Nation-Building and Sustainable Development in Zimbabwe’s National Anthem: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Clemenciana Mukenge


Abstract


African national anthems function as powerful socio-political instruments embedding aspirations for future progress. While previous studies focused strictly on identity and nationalism, this study investigates the unexamined intersection of nation-building, sustainable development, and ideology within Zimbabwe’s national anthem through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Methodologically, Fairclough’s ‘three-dimensional’ model unpacks the lyrics across textual, discursive, and socio-cultural levels. Moving past purely descriptive readings, the findings reveal that the anthem functions as a tool for ideological legitimation, leveraging patriotic history and liberation heritage to enforce a homogenized nationalism. Lyrical emphasis on environmental stewardship and social justice possesses significant potential to stimulate community-led collective action. However, the analysis highlights critical exclusionary tendencies. Through framing state-centric policies as universal national interests, the anthem’s dominant discourse silences alternative developmental perspectives and marginalizes multicultural realities. Ultimately, the study contributes a novel theoretical framework to nationalism studies, demonstrating how highly ritualized state symbols are deployed to manufacture civic compliance, trivialize class contradictions, and tightly control contemporary macro-economic agendas in post-colonial Africa.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abril, C. R. (2016). A national anthem: patriotic symbol or democratic action?. In Patriotism and nationalism in music education (pp. 77-94). Routledge.

Ayinuola, O. A. (2020). Lexicalization of ideology in national anthems of selected African states. Issues in Language and Literary Studies, 6(1), 124–136. https://illsjournal.acuoyo.net/index.php/ills/article/view/82/69

Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Harvard University Press.

Check, N. A. (2020). Mediating nation-building in post-colonial Africa: Addressing the security and development nexus on the continent. In S. O. Oloruntoba & T. Falola (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of African political economy (pp. 731–744). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38922-2_51

Chouliaraki, L., & Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical discourse analysis in organizational studies: Towards an integrationist methodology. Journal of Management Studies, 47(6), 1213–1218. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2009.00883.x

Cosmas, R., Amenorvi, C., & Grumah, G. (2019). A thematic analysis of the national anthems of English West Africa. The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Discourse Analysis, 7(2), 141–151. https://doi.org/10.22049/JALDA.2019.26509.1130

Cusack, I. (2005). African national anthems: "Beat the drums, the red lion has roared". Journal of African Cultural Studies, 17(2), 235–251.

De Jong, E., & Vijge, M. J. (2021). From millennium to sustainable development goals: Evolving discourses and their reflection in policy coherence for development. Earth System Governance, 7, 100087.

Dlodlo, S. (2019). An investigation into nation building through the national anthem in Zimbabwe: A sociolinguistic approach (Publication No. 26606) [Doctoral dissertation, University of South Africa]. Unisa Institutional Repository. https://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/26606/

Englebert, P., & Tull, D. M. (2008). Post-conflict reconstruction in Africa: Flawed ideas about failed states. International Security, 32(4), 106-139.

Fairclough, N. (1993). Critical discourse analysis and the marketization of public discourse: The universities. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 133–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002002

Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Longman.

Fukuyama, F. (1996). Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity. Simon and Schuster.

Hammersley, M. (1997). On the foundations of critical discourse analysis. Language & Communication, 17(3), 237–248.

Hodge, B. (2012). Ideology, identity, interaction: Contradictions and challenges for critical discourse analysis. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines, 5(2), 1–18. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/journals/cadaad/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Volume-5_Hodge.pdf

Hodge, B., & Kress, G. (1988). Social semiotics. Polity Press.

Ibe, I. U., Nzediegwu, K. C., & Ishiguzo, R. O. (2025). Reversing the national anthem of Nigeria: A legal analysis of the implications on national identity and the rule of law. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Law Journal, 9(1), 45–58. https://www.journals.ezenwaohaetorc.org/index.php/coou/issue/view/225

Ikendi, S., Mwenyi, R. M., Somers, R., Sikdar, S., & Kakungulu, B. A. (2025). National anthems and flags: Strategic tools for global citizenry and cross-cultural competence development in global educational programs. International Journal of Literacy and Education, 5(2), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.22271/27891607.2025.v5.i2d.346

Kambites, C. J. (2014). ‘Sustainable development’: The ‘unsustainable’ development of a concept in political discourse. Sustainable Development, 22(5), 336-348.

Kelen, C. (2014). Anthem quality: National songs: A theoretical survey. Intellect.

Kończal, K., & Moses, A. D. (Eds.). (2023). Patriotic history and the (re)nationalization of memory. Routledge.

Lin, J. Z. (2024). Making national heroes: The exemplarist production of masculinities in contemporary China. Hong Kong University Press.

Marambanyika, T., & Musasa, T. (2023). Contestations and struggles in the use and protection of wetland ecosystems in communal areas of Zimbabwe: a case study of Intunjambili wetland in Matobo district. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 31(5), 611-627.

Mawere, T. (2015). Decentering nationalism: Representing and contesting Chimurenga in Zimbabwean popular culture [Doctoral dissertation, University of the Western Cape]. University of the Western Cape Repository. https://hdl.handle.net/10566/10230

Melkote, S. R., & Steeves, H. L. (2015). Communication for development: Theory and practice for empowerment and social justice (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications. https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bgsu_books/5

Merino-Saum, A., Baldi, M. G., Gunderson, I., & Oberle, B. (2018). Articulating natural resources and sustainable development goals through green economy indicators: A systematic analysis. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 139, 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.07.007

Mutemererwa, S., Chamisa, V., & Chambwera, G. (2013). The national anthem: A mirror image of the Zimbabwean identity? Muziki, 10(1), 52–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/18125980.2013.805969

Mwinlaaru, I. N., & Nartey, M. (2022). "Free men we stand under the flag of our land": A transitivity analysis of African anthems as discourses of resistance against colonialism. Critical Discourse Studies, 19(5), 556–572. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2021.1999286

Ndimande, J., & Moyo, K. G. (2018). Singing the Zimbabwean nation: Nationalism, landscapes of memory and the state. International Journal of Politics and Good Governance, 9(1), 1–18. https://onlineresearchjournals.com/ijopagg/art/268.pdf

Ngomane, T. S. (2016). Land as an economic empowerment tool: Access, control and ownership of land by rural women in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa [Doctoral dissertation, University of Limpopo]. University of Limpopo Institutional Repository. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1614

Nonet, G. A. H., Gössling, T., Van Tulder, R., & Bryson, J. M. (2022). Multi-stakeholder engagement for the sustainable development goals: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Business Ethics, 180(4), 945–957. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05192-0

Okal, B. O., Yakub, A., & Kodak, B. O. (2016). The underlying paradoxes of the national anthem of the Republic of South Sudan. Maseno University Repository. https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3073

Onditi, F. (2018). African national anthems: Their value system and normative "potential". African Study Monographs, 56(Suppl.), 3–20. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/230171

Redmond, S. L. (2014). Anthem: Social movements and the sound of solidarity in the African diaspora. NYU Press.

Rogers, R. (Ed.). (2003). An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ronoh, G. (2020). Strategies for improving public participation for sustainable development in selected counties in Kenya. International Journal of Development and Sustainability, 9(1), 33–48.

Sénit, C. A. (2020). Transforming our world? Discursive representation in the negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 20(3), 411-429.

Tyrwhitt-Drake, H. (1999). Resisting the discourse of critical discourse analysis: Reopening a Hong Kong case study. Journal of Pragmatics, 31(8), 1081–1088.

Vambe, M. T., & Khan, K. (2009). Reading the Zimbabwean national anthem as political biography in the context of crisis. Journal of Literary Studies, 25(2), 25–39. doi.org

Van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Ideology and discourse analysis. Journal of Political Ideologies, 11(2), 115–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569310600687908

Van Dijk, T. A. (2008). Discourse and power. Palgrave Macmillan.

van Dijk, T. A. (2011). Discourse and ideology. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction (2nd ed., pp. 379–407). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446289068.n18

Widdowson, H. G. (1995). Discourse analysis: A critical view. Language and Literature, 4(3), 157–172.

Wielenga, C. (2012). Remembering together in Rwanda and South Africa [Paper presentation]. School for International Training Conflict Transformation and Peace Relations Symposium. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1098&context=conflict_reconcilation_symposium

Wodak, R. (2001). The discourse-historical approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 63–94). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028020.n4

Wodak, R., de Cillia, R., Reisigl, M., & Liebhart, K. (2009). The discursive construction of national identity (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press.

Woolf, D. (2006). Of nations, nationalism, and national identity: Reflections on the historiographic organization of the past. In Q. Wang & F. Fillafer (Eds.), The many faces of Clio: Cross-cultural approaches to historiography essays in honor of Georg G. Iggers (pp. 71–103). Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800734081-007

Yeboah, N. (2016). Performing "Afrika": Sankofa and the construction of post-colonial Black African identity in Ghana [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Northwestern University.

Yende, S. J. (2023). A qualitative content analysis of Enoch Sontonga and the South African national anthem: A legacy of unity and resilience. Journal of Nation-Building and Policy Studies, 7(3), 71–89. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376981138

Zaharia, C., & Suteu, D. (2010). The natural resources and sustainable development. Cercetari Agronomice in Moldova, 44(2), 93–101. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260388363.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.30743/jol.v8i2.13861

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.