Farm Labor Struggles in Zimbabwe

Blair Rutherford

Description

Co-winner, Joel Gregory Prize, Canadian Association of African Studies

In the early twenty-first century, white-owned farms in Zimbabwe were subject to large-scale occupations by black urban dwellers in an increasingly violent struggle between national electoral politics, land reform, and contestations over democracy. Were the black occupiers being freed from racist bondage as cheap laborers by the state-supported massive land redistribution, or were they victims of state violence who had been denied access to their homes, social services, and jobs? Blair Rutherford examines the unequal social and power relations shaping the lives, livelihoods, and struggles of some of the farm workers during this momentous period in Zimbabwean history. His analysis is anchored in the time he spent on a horticultural farm just east of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, that was embroiled in the tumult of political violence associated with jambanja, the democratization movement. Rutherford complicates this analysis by showing that there was far more in play than political oppression by a corrupt and authoritarian regime and a movement to rectify racial and colonial land imbalances, as dominant narratives would have it. Instead, he reveals, farm worker livelihoods, access to land, gendered violence, and conflicting promises of rights and sovereignty played a more important role in the political economy of citizenship and labor than had been imagined.

List of Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
1. "Oppression," Maraiti and Farm Worker Livelihoods: Shifting Grounds in the 1990s
2. The Traction of Rights, the Art of Politics: The Labor "War" at Upfumi
3. The Drama of Politics: Dissension, Suffering, and Violence
4. Politics and Precarious Livelihoods during the Time of Jambanja
Conclusion: Representing Labor Struggles
Appendix: Correspondence with the President's Office
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• African Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Food
• Agriculture

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 19 décembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253024077
• Langue: English

Extrait

FARM LABOR
STRUGGLES IN
ZIMBABWE
FARM LABOR
STRUGGLES IN
ZIMBABWE
THE GROUND OF POLITICS
BLAIR RUTHERFORD
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2017 by Blair Rutherford
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rutherford, Blair A. (Blair Allan), [date] author.
Title: Farm labor struggles in Zimbabwe : the ground of politics / Blair Rutherford.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016024512 (print) | LCCN 2016025126 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253023995 (cl : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253024039 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253024077 (eb)
Subjects: LCSH: Agricultural laborers-Political activity-Zimbabwe. | Agricultural laborers-Zimbabwe-Economic conditions. | Land reform-Zimbabwe. | Land use-Government policy-Zimbabwe. | Agriculture and state-Zimbabwe. | Zimbabwe-Politics and government-1980-
Classification: LCC HD1538.Z55 R88 2017 (print) | LCC HD1538.Z55 (ebook) | DDC 331.763096891-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024512
1 2 3 4 5 22 21 20 19 18 17
CONTENTS
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
1. Oppression, Maraiti, and Farm Worker Livelihoods: Shifting Grounds in the 1990s
2. The Traction of Rights, the Art of Politics: The Labor War at Upfumi
3. The Drama of Politics: Dissension, Suffering, and Violence
4. Politics and Precarious Livelihoods during the Time of Jambanja
Conclusion: Representing Labor Struggles
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ABBREVIATIONS
ALB
Agricultural Labor Bureau
CIO
Central Intelligence Organization
CFU
Commercial Farmers Union
DA
District Administrator
DRC
Democratic Republic of Congo
ESAP
Economic Structural Adjustment Programme
FCTZ
Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe
GAPWUZ
General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe
IFC
International Financial Corporation
ISO
International Socialist Organization
MDC
Movement for Democratic Change
NCA
National Constitutional Assembly
NEC
National Employment Council (for the Agricultural Industry)
NCR
Non-Citizen Resident
NGO
Non-Governmental Organization
RDC
Rural District Council
ZANU (PF)
Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front)
ZAPU
Zimbabwe African People s Union
ZAWU
Zimbabwe Agricultural Workers Union
ZCTU
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
ZFTU
Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions
ZLC
Zimbabwe Labour Centre
ZNLWVA
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association
ZRP
Zimbabwe Republic Police
PREFACE
A FORMER PROFESSOR of mine, Jim Faris, used to say that if you are ever completely satisfied with anything that you have written, then something is wrong, for it shows that you are no longer learning, no longer re-examining your conceptual tools and forms of analyses. This lesson, as it were, has made writing and finishing this book particularly difficult. As I was carrying out the research in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s and early 2000s that generated the material for this book, my own understandings and analysis were still developing. This was due in large part to the monumental changes occurring in Zimbabwe after February 2000, transforming the lives and livelihoods for the particular farm workers and former farm workers at the center of my analysis as well as elevating farm workers as a discursive category in Zimbabwe to the forefront of national and international debates and studies. Combined with engaging with the changing scholarly analyses of Zimbabwe and elsewhere, I struggled with my own analytical framing, finally focusing on what seemed to be a ubiquitous but relatively under-theorized topic: politics. By examining how the practices and power relations of electoral politics became entangled in the configuration of livelihoods and social projects of an extraordinary farm labor struggle, I hope that this ethnography contributes to wider understandings of farm workers, Zimbabwe, agrarian struggles and the importance of critically examining the ground of politics when advocating for social change.
For my learning for this book, I am heavily indebted to many. Foremost, I need to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada which generously supported my research in Zimbabwe. The University of Regina and Carleton University both provided supportive institutional homes for me. Carleton s Institute of African Studies, for which I have had the privilege of being its first director from 2009 to 2015, has, in particular, been a source of fertile learning, with thanks in particular going to its overworked but very supportive administrator, June Payne, and my colleagues Linda Freeman, Susanne Klausen, Pius Adesanmi, Doris Buss, Louise de la Gorgendi re, Aboubakar Sanogo, Chris Brown, James Milner, Audra Diptee, Moses Kiggundu, Nduka Otiono, Dominique Marshall, Christine Duff, Monica Patterson, and Paul Mkandawire, among many others based at Carleton or who have participated in various events organized by the institute over these years. I have also profited immensely from colleagues in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and other departments and many of the excellent students at Carleton, some of whom critically read earlier drafts or segments of this book, including Holly Dunn, Gerald Morton and Heather McAlister, for whom I am very grateful. I also want to give a special thanks to Willie Carroll, who used his map-making skills to improve the map used in the introduction.
The manuscript that became this book initially took shape while spending a half year affiliated with the Institute de recherch pour le d veloppement in Montpellier, France in 2007. The hospitality and insightful scholarship of Jean-Pierre Colin, Jean-Pierre Chauveau and ric L onard were greatly appreciated and influential in my own thinking.
I also greatly benefitted from my affiliation with the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Zimbabwe during this period. I have also benefited immensely from the critical thoughts, incisive analyses, and often warm friendships with many scholars who work on Zimbabwe or its diasporas, including (in alphabetical order): Lincoln Addison, Joss Alexander, Max Bolt, Patrick Bond, Joy Chadya, Ben Cousins, Suzanne Dansereau, Bill Derman, Sara Dorman, Marc Epprecht, Joost Fontein, Peter Gibbon, Allison Goebel, Zoe Groves, Munyaradzi Gwisai, Gertrude Hambira, Amanda Hammar, Andrew Hartnack, David Hughes, Diana Jeater, L a Kalaora, Bill Kinsey, Norma Kriger, Rene Loewenson, Godfrey Magaramombe, Prosper Matondi, Murray McCartney, Jo McGregor, David Moore, Donald Moore, Toby Moorsom, Sam Moyo, William Munro, Phillip Munyanyi, Francis Musoni, Gift Muti, Anderson Mutemererwa, James Muzondidya, Thenji Nkosi, Brian Raftopoulos, Lloyd Sachikonye, John Saul, Richard Saunders, Tim Scarnecchia, Ian Scoones, Juliet Sithole, Allison Shutt, Sam Spiegel, Marja Spierenburg, Irene Staunton, Evert Waeterloos, Richard Werbner, Luise White, Wendy Willems, Eric Worby, and Philan Zamchiya (amongst many others). Through workshop discussions, presentations at conferences, and through conversations and discussions with them in person and virtually, I have learned immensely about Zimbabwe, scholarship, and much, much more.
This book would not have taken shape without the help of Rinse Nyamuda, my longstanding friend, whose assistance in conducting the research in Zimbabwe was crucial, as well as the Zimbabwean farm workers and some commercial farmers who are at the heart of this book but who must remain nameless or be given pseudonyms to try to disguise them. My debt to my family, Laura Farquharson, Clara Rutherford, and Ry Rutherford, is also immense as they have had to accommodate too often my frequent travels, my distractedness, and my sometimes over-commitment to my scholarly and work pursuits. Finally, I need to greatly thank the three reviewers for their critical and highly relevant comments on the manuscript for this book, the expert and helpful team at Indiana University Press, and Dee Mortensen, my editor at Indiana, whose support and advice have been invaluable.
FARM LABOR
STRUGGLES IN
ZIMBABWE
INTRODUCTION
A ND, YOUR BOOK project . . . ? I cautiously asked Tawonga, 1 knowing that in one of his infrequent e-mail messages from the previous year he alluded to a story about it.
Ahh, Tawonga sighed with a wan smile. After you so abruptly left that day ten years ago, there were so many anxieties and worries about being associated with you that the friend I was living with took all my papers and documents that were in any way tied to you, including everything I was accumulating for my book, and tore them up and threw them in the toilet. Glancing