Nyamadzawo Sibanda
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 296306 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Nyamadzawo Sibanda |
| PRENOMES | Nyamadzawo |
| SOBRENOME | Sibanda |
| ASSINATURA | SIBANDA N |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Pretoria |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2950-7767 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 28 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 4 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 28 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2008 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 1 |
Conceptualising and revealing political resistance in Zimbabwe through (re)naming roads in Bulawayo
The Zimbabwe central government issued a directive in November 2019 and early 2020 gazetting three statutory instruments for changes to names of buildings and streets as a directive to all local authorities to comply. In February 2020, the Bulawayo City Council undertook a (re)naming process of its roads and streets to celebrate and immortalise largely Ndebele state and Zimbabwe African People’s Union party icons. Consequently, this process of na…
Standing on the shoulders of giants 2
This editorial includes the last collection of research essays that were initially received, processed, and published by our predecessor, Prof James Thompson. James Thompson had been the editor of
Welcome to RiDE 30
Welcome to the second Open Edition of Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance of 2025. The eagled-eyed of you will have noticed that our editions are running lat
Standing on the shoulders of Giants (Part 1)
Welcome to RiDE’s final edition of 2024 and the first edition we have had the pleasure and privilege of co-editing. We are intensely aware of the rigorous and diligent work and care that has been g
Gukurahundi as a Cultural Event
The desire of Gukurahundi survivors for cultural platforms that enable them to discuss, mourn, and commemorate their loved ones is now very loud in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland and Midlands provinces. While community-based organisations have provided platforms for Gukurahundi survivors, the children of survivors, and academics to interface and interact, the government’s gatekeeping processes remain a challenge for the community-wide memorialisation an…
Theatre practitioners as unionists
This article attempts to frame and examine the structuring of labour struggles from the precarious subject position of theatre workers, without isolating these struggles into the occupational sector of the creative industries in the Zimbabwean context between 1980 and 1999. In this article, I frame theatre practitioners as ‘art – workers’ and collectives such as the NTO and ZACT as mobilising and organising agencies operating within the postcolon…
Music, performance and Zanu-PF’s hegemony in Mugabe’s newly independent Zimbabwe
The premise of this article is that popular music was a critical space for enforcing hegemonic dominance of ZANU-PF during the first decade of its rule, as perhaps in other eras. When it assumed power in 1980, ZANU-PF did not hide its intention to establish single-party rule, which was then popular across Africa. Top among competing priorities for the new regime was removing all centres of political opposition or resistance. But PF-ZAPU, ZANU-PF’…
Remembering Stephen Chifunyise
The Public Intellectualism of Stephen Chifunyise
(Non)fungibility of socio-cultural capital for rural-based students in South African universities
The number of university students coming from rural areas has significantly increased in South Africa in the last two decades. While this is a positive sign of inclusive social growth and development, the fact that 70% of South African universities are still located in urban areas creates challenges for a number of these students. This is also compounded by the fact that most rural schools in South Africa offer sub-optimal preparation for post-sc…
Challenges of socio-economic mobility for international migrants in South Africa
Migration is reputed to have development prospects for the sending and host countries as well as migrants. Therefore, an effective migration governance system must be put in place to achieve this triple-win developmental aspiration. This paper, however, argues that when they migrate, migrants have their own subjective well-being in mind, and not some common national development objectives. The other developmental outcomes depend on this self-inte…
Theatricality in the midst of a pandemic
This article examines theatre as a creative journalistic media deployed by theatre practitioners to map experiences of Zimbabweans during the COVID-19-induced lockdown. When the first positive case of COVID-19 was reported in March 2020, the Zimbabwe government, like many other countries, responded by introducing restrictions for public gatherings and ultimately a lockdown including arts events. Yet, theatricality has refused to capitulate. Artis…
Cultural politics and cultural violence during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland
This paper examines and analyses the various instances where ‘performances’ of cultural violence by the state and Fifth Brigade were experienced during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland. This paper contends that cultural violence was used to stereotype Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) veterans, as well as Ndebele people. Cultural violence is used here to refer to the purposeful weakening and ultima…
Productive docile bodies in Zimbabwean dance training
In this paper, we deploy Foucault’s theories of power to interrogate body politics in ballet training in Zimbabwe. To achieve this, we critically examine instances of ballet-related discourse-induced docility occurring in the Afrikera Professional Dance Training (APDT) students’ bodies during training. From a Foucauldian perspective, we interrogate how a ballet dancer’s body that has been timeously ‘subjugated’ to a standard of expected behaviour…
Resistance, struggle and protest against genocide and incarceration
This article positions theatre as a site for victims and activists to action their resistance against Gukurahundi related incarceration and human rights abuse perpetrated in the 1980s. Through case studying Talitha Koum and 1983, we examine resistance strategies deployed through theatre performance to expose Gukurahundi violence, invigorate debate and hold public officials accountable. We submit that theatre performance offers a ‘liberation’ of c…
Narratives of resistance in Amakhosi Theatre Production’s Workshop Negative
This paper deploys theories of social performance as a lens to engage and examine narratives of resistance in Amakhosi Theatre Productions’ Workshop Negative. This paper locates and frames Amakhosi Theatre Productions’ Workshop Negative as a personal and community narrative inscribed with agency. Deploying the social theories of performance and the narrative of resistance approach as an analytical framework, this paper analyses and critiques Work…
Staging the Zimbabwean ‘revolution’
In this account, I deploy Mikhail Bhakhtin’s concept of the carnival to frame the November 2017 demonstrations in Harare, Zimbabwe, that led to the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe as a carnivalesque or ‘theatrical’ performance. I examine the spatial and theatrical characteristics of this carnivalesque demonstration, highlighting how it created a special form of free and familiar contact among people divided by political, professiona…
Gukurahundi in retrospect
Resistance during Gukurahundi was virtually impossible especially in holding camps such as Bhalagwe and Matopo. Gukurahundi refers to the 1983-1987 period in Zimbabwean history characterised by an unconfirmed genocide of the Ndebele minority. Upon the deployment of the 5th Brigade in Matabeleland and some parts of Midlands, the government of the day closed off media access to these areas, banning access to journalists without formal permission. W…
Gukurahundi em retrospecto
Resistir durante o Gukurahundi era virtualmente impossível, especialmente em campos de detenção como Bhalagwe e Matopo. Gukurahundi se refere ao período da história do Zimbábue, compreendido entre 1983 e 1987, caracterizado por um genocídio não confirmado da minoria étnica Ndebele. Após a implantação da Quinta Brigada em Matabeleland e nas regiões centrais (Midlands), o governo da época impediu o acesso da imprensa a essas áreas, banindo jornalis…
Language Use in Postcolonial Zimbabwean Alternative Theatre Performance
This paper deploys the sociolinguistic concepts of indexicality and language ideologies to examine Amakhosi Theatre Productions and Rooftop Promotions’ use of language and linguistic frames as a performance resistive strategy in the postcolonial Zimbabwean landscape. These concepts offer a framework to critically appraise the political, social, ideological and cultural meanings latent in language/s used in alternative theatre performances, which …
Mapping Places and Identities through Contemporary Bulawayo Popular Song Texts
In this article, the authors examine the symbiotic relationship that exists between places and identities in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, through contemporary song texts. They borrow Julia Kristeva’s concept of intertextuality to trace the sources of spatial textual referents embedded in song texts and examine the ways in which they inform the emergence and consolidation of identities. Through analysing selected song texts from the late Beatar Mangethe, K…
Utopian Places/ Spaces in Selected Bongani Sibanda’s Short Stories
Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory is an open-access, peer-review, online publication for academic research, published twice a year by the Faculty of Letters, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania
Conceptualizing Alternative Theater and Alternative Performance Space in Postindependence Zimbabwe
This article proposes conceptual working definitions for alternative theater and alternative spatiality as they apply to postindependence Zimbabwean theater practice. These conceptual definition proposals identify and delineate the contemporary Zimbabwean spatial appreciation of alternative performance space and esthetic practice. In this article, I implicate alternative performance esthetics and spatiality in how the past, as the people’s cultur…
Theatre training and performance practice in neoliberal Zimbabwean universities
In this paper, I document and discuss the frustrations and survival strategies of Theatre Arts and/ or Performing Arts departments in STEMatised neoliberal Zimbabwean universities. I submit that while these departments devised creative survival strategies which kept them relevant and competitive for some time, they also relegated them to the academic periphery, with no student uptake. Through case studying the University of Zimbabwe’s Theatre Art…
University on “Log-Down” in Zimbabwe
This account examines the effect of neoliberal decisions and directives taken by management at Lupane State University. I observe that the decision to introduce a manual clocking system at Lupane State University has placed the institution under fire. I submit that the clocking system disoriented and demotivated staff, particularly academics, thereby creating an infected environment not conducive for research, innovation and development. While I …
Cultural politics and cultural violence during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland
This paper examines and analyses the various instances where ‘performances’ of cultural violence by the state and Fifth Brigade were experienced during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland. This paper contends that cultural violence was used to stereotype Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) veterans, as well as Ndebele people. Cultural violence is used here to refer to the purposeful weakening and ultima…
Staging the Zimbabwean ‘revolution’
In this account, I deploy Mikhail Bhakhtin’s concept of the carnival to frame the November 2017 demonstrations in Harare, Zimbabwe, that led to the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe as a carnivalesque or ‘theatrical’ performance. I examine the spatial and theatrical characteristics of this carnivalesque demonstration, highlighting how it created a special form of free and familiar contact among people divided by political, professiona…
La Vía Campesina
A Tale of Two Cities
The process to devising community theatre production has for a long time concentrated on literary and pedagogical effectiveness. Scholarly attention to community theatre practice highlights that decisions to do with space and technology (visual aesthetics) and communicative ability are either inferred or ‘just happen’. Through the use of two practice-as-research case studies in two cities and in the two neighboring countries of Zimbabwe and South…
Locating scenography in theatre for development projects at the University of Zimbabwe
Scenography has long been embedded in every performance. However, within the applied theatre performance culture, scenography has been relegated to the periphery in place of auditory aesthetics and efficacy. This paper argues that scenography is the glue that sticks together performative aspects of community theatre projects as well as providing a framework for meaning making. In this paper, we argue that costume, set and properties design in the…
Conceptualizing Alternative Theater and Alternative Performance Space in Postindependence Zimbabwe
This article proposes conceptual working definitions for alternative theater and alternative spatiality as they apply to postindependence Zimbabwean theater practice. These conceptual definition proposals identify and delineate the contemporary Zimbabwean spatial appreciation of alternative performance space and esthetic practice. In this article, I implicate alternative performance esthetics and spatiality in how the past, as the people’s cultur…
Theatre training and performance practice in neoliberal Zimbabwean universities
In this paper, I document and discuss the frustrations and survival strategies of Theatre Arts and/ or Performing Arts departments in STEMatised neoliberal Zimbabwean universities. I submit that while these departments devised creative survival strategies which kept them relevant and competitive for some time, they also relegated them to the academic periphery, with no student uptake. Through case studying the University of Zimbabwe’s Theatre Art…
University on “Log-Down” in Zimbabwe
This account examines the effect of neoliberal decisions and directives taken by management at Lupane State University. I observe that the decision to introduce a manual clocking system at Lupane State University has placed the institution under fire. I submit that the clocking system disoriented and demotivated staff, particularly academics, thereby creating an infected environment not conducive for research, innovation and development. While I …
Gukurahundi in retrospect
Resistance during Gukurahundi was virtually impossible especially in holding camps such as Bhalagwe and Matopo. Gukurahundi refers to the 1983-1987 period in Zimbabwean history characterised by an unconfirmed genocide of the Ndebele minority. Upon the deployment of the 5th Brigade in Matabeleland and some parts of Midlands, the government of the day closed off media access to these areas, banning access to journalists without formal permission. W…
Gukurahundi em retrospecto
Resistir durante o Gukurahundi era virtualmente impossível, especialmente em campos de detenção como Bhalagwe e Matopo. Gukurahundi se refere ao período da história do Zimbábue, compreendido entre 1983 e 1987, caracterizado por um genocídio não confirmado da minoria étnica Ndebele. Após a implantação da Quinta Brigada em Matabeleland e nas regiões centrais (Midlands), o governo da época impediu o acesso da imprensa a essas áreas, banindo jornalis…
Language Use in Postcolonial Zimbabwean Alternative Theatre Performance
This paper deploys the sociolinguistic concepts of indexicality and language ideologies to examine Amakhosi Theatre Productions and Rooftop Promotions’ use of language and linguistic frames as a performance resistive strategy in the postcolonial Zimbabwean landscape. These concepts offer a framework to critically appraise the political, social, ideological and cultural meanings latent in language/s used in alternative theatre performances, which …
Mapping Places and Identities through Contemporary Bulawayo Popular Song Texts
In this article, the authors examine the symbiotic relationship that exists between places and identities in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, through contemporary song texts. They borrow Julia Kristeva’s concept of intertextuality to trace the sources of spatial textual referents embedded in song texts and examine the ways in which they inform the emergence and consolidation of identities. Through analysing selected song texts from the late Beatar Mangethe, K…
Utopian Places/ Spaces in Selected Bongani Sibanda’s Short Stories
Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory is an open-access, peer-review, online publication for academic research, published twice a year by the Faculty of Letters, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania
Productive docile bodies in Zimbabwean dance training
In this paper, we deploy Foucault’s theories of power to interrogate body politics in ballet training in Zimbabwe. To achieve this, we critically examine instances of ballet-related discourse-induced docility occurring in the Afrikera Professional Dance Training (APDT) students’ bodies during training. From a Foucauldian perspective, we interrogate how a ballet dancer’s body that has been timeously ‘subjugated’ to a standard of expected behaviour…
Resistance, struggle and protest against genocide and incarceration
This article positions theatre as a site for victims and activists to action their resistance against Gukurahundi related incarceration and human rights abuse perpetrated in the 1980s. Through case studying Talitha Koum and 1983, we examine resistance strategies deployed through theatre performance to expose Gukurahundi violence, invigorate debate and hold public officials accountable. We submit that theatre performance offers a ‘liberation’ of c…
Narratives of resistance in Amakhosi Theatre Production’s Workshop Negative
This paper deploys theories of social performance as a lens to engage and examine narratives of resistance in Amakhosi Theatre Productions’ Workshop Negative. This paper locates and frames Amakhosi Theatre Productions’ Workshop Negative as a personal and community narrative inscribed with agency. Deploying the social theories of performance and the narrative of resistance approach as an analytical framework, this paper analyses and critiques Work…
Staging the Zimbabwean ‘revolution’
In this account, I deploy Mikhail Bhakhtin’s concept of the carnival to frame the November 2017 demonstrations in Harare, Zimbabwe, that led to the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe as a carnivalesque or ‘theatrical’ performance. I examine the spatial and theatrical characteristics of this carnivalesque demonstration, highlighting how it created a special form of free and familiar contact among people divided by political, professiona…
Challenges of socio-economic mobility for international migrants in South Africa
Migration is reputed to have development prospects for the sending and host countries as well as migrants. Therefore, an effective migration governance system must be put in place to achieve this triple-win developmental aspiration. This paper, however, argues that when they migrate, migrants have their own subjective well-being in mind, and not some common national development objectives. The other developmental outcomes depend on this self-inte…
Theatricality in the midst of a pandemic
This article examines theatre as a creative journalistic media deployed by theatre practitioners to map experiences of Zimbabweans during the COVID-19-induced lockdown. When the first positive case of COVID-19 was reported in March 2020, the Zimbabwe government, like many other countries, responded by introducing restrictions for public gatherings and ultimately a lockdown including arts events. Yet, theatricality has refused to capitulate. Artis…
Cultural politics and cultural violence during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland
This paper examines and analyses the various instances where ‘performances’ of cultural violence by the state and Fifth Brigade were experienced during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland. This paper contends that cultural violence was used to stereotype Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) veterans, as well as Ndebele people. Cultural violence is used here to refer to the purposeful weakening and ultima…
Theatre practitioners as unionists
This article attempts to frame and examine the structuring of labour struggles from the precarious subject position of theatre workers, without isolating these struggles into the occupational sector of the creative industries in the Zimbabwean context between 1980 and 1999. In this article, I frame theatre practitioners as ‘art – workers’ and collectives such as the NTO and ZACT as mobilising and organising agencies operating within the postcolon…
Music, performance and Zanu-PF’s hegemony in Mugabe’s newly independent Zimbabwe
The premise of this article is that popular music was a critical space for enforcing hegemonic dominance of ZANU-PF during the first decade of its rule, as perhaps in other eras. When it assumed power in 1980, ZANU-PF did not hide its intention to establish single-party rule, which was then popular across Africa. Top among competing priorities for the new regime was removing all centres of political opposition or resistance. But PF-ZAPU, ZANU-PF’…
Remembering Stephen Chifunyise
The Public Intellectualism of Stephen Chifunyise
(Non)fungibility of socio-cultural capital for rural-based students in South African universities
The number of university students coming from rural areas has significantly increased in South Africa in the last two decades. While this is a positive sign of inclusive social growth and development, the fact that 70% of South African universities are still located in urban areas creates challenges for a number of these students. This is also compounded by the fact that most rural schools in South Africa offer sub-optimal preparation for post-sc…
Standing on the shoulders of Giants (Part 1)
Welcome to RiDE’s final edition of 2024 and the first edition we have had the pleasure and privilege of co-editing. We are intensely aware of the rigorous and diligent work and care that has been g
Gukurahundi as a Cultural Event
The desire of Gukurahundi survivors for cultural platforms that enable them to discuss, mourn, and commemorate their loved ones is now very loud in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland and Midlands provinces. While community-based organisations have provided platforms for Gukurahundi survivors, the children of survivors, and academics to interface and interact, the government’s gatekeeping processes remain a challenge for the community-wide memorialisation an…
Sociology (21 obras) · Political science (17 obras) · Art (15 obras) · African studies and sociopolitical issues (13 obras) · Law (10 obras) · Aesthetics (9 obras) · Theatre and Performance Studies (9 obras) · Visual arts (9 obras) · Law (7 obras) · Politics (7 obras)