Manase Kudzai Chiweshe – författare

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 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.

As unemployment soared in Zimbabwe in the early twenty-first century, betting on football/soccer emerged as a popular, if unsustainable, livelihood option, and the number of betting halls mushroomed. This book investigates this growing social phenomenon, providing a holistic analysis of football gambling in Zimbabwe and exposing its impact on the everyday lives of Zimbabweans.

Drawing on original empirical and theoretical analysis from across six different areas of Zimbabwe, the book highlights the lived experiences of communities that are only beginning to grapple with the long-term effects of addiction. Explaining its historical origins in the colonial and immediate post-colonial periods, the authors delve into the motivations, patterns, practices, and impacts of soccer betting. Tackling issues such as gender, livelihoods, addiction, religion, and tradition related to soccer betting, the book lays bare the general lack of policy frameworks and support services to protect vulnerable populations.

This book offers a rare glimpse into a sociological phenomenon sweeping across Zimbabwe, with a particularly stark impact on the country’s youth. It will interest sports and African studies researchers, as well as those focusing on the socio-health problems related to gambling.

As unemployment soared in Zimbabwe in the early twenty-first century, betting on football/soccer emerged as a popular, if unsustainable, livelihood option, and the number of betting halls mushroomed. This book investigates this growing social phenomenon, providing a holistic analysis of football gambling in Zimbabwe and exposing its impact on the everyday lives of Zimbabweans.

Drawing on original empirical and theoretical analysis from across six different areas of Zimbabwe, the book highlights the lived experiences of communities that are only beginning to grapple with the long-term effects of addiction. Explaining its historical origins in the colonial and immediate post-colonial periods, the authors delve into the motivations, patterns, practices, and impacts of soccer betting. Tackling issues such as gender, livelihoods, addiction, religion, and tradition related to soccer betting, the book lays bare the general lack of policy frameworks and support services to protect vulnerable populations.

This book offers a rare glimpse into a sociological phenomenon sweeping across Zimbabwe, with a particularly stark impact on the country’s youth. It will interest sports and African studies researchers, as well as those focusing on the socio-health problems related to gambling.

Marriage has always occupied a profound cultural and social significance in Zimbabwean society, but the forms and meanings attached to marriage have changed in recent decades. Marriage in Contemporary Zimbabwe provides a social analysis of the institution, highlighting how it is changing and evolving in the face of societal factors such as globalisation, technology, increased migration, religious plurality, and shifting cultural systems.

This book traces the evolution of Zimbabwean marriages from traditional pre-colonial customs into the diverse modern practices seen today. Drawing on rich qualitative insights from across urban, rural, and diaspora communities, it explores the shift in traditional ascribed gender roles, and the complex negotiations between persisting tradition and emerging modern influences. These influences include women’s empowerment, partner choice, and divorce. It explores changes in childrearing and the dissolution of the extended family networks that once governed marriages and provided mutual support. The book also explores broader societal transformations such as urban migration and westernisation, and the impact of socioeconomic challenges such as HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, poverty, and economic hardship.

Students and scholars of Zimbabwean history, culture, gender, and the family will find this book essential for understanding the continuities and evolutions of the marriage institution in Zimbabwe.

Marriage has always occupied a profound cultural and social significance in Zimbabwean society, but the forms and meanings attached to marriage have changed in recent decades. Marriage in Contemporary Zimbabwe provides a social analysis of the institution, highlighting how it is changing and evolving in the face of societal factors such as globalisation, technology, increased migration, religious plurality, and shifting cultural systems.

This book traces the evolution of Zimbabwean marriages from traditional pre-colonial customs into the diverse modern practices seen today. Drawing on rich qualitative insights from across urban, rural, and diaspora communities, it explores the shift in traditional ascribed gender roles, and the complex negotiations between persisting tradition and emerging modern influences. These influences include women’s empowerment, partner choice, and divorce. It explores changes in childrearing and the dissolution of the extended family networks that once governed marriages and provided mutual support. The book also explores broader societal transformations such as urban migration and westernisation, and the impact of socioeconomic challenges such as HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, poverty, and economic hardship.

Students and scholars of Zimbabwean history, culture, gender, and the family will find this book essential for understanding the continuities and evolutions of the marriage institution in Zimbabwe.

This book examines the increasing influence of European football in African societies, considering the processes and significance of being a fan and what this means for the wider globalisation of popular culture.

Focussing on fan cultures in Kenya and Zimbabwe, the book argues that instead of manifestations of neo-colonialism, African fandoms of European football are practised in ways that resonate with and help reconstruct and perform the socio-cultural substance of the African communities in question. European football is therefore instrumentalised to help define the identities of the members of the fandom communities and articulate their experience of their reality in their immediate circumstances.

This book reflects how the global and local can coalesce in cultural trends such as football fandom. It will interest sports, leisure, popular culture, and social anthropology researchers in Africa and beyond.

This book examines the increasing influence of European football in African societies, considering the processes and significance of being a fan and what this means for the wider globalisation of popular culture.

Focussing on fan cultures in Kenya and Zimbabwe, the book argues that instead of manifestations of neo-colonialism, African fandoms of European football are practised in ways that resonate with and help reconstruct and perform the socio-cultural substance of the African communities in question. European football is therefore instrumentalised to help define the identities of the members of the fandom communities and articulate their experience of their reality in their immediate circumstances.

This book reflects how the global and local can coalesce in cultural trends such as football fandom. It will interest sports, leisure, popular culture, and social anthropology researchers in Africa and beyond.

Since the introduction of the fast track land reform programme in 2000, Zimbabwe has undergone major economic and political shifts and these have had a profound impact on both urban and rural livelihoods. This book provides rich empirical studies that examine a range of multi-faceted and contested livelihoods within the context of systemic crises. Taking a broad political economy approach, the chapters advance a grounded and in-depth understanding of emerging and shifting livelihood processes, strategies and resilience that foregrounds agency at household level.

Highlighting an emergent scholarship amongst young black scholars in Zimbabwe, and providing an understanding of how people and communities respond to socio-economic challenges, this book is an important read for scholars of African political economy, southern African studies and livelihoods.

Since the introduction of the fast track land reform programme in 2000, Zimbabwe has undergone major economic and political shifts and these have had a profound impact on both urban and rural livelihoods. This book provides rich empirical studies that examine a range of multi-faceted and contested livelihoods within the context of systemic crises. Taking a broad political economy approach, the chapters advance a grounded and in-depth understanding of emerging and shifting livelihood processes, strategies and resilience that foregrounds agency at household level.

Highlighting an emergent scholarship amongst young black scholars in Zimbabwe, and providing an understanding of how people and communities respond to socio-economic challenges, this book is an important read for scholars of African political economy, southern African studies and livelihoods.

This book offers the first detailed scholarly examination of the nation-wide land occupations which spread across the Zimbabwean countryside from the year 2000, and led to the state’s fast track land reform programme. In an innovative way, it highlights the decentralized character of the occupations by recognizing significant spatial variation around a number of key themes, including historical memory, modes of mobilization and gender. A case study of the land occupations in Mashonaland Central Province, based on original research, adds empirical weight to the argument. In further identifying and understanding the specificities and complexities of the land occupations, the book also frames them by way of a nuanced comparative-historical analysis of the three zvimurenga. It thus examines the land occupations (referred to, likely controversially, as the ‘third chimurenga’) with reference to the original anti-colonial revolt from the 1890s (the first chimurenga) and the war of liberation in the 1970s (the second chimurenga). Further, the book engages critically with the ruling party’s chimurenga narrative and the hegemonic understanding of the land occupations within Zimbabwean studies. 

This book is a crucial read for all scholars and students of post-2000 land and politics in Zimbabwe, but also for those more broadly interested in historical-comparative analyses of land struggles in Zimbabwe and beyond.