Abstract:
The transformation of society towards modernity and the attendant socio-economic challenges it
has imposed on African societies have compelled insensitive traditional structures of governance
to hijack traditional customs and practices to serve their ulterior motives. Thanksgiving to chiefs
(kubika chiutsi, in Shona language), is one such traditional practice that has been manipulated to
serve the self-aggrandizement of Zimbabwean traditional chiefs in rural areas under the guise of
subjects’ gratitude expression to traditional authority. We employ benevolent theory as a
theoretical lens to unravel both the potentialities and the dilemmas that surround this highly
contentious practice. While acknowledging thanksgiving to chiefs as an adhesive that tightly
bounds subordinates to established traditional authority thus fostering a cohesive society in
ancient times, we argue that in contemporary Zimbabwe, the practice unfolds as benevolent
despotism (by chiefs) unleashed on pauperised masses. Many rural people conceive thanksgiving
to chiefs as an idealized version of the “tragedy of the commons” as chiefs misconstrue them
(subjects) for tradable communally owned commodities. Drawing on our reflections of our
experiences in Zimbabwe, our argument is that the tradition of thanksgiving is riddled with
absurdities, injustices and abuses-itself a crime against humanity committed by African chiefs
veneered by relentless pursuit of tradition and custodianship. The paper thus contributes to the
African cultural practices and mainstream human rights debates in Zimbabwe predicated on the
contradictions between preservation of traditional customs and forces of change towards
modernity.
