Many years ago, I listened with amazement to a Zanu-PF luminary embarking on his party's eternal preoccupation: violent sloganeering. That was in the 1985 elections, in the Midlands capital, Gweru. The sloganeering was made by none other than the late Benson Ndemera, whom I happened to know as a homeboy, when he mistakenly used to call himself "the agonising secretary of the Midlands United African National Council party", led by Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa. But by 1985, the music and dance of politics had changed for him. For the sake of political expedience, his notes had shifted to making slogans for President Robert Mugabe's party. The Muzorewas of his previous political map had ceased to exist. It was as if Ndemera's past had been erased by the heavy herbal concoctions prepared by the masters of the art of forgetfulness. Selective amnesia is a serious art of survival in Zimbabwean politics. "VaMugabe havafi. Kana vakafa havaori. Kana vakaora hava...