Nationalism and/or the annihilation of democratic citizenship education

a critical analysis of Zimbabwe's citizenship education initiatives

Agrippa Chingombe

Joseph Jinja Divala

pp. 77-101

in: Yusef Waghid, Nuraan Davids (eds), African democratic citizenship education revisited, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

This chapter argues that in an attempt to reclaim its nationalistic ideals to citizenship education in Zimbabwe, what is touted as "citizenship education" is far removed from citizenship education. What gradually became realised through this "democratic" project in Zimbabwe was an extreme nationalist citizenship education project, which continues to be radical, exclusionary, discriminatory and very partisan thereby tearing apart the very fabric of society which it intends to build. The authors argue that co-existence should revolve around common civic values that underscore a more substantive form of citizenship education.