have a copy of it. It was so iconic. We saw it everywhere.

Yet at the same time, Zimbabwe didn't fall into the 'standard' account of being run by some crazed dictator.  Like the picture itself, Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean politics continue to prove enigmatic to me.

And my fascination with the images which are used to represent the nation, by politicians and 'civil society', has also continued.  

Buoyed by a session on academic blogging, I've decided that my much mooted project on post-colonial political ephemera will take shape as a blog.  I'll be posting up some of my favourite images, discussing what they tell us, and hopefully inspiring some of you to send me your own images.  Please let me know what you think.