This is the accepted version of an article published by Cambridge in The Journal of Modern African Studies Vol. 53 No. 1, pp. 27-49, 2017. Published version available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X14000640 Accepted version downloaded from SOAS Research Online: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/26245/ 1 The battle for Zimbabwe in 2013: from polarisation to ambivalence JULIA GALLAGHER 1* Department of Politics and International Relations Royal Holloway, University of London Egham Surrey TW20 0EX julia.gallagher@rhul.ac.uk Abstract On the face of it, the triumph of Robert Mugabe and ZANU(PF) in the 2013 elections came as a shock, not least to opposition MDC activists. However, after a period of introspection, many have begun to construct a coherent and wide-ranging account of the result which explores opposition shortcomings, and the revived relationship between the electorate and Mugabe’s ZANU(PF). This article, based on interviews with political activists conducted three months after the election, outlines and attempts to explain this account. It explores the way in which a politics of polarisation that dominated Zimbabwe in recent years appears to have given way to a politics of ambivalence: where Zimbabweans once viewed their political landscape as one populated by antinomies, they now see their state and its relation to themselves in more complex and ambiguous ways. As a result, Zimbabweans’ conception of the state is 1* The author would like to thank Teresa Almeida Cravo, Jonathan Fisher, Langton Miriyoga, Stephen Chan and staff and students of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway who provided helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. Thanks also to the extremely constructive suggestions made by the journal’s editors and reviewers. Finally, many thanks to the British Academy and Sir Ernest Cassel Educational Trust which provided financial support for the fieldwork carried out in this study.