Blair Rutherford - Farm Labor Struggles in Zimbabwe: The Ground of Politics

THE GROUND OF POLITICS

BLAIR RUTHERFORD

This book is a publication of

Indiana University Press
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iupress.indiana.edu

2017 by Blair Rutherford

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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.

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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 laborersPolitical activityZimbabwe. | Agricultural laborersZimbabweEconomic conditions. | Land reformZimbabwe. | Land useGovernment policyZimbabwe. | Agriculture and stateZimbabwe. | ZimbabwePolitics and government1980-

Classification: LCC HD1538.Z55 R88 2017 (print) | LCC HD1538.Z55 (ebook) | DDC 331.763096891dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024512

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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

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. Carletons 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 Gorgendire, 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.