Zimbabwe's New Diaspora

JoAnn McGregor is Lecturer at University College London. She has published on Zimbabwean politics, society and history, and on forced migration. She is co-author of Violence and Memory: One Hundred Years in the Dark Forests of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe (2000) and co-edits the Journal of Southern African Studies.

“The ambiguity in [this] text is a breath of fresh air and the harbinger of something new in a world seemingly dominated by the imperatives of nation, ‘race’, ‘ethnicity’, and heteronormativity.”  ·  JRAI"Anyone who has witnessed the plight and sense of desperation of Zimbabweans who have fled Robert Mugabe’s violent regime of terror, and its consequent economic meltdown, should read this book. Its different chapters inform, document, analyse and evoke with great sensitivity and conceptual clarity some of the legal, economic and emotional struggles and predicaments Zimbabweans in the diaspora face. The outcome is a diverse and complex picture of this new African diaspora's dispersal within Southern Africa and the West. The book dispels the view that modern diasporas are no longer sites of suffering, exclusion and discrimination, or that their members no longer yearn for a lost homeland. Impressively well informed and up to date both factually and theoretically, the book should be read by all those interested in the new African diasporas. It will undoubtedly constitute a baseline for any future research on the Zimbabwean diaspora."  ·  Pnina Werbner, Keele University"The papers in this volume cast new light on Zimbabwe's difficult recent history through the experiences of the large numbers of Zimbabweans now settled across the world, mostly in South Africa and Britain. Especially in South Africa, building popular support for the Zimbabwean diaspora is an urgent political challenge, and one for which this book provides plenty of resources. At the same time it offers a creative and intelligent contribution to the wider academic literature on diasporas."  ·  Prof. Jennifer Robinson, UCL“The volume is to be welcomed as a considerable addition to the growing literature on African migrants and refugees in Europe and elsewhere. It brings together research conducted by a range of scholars from different disciplines and of different backgrounds, including many from Zimbabwe itself…Comparing the Zimbabwean 'diaspora' in depth in two important and different contexts (the UK and South Africa) gives it significant added value.”  ·  Prof. Ralph Grillo, University of Sussex“This rich collection of case studies reveals the complexities of Zimbabweaness and diasporic identities and demonstrates how these particular diasporas are inserted into layers of interpretative schemes both in South Africa and UK. This focus on historical intertwining and the layers of interpretation that it creates, is an important contribution to Diaspora studies and studies on transnationalism that tend merely to explore contemporary issues of exclusion/marginalization or ‘political opportunity structures’ in the host society.”  ·  Prof. Simon Turner, Danish Institute for International Studies

• Editors’ PrefaceIntroductionChapter 1. The Making of Zimbabwe’s New DiasporaJoAnn McGregorPART I: ZIMBABWEAN DIASPORIC COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH AFRICAChapter 2. Makwerekwere: Migration, Citizenship and Identity among Zimbabweans in South AfricaJames MuzondidyaChapter 3. Zimbabwean Farmworkers in Limpopo Province, South AfricaBlair RutherfordChapter 4.The Politics of Legal Status for Zimbabweans in South AfricaNorma KrigerPART II: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF SURVIVAL IN BRITAINChapter 5. Zimbabwean Transnational Diaspora Politics in BritainDominic PasuraChapter 6. Diaspora and Dignity: Navigating and Contesting Civic Exclusion in the UKJoAnn McGregorChapter 7. Burial at Home? Negotiating Death in the Diaspora and HarareBeacon MbibaChapter 8. Maintaining Transnational Families: HIV Positive Zimbabwean Women’s Narratives of Obligation and SupportMartha ChinouyaPART III: DIASPORIC IDENTITIES AND TRANSNATIONAL MEDIAChapter 9. Debating 'Zimbabweanness' in Diasporic Internet Forums: Technologies of Freedom?Winston Mano and Wendy WillemsChapter 10. Rhodesians Never Die? The Zimbabwe Crisis and the Revival of Rhodesian DiscourseRanka PrimoracChapter 11. Exile and the Internet: Ndebele and Mixed-Race Diaspora ‘Homes’ OnlineClayton PeelChapter 12. One Dandelion SeedheadBrian Chikwava, introduced by Ranka Primorac