Seeking solidarity: Zimbabwean undocumented migrants in Cape Town, 2007

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 433-448

  Morreira, Shannon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ASYLUM SEEKER; FORCED MIGRATION; IMMIGRANT POPULATION; MOBILITY; POLITICAL VIOLENCE; POPULATION MIGRATION;

CAPE TOWN; SOUTH AFRICA; WESTERN CAPE; ZIMBABWE;

EID: 77954157279     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2010.485793     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. K. Hastrup, 'Hunger and the Hardness of Facts', Man, 28 (1993), p. 728.
2. A. Bloch, 'The Development Potential of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora: A Survey of Zimbabweans Living in South Africa and the UK', (2005), available at www.iomlondon.org, retrieved on 14 May 2007.
3. 'Zim's Woes Swell Flood of Illegals', Independent Online, www.iol.co.za, 24 December 2006.
4. 'Zimbabwe Exodus Overwhelming SA - Report', Independent Online, available at www.iol.co.za, 23 July 2006.
5. J. Steinberg, 'South Africa's Xenophobic Eruption', Institute for Security Studies, ISS Paper 169, (November 2008).
6. The development of close-knit and inter-reliant groups of Zimbabweans in predominantly South African townships allows for the use of the word community. While community dynamics are important to the lived experience of migration, an in-depth discussion of this falls beyond the scope of this article.
7. Slogan on a billboard in Musina, South Africa, encouraging Zimbabweans to return home to vote in the 2008 elections.
8. I heard this being chanted outside a police station sheltering foreign migrants during xenophobic violence in Khayelitsha in 2008.
9. See Human Rights Watch, 'The Politics of Food Assistance in Zimbabwe: A Human Right Watch Briefing Paper' (2004).
10. Human Rights Watch, 'Zimbabwe: Evicted and Forsaken: Internally Displaced Persons in the Aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina' (2005).
11. Human Rights Watch, '"You Will Be Thoroughly Beaten": The Brutal Suppression of Dissent in Zimbabwe', Human Rights Watch, 18, 10(A), (2006).
12. The events of Gukurahundi in Matabeleland in the 1980s make it obvious that political violence was not 'new' to postcolonial Zimbabwe - see The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), Breaking the Silence, (Harare, CCJP, 1997).
13. A. Reeler, 'The Perpetrators of Gross Human Rights Violations in Zimbabwe from February 2000 to March 2003' (Cape Town, IDASA, 2003).
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15. G. Hill, The Battle for Zimbabwe: the Final Countdown (Cape Town, Zebra Press, 2003), p. 3.
16. Amnesty International, 'Zimbabwe: An Assessment of Human Rights Violations in the run up to the 2005 Elections' (Amnesty International, 2005), available from http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR46/003/2005.
17. Human Rights Watch, 'You Will Be Thoroughly Beaten: The Brutal Suppression of Dissent in Zimbabwe' (Human Rights Watch, 2006), available from www.hrw.org/reports/2006/zimbabwe1106/
18. See Human Rights Watch, 'Zimbabwe: Evicted and Forsaken' (November 30, 2005), available from http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/zim1205/.
19. Solidarity Peace Trust, '"Meltdown" 'Murambatsvina One Year on' (Solidarity Peace Trust, 2006), available from http://www.solidaritypeacetrust.org/166/meltdownmurambatsvina-one-year-on/
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24. Solidarity Peace Trust, No War in Zimbabwe: An Account of the Exodus of a Nation's People (November 2004).
25. Mail and Guardian, 'Zim Unemployment Skyrockets', 30 January 2009.
26. F. Cheda, Health System Near Total Collapse (Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 3 January 2007).
27. World Health Organisation, The World Health Report 2006 (2006).
28. www.zimbabwejournalist.com (2006).
29. C. De Swart and F. Theron, 'Poverty and the African Urban Poor: Money, Hunger and Morbidity in Cape Town', Development Update, 5, 1 (2004), p. 107.
30. Ibid., p. 111.
31. 'Zim Refugees Pour into SA', Cape Argus (4 April 2007).
32. Zimbabwe Exiles' Forum, 'Democratic Alliance Exposes SA Government over Zim Refugees' (23 August 2007), available from www.zimexilesforum.org
33. J. Steinberg, 'South Africa's Xenophobic Eruption', Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Paper 169 (November 2008).
34. Kleinman, 'The Violences of Everyday Life', p. 227.
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37. H. MacDonald, 'A Voice in Control? Narratives of Accused Witches in Chhattisgarh India', Anthropology Southern Africa, 28, 3 & 4 (2005). p. 110.
38. In that this dichotomy is the one utilised by the South African state.
39. J. Mangalam, Human Migration: A Guide to Migration Literature in English (Illinois, University of Kentucky Press, 1968).
40. A. Hansen and A. Oliver-Smith, Involuntary Migration and Resettlement: The Problems and Responses of Dislocated People (Colorado, Westview Press, 1982), p. 2.
41. Interview with Joseph (Pseudonym), Cape Town, August 2007.
42. Described by the government as 'Operation Restore Order', a more accurate translation from Shona is 'Operation Drive out the Filth'. P. Ncube, R. Bate and R. Tren, State in Fear: Zimbabwe's Tragedy is Africa's Shame (Bulawayo, Africa Fighting Malaria, 2005), p. 4.
43. International Crisis Group, 'Zimbabwe's Operation Murambatsvina: the Tipping Point?', Africa Report, 97 (International Crisis Group, 2005), available from http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/southern-africa/zimbabwes-operation-murambatsvina-the-tipping-point.aspx.
44. Ncube, Bate, and Tren, State in Fear.
45. A. Tibaijuka, Report on the Fact-finding Mission to Zimbabwe to Assess the Scope and Impact of Operation Murambatsvina by the UN Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe (18 July 2005), available at www.unhabitat.org/documents/ZimbabweReport.pdf.
46. Interview with Sekai (pseudonym), Zimbabwean asylum seeker in Worcester, June 2007. All quotes that follow in this paragraph come from this source.
47. Caledonia Farm, just outside Harare, was described by police as 'a transit camp before they are routed to appropriate places'. Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (ZHRNF), 'Order Out of Chaos, or Chaos Out Of Order? A Preliminary Report on Operation "Murambatsvina"' (Harare, ZHRNF, 2005), p. 12.
48. One aim of Murambatsvina was to relocate urban voters to rural areas which were ZANU(PF) strongholds, thus dispersing the largely MDC supportive urban population.
49. S. Merry, 'Anthropology and Activism: Researching Human Rights Across Porous Boundaries', Political and Legal Anthropology Review (PoLAR), 28, 2 (2006), p. 243.
50. Interview with Braam Hanekom, May 2007.
51. Interview with Farai (pseudonym), Zimbabwean undocumented migrant, Cape Town, April 2007.
52. Messer, 'Anthropology and Human Rights'.
53. G. Robertson, Crimes against Humanity.
54. Interview with Mary (pseudonym), Zimbabwean undocumented migrant, Cape Town, July 2007.
55. Mangalam, cited in Hansen and Oliver-Smith, Involuntary Migration and Resettlement, p. 2.
56. L. Malkki, 'Refugees and Exile: From "Refugee Studies" to the National Order of Things', Annual Review of Anthropology, 24 (1995).
57. R. King, 'Towards a New Map of European Migration', International Journal of Population Geography, 8 (2002).
58. T. Hansen and F. Stepputat (eds), Sovereign Bodies: Citizens, Migrants and States in the Post-colonial World (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2005).
59. B. Adeyemi Oyeneni, 'People without Homes: Displacement and the Security Situation in Africa', in T. Falola and N. Afolabi (eds), The Human Cost of African Migrations (New York and London, Routledge, 2007), p. 306.
60. Interview with Moses (pseudonym), Zimbabwean undocumented migrant, Cape Town, April 2007.
61. Interview with Katherine (pseudonym), Zimbabwean undocumented migrant, Cape Town, August 2007.
62. Interview with Simba (pseudonym), Zimbabwean undocumented migrant. Cape Town, July 2007. All quotes that follow in this paragraph come from this source.
63. Makwerekwere is a derogatory term used to refer to foreigners. The term literally indicates unintelligible language and has deeply discriminatory overtones.
64. Interview with Moses (pseudonym), Zimbabwean undocumented migrant in Cape Town, April 2007.
65. A. Lowenhaupt Tsing, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2005), p. 4.
66. Ibid., p. xi.
67. Interview with Netsai, Zimbabwean undocumented migrant, Cape Town, April 2008.
68. E. Algotsson and J. Klaaren, 'Policing Migration: Immigration Enforcement and Human Rights in South Africa', Southern African Migration Project (SAMP), Migration Policy Brief No. 14 (2003).
69. Hastrup, 'Hunger and the Hardness of Facts', p. 732.
70. Ross, 'On Having Voice and Being Heard', p. 336.