How to challenge a brutal dictator
Issue 156: An interview with Revolutionary Evan Mawarire about his new book "Crazy Epic Courage" on how he started a revolution in Zimbabwe
Evan Mawarire told us the story of how he unintentionally started a revolution to overthrow a dictator when we first invited him for a conference about our book in 2023 (you can watch our documentary here). Today we are very excited to share an interview with him about his new memoir, Crazy Epic Courage: How a 'Nobody' Challenged Brutal Dictators and Moved a Nation. At a moment when courage seems to be in short supply, his story might inspire others to stand up against oppression.
In April 2016, Evan was a humble Zimbabwean pastor with a small congregation. After witnessing the mass suffering under Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship he began voicing his political frustrations on Facebook. While draped in the national flag, he condemned the corruption. His message sparked the viral #ThisFlag movement and ignited a wave of peaceful resistance in Zimbabwe. Public protest was illegal in Zimbabwe, so more than eight million Zimbabweans participated in a nationwide strike. His single example example of brave dissent made it easier for others to speak out.
“People in societies that need change are often looking for a way to start, an example of how to speak up. If they can just find someone or something to get behind and grow their own courage, they'll do it.”
— Evan Mawarire
The movement would become one of the most successful in the nation’s history, inspiring further protests that ultimately contributed to Mugabe’s downfall in 2017. But Evan’s critiques made him a target of the regime, leading to multiple imprisonments and the victim of torture. He was accused of treason and faced the rest of his life in prison. Eventually he fled to the United States with his family where he remains in exile.
In our interview with Evan, he reflects on the importance of courage in social movements and argues that bravery is not reserved for the extraordinary but can be cultivated by anyone. As we have written about several times in our newsletter, it is often critical for the first person to dissent for others to feel comfortable bucking conformity and standing up against corrupt authority figures. If you are interested in reading more, we encourage you to buy his book here.
What does your book teach us about social identity or group dynamics?
Courage is more contagious than fear. A key lesson from Crazy Epic Courage on group dynamics is how people are drawn to emulate someone who displays courage. I define courage as “the decision to act for the things we care about the most”. When I first challenged the entrenched dictators in Zimbabwe, we had watched decades of brutality. Thousands were murdered in political violence and many more died due to our collapsed socioeconomic systems. The fear of dictatorship in Zimbabwe had stopped most of us from even trying to figure out the solutions needed for change.
When I accidentally sparked off the #ThisFlag Citizen's Movement, I discovered that it was possible to model courage and inspire others to find their own for collective action. People in societies that need change are often looking for a way to start, an example of how to speak up. If they can just find someone or something to get behind and grow their own courage, they'll do it and with surprising outcomes.
What is the most important idea readers will learn from your book?
Courage is not reserved for a few special individuals. Everyone has it. What's often missing is knowing what our cause is. When I started the movement that led to massive non-violent protests in Zimbabwe, I was just a regular person who most people didn't know. I led a small church of roughly forty people and had no other influence apart from our small church. When I spoke up, my cause was to ensure the well being of my family. That cause became the bedrock of my actions and my courage grew to take on the bigger challenge of confronting the dictatorship’s injustices.
I learned that the clarity of your cause leads to the discovery of your courage. At the end of the book, I briefly introduce the C.A.U.S.E. framework for discovering courage. It asks five questions to help you to start discovering what could likely spark your own courage.
What are you most CONCERNED about?
What are you most ANXIOUS about?
What are you most UNWAVERING about?
What are you most SCARED for?
What are you most EXCITED about?
The answers to these questions provide clues to what could be something meaningful to you and those around you that you might be willing to step up and promote, defend, represent, or advocate for.
Why did you write this book and how did writing it change you?
My journey led me through hard experiences. I was arrested and jailed over eight times during a course of almost four years. I was held in maximum security prisons where I was tortured and many times thought I would be killed. I wrote this book to not only tell that story but to encourage other people that although the journey of change-making is not easy and has no guaranteed results, it is a necessary and vital component of our lives that MUST be embarked on. The fight for change is itself life-changing. There are things we will never know about ourselves until we find the courage to confront a status quo that does not reflect what we care about the most.
Living the story and writing the story are two different things. In retrospect, I have learned to be gentler with myself. Change-makers are often hard on themselves as they push long and hard to achieve a goal. I have become more patient with the process of change-making and more satisfied with my work, knowing that while it is not perfect, it is still a step forward.
While writing the book, I realized that my work and my journey are part of a larger picture of change that I may never live to see the fullness of. I'm in a relay with others who I received the baton from and those who I must hand it to. My success may not have transformed Zimbabwe into socio-economically strong nation, but it certainly shifted power and allowed marginalized people to carve out their own space.
Do you have any practical advice for people who want to apply these ideas (e.g., three tips for the real world)?
3 tips to starting the journey of change-making:
1- START where you are with what you have. You'll be surprised how adequate you are right now even if you're by yourself. It's often the powerless and inadequate who have the solutions.
2- FOCUS on 'the now step' not the next step. Most people don't start the change-making process because they're trying to have the full plan first. Sometimes all you need to know is what to do now and what's next will follow naturally.
3- SERVE people - My dad taught me this "you will never know how to change the world if you don't know how to serve people".
What will readers find provocative or controversial about your book?
The tension between a desire to bring change and the impossible request to do it safely is an evident theme in this book. I get it - people want both change and comfort at the same time, but that is just not possible as I discovered. My take is that you either choose change which comes with danger, safety which means no change, or very slow and compromised change.
In the book, I opened up about the kind of danger I put my family and myself into. I talk about the battle between protecting those I love by advancing a fight that puts us in danger yet the outcome of the fight could greatly benefit them if we win. One of those moments of danger was after my family and I dramatically escaped from Zimbabwe and were safely in the United States.
After six months in exile I decided to leave my family in America and go back to continue the work. I was immediately arrested and sent to the maximum security prison. Over the years since this story, I've had varying degrees of conversation about facing danger or death for a cause. My biggest lesson is that we don't have to face grave danger or die for a cause for our courage to be genuine. In fact, we must try by all means to stay alive so we can do more. However, we must not become seekers of comfort and safety more than seekers of the change we desire.
There's a difference between going out to look for danger and danger finding you as you embark on your journey. Courage is not measured by the size and intensity of danger we face but by the actions we are willing to take for the things we care about the most.
If you want to hear more from Evan, you can watch our short documentary on threats to democracy below. One of Evan’s most poignant quotes from the film is “The loss of Democracy is not an event, it’s a process”. It’s up to each and every one of us to preserve and protect it.
Catch up on the last one…
Last week, we featured a guest post from
’s Annie Duke which revisits the trolly problem in a new modern, cultural context.
Man - that comment about the tension between safety and change -- I've heard it so many ways, but in this context - it really hit home.