Browsing by Author "Muguti, Teverayi"

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    A history of border control and trade relations between Zimbabwe and Zambia, c. 1963-2017
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03) Muguti, Teverayi; Swart, Sandra Scott; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: thesis historicises how different government administrations have implemented border control measures in Zimbabwe, from the dissolution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1963 up to the end of Robert Mugabe’s rule in 2017. Focussing particularly on Zimbabwe, the thesis analyses the different ways in which the state controlled the movement of people, goods, and services across its northern border. This helps in understanding the state and its citizens’ survival against different setbacks including isolation, war, and economic shortages. Through a careful longitudinal historical reconstruction of the Zimbabwe-Zambia relations, the study demonstrates the significance of the border (in all its forms) in shaping the state-to-state interaction between the two neighbouring countries. In addition, the thesis then examines how ordinary people in a typical borderland area (Binga district in Zimbabwe) have negotiated state border security policy in their lives over time, in both quotidian and extraordinary circumstances. I utilise archival documents, the Rhodesia Cory Library (Unprocessed Ian Smith Papers), newspapers, oral data, ethnography, and assorted secondary literature to delineate how the various Zimbabwe border control mechanisms have evolved since 1963. The thesis deploys thematic, narrative, and interpretive phenomenological analyses to examine Zimbabwe state border security policy over time. Quantitative methods are also utilised to analyse the various statistical trends in border occurrences along the Zimbabwe – Zambia border. Adopting the borderlands theoretical framework in delineating the Binga community responses to border security policy, the thesis, adds a new concept of ‘spiritual borders’ to border studies. The beliefs in spiritual borders have influenced some Tonga borderland citizens to have a religious justification for disregarding state border control mechanisms. The thesis argues that state border security policy has not only prioritised macro - interests of the state, but also those of elites and the politically connected while neglecting the (micro) aspirations of ordinary communities from below. However, as further argued, the citizens have not been passive recipients of state policy as they have redefined the border in many ways, utilising it to pursue their own respective personal survival. Understanding of the dynamic contestations over the complex utilisation of state borders helps in syncing modern day state border security policy with the interests of the ordinary people in the borderlands, the rest of Zimbabwe, Africa, and the world at large.