A Nation in Dire Straits

A Nation in Dire Straits
Law, Politics and the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Dr Alex Tawanda Magaisa
The Inaugural Annual Basker Vashee Memorial Lecture
De Balie, Amsterdam, 8 June 2006

The lecture is downloadable in PDF [303 Kb].

Magaisa speaks in Amsterdam on the crisis in Zimbabwe
zimbabwejournalists.com, 8 June 2006

LONDON - Zimbabwean intellectual and lawyer, Dr Alex Magaisa, will today speak at the inaugural annual Basker Vashee Memorial lecture in Amsterdam. Developing a new "constitutional culture" in response to the crisis in Zimbabwe is the theme for the inaugural Basker Vashee Memorial Lecture, which will be delivered by Dr Magaisa at de Balie, in Amsterdam.

The lecture, A Nation in Dire Straits: Law, Politics and the Crisis in Zimbabwe, will not only look at the visible damage done by hyperinflation, material shortages and the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe, but also at the invisible damage the country's current crisis is having on the culture, behaviour and attitude of citizens towards each other, the state and other institutions. Dr Magaisa will argue that, in addition to insisting on a new government and Constitution, the Zimbabwe opposition movement needs to closely scrutinise its own practices and work to develop a more democratic culture.

Dr Magaisa is an erudite new generation Zimbabwean intellectual. He is a practising lawyer, as well as a prolific legal, political and economic commentator and columnist for the Zimbabwe Independent, one of the country's few remaining independent newspapers.

The lecture is held to commemorate the life of Basker Vashee (1944-2005), a Zimbabwean activist and scholar who was director of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI) from 1977 to 1987, and a TNI Fellow until the end of his life.

Vashee was exiled in London in the early 1970s for his activities in the liberation movement in the then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, serving as its representative in London. He later served on the board of the Transnational Information Exchange (TIE), and worked closely with the Dutch Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA) and as an advisor to the Dutch Development Co-operation Ministry. A tribute to Vashee's life from his many friends and comrades across the globe can be found at www.tni.org/basker

The lecture is organised by TNI, an international network of activist-scholars founded in 1974. It exists to address the global problems of today and tomorrow, ranging from corporate-driven globalisation and militarism to environmental and social injustice, and aims to provide intellectual support to those movements seeking a more democratic, equitable and environmentally sustainable world.