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Navigating Passports and Borders: The Complex Realities of Zimbabwean Migrants in South Africa
Get PDFThe acquisition and maintenance of valid passports present complex challenges for many migrants. The complexity arises from many factors including political, economic, and administrative. Employing a multi-sited ethnographic approach, this study scrutinizes the hurdles encountered by Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa when obtaining and renewing passports, visas, and permits. Moreover, the study investigates the far-reaching repercussions of passport-related complexities on the daily existence and welfare of these migrants. The socio-political dynamics shaping the passport experiences of Zimbabwean migrants offer valuable insights into fostering more inclusive migration policies and procedures. Consequently, these challenges significantly impact migrants’ daily lives and overall well-being, impeding their pursuit of a better life in South Africa. In response, migrants resort to “nimble-footed strategies,” such as using ephemeral stamps, to navigate their circumstances. However, these strategies also leave migrants vulnerable to exploitation and a lack of state protection. In essence, this study contributes to understanding the contemporary challenges faced by migrants amidst evolving global crises, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era marked by increased regulation and restriction of migrants. This study traverses diverse geographical and political contexts, by shedding light on the ongoing militarization and contraction of borders and the rights of migrants
From Deprivation to Mobilization: Towards a Multideterminant Model of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa
Get PDFDrawing on extensive and comparative qualitative data from a nearly two-decade long and ongoing research, this article responds to inadequacies and limitations of current causal explanations for xenophobic violence in South Africa. The article argues that existing explanations are inadequate as many lack empirical backing and others are incomplete due to their reductionist approach. To address these shortcomings, this article proposes an empirically based and theoretically informed multideterminant (explanatory) model, which identifies and analyses the roles of—and interconnections between—six key determinants, namely: i) socio-economic and political deprivation, ii) xenophobic beliefs, iii) collective discontent, iv) political economy, v) mobilization, and vi) governance. I argue that i) these determinants and their interconnections in a value-added process constitute the necessary and sufficient conditions for the occurrence of xenophobic violence, and ii) this multideterminant model consequently provides an adequate and comprehensive explanation of the xenophobic violence in South Africa. In addition to its scholarly contribution, this article has potential policy implications. By clearly identifying the key elements in the causal chain, the study implicitly points to critical areas where intervention efforts could be targeted to effectively address the ongoing xenophobic violence in South Africa
Informal Cross-Border Traders and Food Trade during the Global Pandemic in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThe collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy in the 2000s resulted in the country relying largely on food imports from other countries, especially from South Africa. Informal cross-border traders (ICBTs) have become crucial players in the country’s food economy, playing an important role in the importation of food as well as its retail across the country. Cross-border trading also provides employment opportunities to a large number of people in the country, especially women, in an environment of depressed economic opportunities. The paper relies on data from a variety of sources, including surveys by the Southern African Migration Programme (SAMP) as well as document analysis to demonstrate the role played by ICBTs in the country’s food economy. It also assesses how ICBTs were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and examines their strategies employed to continue their business activities during the time of mobility restrictions. More importantly, it demonstrates how the lack of understanding of the contribution of ICBTs to employment generation and urban food security has led to the adoption of policies and practices that do not accommodate informal food trading in the country’s urban landscape. The paper also discusses how informal cross-border trading (ICBT) and informal food trading in Zimbabwe have changed in the post-COVID-19 period and sets a research agenda on understanding the role of ICBT in the economies of countries in the Global South
Speaking Subjects in Multilingualism Research:: Biographical and Speaker-centred Approaches, edited by Judith Purkarthofer and Mia-Cha Flubacher
Get PDFSpeaking Subjects in Multilingualism Re‐ search: Biographical and Speaker-centred Approaches, edited by Purkarthofer and Mia-Cha Flubacher, consists of eighteen chapters, divided into three parts, which provide insights on the utilization of bio‐ graphical approaches and why they are crucial for multilingualism research. This book presents an informative methodological and theoretical diversity and can be valuable for researchers looking to explore biographical methods of research and engage with the sociopolitical lives of language users. It takes the reader through an investigation of different groups of language users’ lived experiences and language-related inequalities and opportunities, and encourages a critical rethinking about the existing knowledge of speakers and their languages
Editorial: The contradictions of green extractivism
No full textUneasy contradictions in development policy in Africa were laid bare in February 2025 by a disastrous accident at a copper mine in Zambia. An unmonitored and badly constructed tailings dam failed, releasing some 50 million litres of toxic mine sludge to pollute the Kafue River. Fish died, livestock were poisoned, farmers’ crops were destroyed and people along the river, the longest in Zambia, lost their water supply. As the poisoned water flowed downstream, engineers had to cut off water to Zambia’s second biggest city Kitwe, 30km from the mine with a population of over 600,000. By the date of publication, the scale of the catastrophe was still to be measured
To Stitch and to Teach: A critical reflection on pedagogy as embodied praxis
Get PDFThe late Professor Elmarie Costandius contributed to stitching me together as creative practitioner in the field of South African higher education. In her memory, this paper reflects on the practicalities involved in pedagogy as embodied praxis through an autoethnographic lens. I have read memories of our pedagogical interactions through Tim Ingold’s theories of embodied making. Ingold believes that making is not a process of imposing preconceived form on the material world but rather involves processes that allow meaningful form to emerge through active engagement with the world’s materiality. The result of this autoethnographic enquiry is presented as a patterned memoir; a practical example of stitching together a pedagogical praxis built on the premise of process, trans-disciplinarity, and affecting tangible, real-life change. The purpose of the memoir is to make Elmarie’s pedagogical praxis accessible to other educators, thus facilitating her legacy in shaping future education, specifically locally, in productive, tangible ways
The Blues Were Inviting
Get PDFTaunted by the fate of misery in companyA kind of slow poison that festers by the huemeandering every vein till lips run bluePerhaps the fleeting vigour in saddened individuals is the last pump of red before the bluePerhaps the sadness is a fallacy I misconstrueThe blues were inviting,And my wavering flicker beams at the thought that my desolate blue could be in your consulate that outweighs the hueThe blues were inviting and so wereYou
1984: The starving Artist
Get PDFthere is a fasting of truth, a starving of wordsa parched parchment in the throat of the pagesthere is a grumbling of hunger inboney writersrefusing to fatten on fable, gossip or false promisesthey no longer lick their fingers with the thoughts of delusions ..