This book examines the everyday lives of ordinary Zimbabweans in the context of national crises in post-2000 Zimbabwe. Throughout the literature of Zimbabwean studies, a consideration of everyday lives has been limited to informal trading and rarely applied as an analytical framework, despite the importance of understanding crisis-living with reference to the specific character of national crises across the African continent. This edited volume is one of the first in its field to theorise everyday Zimbabwean lives within the context of crisis, with three central themes addressed: urban and rural lives; men, women and HIV; and along and beyond the border. Chapters incorporate topics from child marriage and sexual practices, to climate change and social accountability, encompassing a shift in focus from macro-structures to how farm labourers, students, child-brides and other ordinary people negotiate gender, class and social dynamics within a dominant order. The introductory chapter offers an innovative analytical framing for the empirical chapters which follow, each providing micro-studies based on original qualitative fieldwork by early-career Zimbabwean scholars. Everyday Crisis-Living in Contemporary Zimbabwe will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, anthropology and African Studies more broadly.

This book examines the national borders and borderlands of Zimbabwe through the presentation of empirically rich case studies. It delves into the lived experiences, both past and present, of populations residing along the borders between Zimbabwe and its neighbours, i.e., Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique. It locates these lived experiences within the political economy of Zimbabwe, and highlights a wide range of themes pertinent to borders, including health, COVID-19, marginalisation, resource access, conservation, human-wildlife conflicts, civil wars, politico-economic crises, border jumping and cross border trade. The borderland communities discussed also include ethnic minorities such as the Tonga, San, Ndau, Shangane, and Kalanga. Overall, the book demonstrates the centrality of borders to the Zimbabwean nation-state and the importance of reading history, politics and society from the borderlands. The book fits into the wider prevailing literature of border and borderlands in Africa and beyond and thus has appeal far beyond Zimbabwe. Its diverse themes also relate to topics covered in multiple disciplines, including history, anthropology, and sociology. Academics, development specialists and policy makers will benefit in different ways from the depth and breadth of the analysis in the book.

Based on extensive original fieldwork, this book examines the complex and diverse livelihoods of Zimbabwe’s Tonga people as they have developed over time, including in the wake of the country’s post- 2000 political and economic crises. Despite being endowed with natural resources, the northwest region of Zimbabwe inhabited by the Tonga people is one of the most marginalised and underdeveloped parts of the country, neglected by both colonial and postcolonial governments. The Tonga- speaking people are a minority ethnic group that settled on either side of the Zambezi River around 1100 AD and remain deeply dependent on the river for their socio- economic livelihoods. This book reflects on the challenges faced by the Tonga people, from poor infrastructure, health and education facilities, to the issues caused by soil infertility and extremely low rainfall, which have been exacerbated by climate change. Many Tonga people were displaced by the construction of the Kariba Dam in the 1950s, and their access to the region’s natural resources has been restricted by successive governments. Showcasing the research of Zimbabwean scholars in particular, this book not only reflects on the vulnerabilities faced by the Tonga, but it also looks beyond these, to the livelihood practices that are thriving despite these challenges, and the ways in which livelihoods intertwine with Tonga culture and society more broadly. Overall, this book highlights the resilience of the Tonga people in the face of years of politico- economic crisis and will be an important contribution to research on livelihoods, ethnic minorities and rural development in Africa.

According to a 2018 World Bank report, Africa is the only region with more women than men choosing to become entrepreneurs – a phenomenon that is not the subject of adequate discussion. This book reveals the latest research-based understanding of the entrepreneurial activities of women in sub-Saharan Africa. Specially invited subject experts present salient dimensions of entrepreneurship by African women, from environmental factors to motivations and influencers as well as financial and non-financial constraints, and highlight the significant role of cultural differences. This book provides a mixture of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research, and fills the knowledge gap by presenting a wide range of opportunities and challenges faced by sub-Saharan African women entrepreneurs. This book will help policy makers and academic researchers in understanding the role of institutions and entrepreneurship policy in building a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region.

The book provides empirically-rich case studies of the lives and livelihoods of marginalised ethnic minorities in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe, with a specific focus on diverse rural areas. It demonstrates the dynamic and complex relationships existing between ethnic minorities and livelihoods, and analyses the ways in which projects of belonging (and identity-formation) amongst these ethnic minorities are entangled in their respective livelihood construction projects, and vice versa. The ethnic minorities include those considered indigenous to Zimbabwe, and those often defined as ‘aliens’, including ethnicities with a transnational presence in southern Africa. The ethnicities studied in the book include the following: Chewa, Doma, Tonga, Tshwa San, Shangane, Basotho, Ndau, Hlengwe and Nambya. By studying their livelihoods in particular, this book offers the first full manuscript about ethnic minorities in Zimbabwe. In doing so, it highlights the significance of these ethnic minorities to Zimbabwean history, politics and society.

Drawing together the latest research on migration, gender and COVID-19, this erudite Research Handbook contributes to a better understanding of the immediate and longer-term implications of the pandemic on gender dynamics and roles in international migration. Providing a wealth of expert critical analysis, it considers post-COVID-19 realities and assesses the future scope of research in this interdisciplinary field of study.