Desired Publics, Domestic Government, and Entangled Fears: On the Anthropology of Civil Society, Farm Workers, and White Farmers in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Why did you join the farm development committee?" I asked Mai' Loveness, 1 a woman in her late forties, and Shadrek, a man in his mid-thirties. We were sitting on the deep couch of her living room decorated tastefully with pictures from magazines, wall-hangings, and framed certificates from a number of health training institutes in Zimbabwe. The room was in a small three-room house allocated to her on the farm where she was the farm health worker and a preschool teacher for the children of the over two hundred farm workers who worked and lived on this successful tobacco-and maize-growing commercial farm in Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe. It is July 2000.The ensuing actions speak to the intersecting forms of power, desire, and fear that have been involved in the promotion of "civil society" amongst farm workers in Zimbabwe. By critically examining this development intervention and its entanglement in the unfolding political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, I address the racialized and gendered politics of place of farm workers within the nation, the practice of "civil society" in Africa, and the positioning of an anthropologist within these fields. Let me return to the house on the farm compound."I think we farm workers need to improve ourselves and the FADCO [farm development committee] enables us to take control over our living conditions and communicate with the murungu [white farm owner]," Mai' Loveness answered, looking over toward her younger co-member who was also the chairman of the FADCO. Shadrek cleared his throat and glanced at Mai' Loveness and an older man sitting in one of the armchairs observing. "It builds on the important help the murungu here provides us-the electricity in most of the compound houses, the free trips to the [health] clinic, and the like. And it can Cultural Anthropology 19(1):122-153.

Conditional Belonging: Farm Workers and the Cultural Politics of Recognition in Zimbabwe

“…As discussed elsewhere (Rutherford, 2003, 2004, 2007), these forms of ‘minicolonialism’ in colonial Zimbabwe were territorialized modes of belonging that were part and parcel of colonial state‐building projects. The hegemonic forms of recognition in these colonial zones of exception hinged around racialized and gendered rule and cultural styles implemented through bodily disciplining techniques of surveillance, work rhythms, reward, and corporal punishment.…”

“Settlers” and Zimbabwe: Politics, Memory, and the Anthropology of Commercial Farms During a Time of Crisis

“…As John and Jean Comaroff note (1999: 23-24), the inequities of colonial liberalism marginalized many more from participation in the public sphere than those it allowed in (see also Comaroff and Comaroff 1997: 365-404;Worby 1998;Scott 1999;and Rutherford 2004). However, it is also of interest to look at how participation for some recognized "citizens" was partially predicated on their good deeds toward those subjected under colonialism, those marginalized from the colonial public sphere.…”

“…And, for some, by the late 1990s one way of trying to stave off such a decision was to improve the living conditions of farm workers, either through their own efforts and/or through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which are increasingly involved in community development on the farms (see Rutherford 2004). They turned, in other words, to their interior frontier as a way to demonstrate public loyalty to Zimbabwe, not necessarily in an instrumental fashion but drawing on this historical feature of their public identification.…”

“…But since 1997, we realized that we [farmers and workers] are in the same camp, especially as they are Mozambican, Malawian, Zambian." And one of the NGOs that is working with farmers to assist farm workers, the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (see Rutherford 2004), became the means to articulate this participation for them, since it voiced the importance of farmers and workers helping each other.…”

Women and Participation in Civil Society: Do Women Get Empowered? The Case of Women in Goromonzi District in Zimbabwe

“…Around the year 2000, when this research was conducted, the "third Chimurenga" (literal translation: "third liberation war"), characterized by land invasions, violence, and political intolerance, may have had an impact on the nature of political participation, particularly by women, who became overrepresented in the civil society and underrepresented in formal politics. Rutherford (2004) observed that the promotion of civil society for farmworkers did not achieve the ultimate goal of empowering them because of unequal power and labor relations between farmworkers and owners, as well as the violent political struggle at national level. For example, the percentage of women parliamentarians in Zimbabwe was estimated at 14% in 2000 (Norris and Inglehart 2000); by 2002, this percentage had decreased to 10% (NationMaster 2012).…”