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Basotho have historically been victims of culturally devastating pandemics and epidemics which include the rinderpest epidemic of 1898–1902, the Spanish influenza/flu of 1918, HIV/AIDS and of late COVID-19. This spelt disaster on practices associated with caring for the sick and dying but COVID-19 remains the most memorable. This study, which is based on Lesotho experiences, uses the health communication theory, to discuss the effects of the pandemic on sickness, death and funeral rites in Lesotho during the period 2020. The purpose is to extend knowledge of how ordinary people struggled to conserve their everyday ways of life in the face of this existential threat and circulating rumours. Data was gathered through interviews, personal observations and reappraisal of secondary. The study is significant in that it calls to attention negotiating the incorporation of people’s way of life when curtailing pandemics in order to cultivate reasonable cooperation, which in turn cut costs and increases people’s confidence in the government. This kind of working together has generally been elusive in Lesotho’s confrontation with epidemics. The study found that poor communication and perceived government interference with their culture left families affected by the pandemic feeling guilty, distraught, confused, and traumatised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zimbabwe has since 2001 been under targeted sanctions imposed by the USA, European Union, Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and Canada among others. This article explores factors surrounding the failure of these sanctions to achieve their intended goals between 2001 and 2021. Arguments were drawn from investigating circumstances under which sanctions were imposed, their nature, sanctions busting methods deployed, and implications for the targets. The regime of former president Robert Mugabe and that of his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa controversially remained unmoved despite these restrictions. The ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), deliberately failed to meet benchmarks for the removal of sanctions. To understand the relationship between sanctions and targeted regime endurance, use was made of the game theory. The study found that ruling party political elites have circumvented the effects of sanctions at a heavy cost to the populace. This research is important because it demonstrates that sanctions do not harm their targets but instead pauperise, the majority which they meant to protect and prolong the political life of the sanctioned regime. The act of sanctioning therefore needs to be reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla) veterans who fought in the war of liberation between 1966 and 1979 were partly sustained by African spirituality. Once trained, the spirit world became a major source of protection against the enemy. Today, veterans of the war argue that the same spirit which protected them during the war should have been invoked when the war ended so as to inform them that the war had been won and also as an expression of gratitude for the spiritual guidance received during the prosecution of the struggle. The failure to appease the spirits caused a rupture which has seen many ex-combatants experiencing traumas linked to experiences of the war. Traditional cleansing ceremonies have been privately confined to families despite the national significance of the war in which guerrillas participated. However, sharp differences between guerrilla commanders on one hand and those in the field show that the former did not see traditional religion as that important. As such, its role could not be officially recognised and celebrated at independence. The paper relied on oral testimonies from ex-Zanla guerrillas and literary narratives of liberation war and post-independence war veteran's experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the experiences of people in rural areas who are displaced by the construction of small dams. Scholarship on dam construction has generally focused on the impact of big dams on communities. Yet, this study argues, small dam construction projects also impact those living on the site and vicinity of small dams. Using Magunje Dam in Hurungwe District of Zimbabwe as a lens, the study traces the experiences of the changed livelihoods of communities that resisted being moved and those who were relocated to other places. By taking this approach, the study establishes the complex impact of the Magunje Dam project on the evicted people and argues that those who are affected by small dam projects sometimes suffer unwanted consequences and their challenges are difficult to remedy because they occupy the fringes of society. Their challenges go unnoticed, especially after receiving paltry compensation. The study shows that displacement and involuntary resettlement destabilise the family fabric. Through the lenses of the Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction model (IRR), the effects of dam construction on rural people are unpacked. Data was obtained through qualitative research methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]