Zimbos Never Die? Negotiating Survival in a Challenged Economy

Book Review by Anotida Chikumbu

Zimbabwe is richly endowed with precious minerals like chrome, gold and diamonds, fertile agricultural soils and good weather, water resources like dams, rivers and lakes, and a population of approximately 15.1 million people. However, for the last three decades, she has been a deeply dysfunctional country frayed by mass unemployment, hyperinflation and widespread poverty.

A closer look at Zimbabwean history shows us that however we define a crisis, for the past half-century at least there has been crisis after crisis, from the crisis under Gukurahundi, the economic crisis in the 1990s, the crisis after land reform in the mid-2000s, the crisis following the 2017 military coup and the Covid19 pandemic. One ought to ask therefore, how do Zimbabweans survive these difficult and trying times? 

Zimbos Never Die? Negotiating Survival in a Challenged Economy, 1990s to 2015, an edited collection by Ushehwedu Kufakurinani, Eric Kushinga Makombe, Nathaniel Chimhete, and Pius Nyambara provides an erudite and comprehensive answer to this question. The book explores how Zimbabwe endured protracted decades of economic crisis due to internal mis-governance and corruption. It particularly addresses how Zimbabweans as individuals as well as part of institutions adopted various strategies to negotiate and survive the economic scourge.

The book argues that the rationale behind these strategies was largely based on political rather than economic considerations, representing successive attempts to save a moribund economy and a dysfunctional government. The book relates these efforts to what the American anthropologist Jeremy Jones dubbed the ‘kukiya-kiya economy’, where a whole nation-state resorted to ad hoc measures for survival. It concludes that to a limited extent, these strategies worked by prolonging the economy on life support but at best they merely brought short term relief and no lasting solution. The book examines these issues in 14 lucid and comprehensive chapters, borrowing the expert knowledge of Zimbabwe’s top economic historians with a reputable publishing record in the field. 

The book has three broad themes that inform its layout. In the first section entitled, ‘‘Surviving on the Margins: Informal Spaces,’’ contributors Innocent Dande, Wesley Mwatwara, Wellington Bamu, Ushehwedu Kufakurinani, Eric Makombe, Nathaniel Chimhete, and Pius S. Nyambara, Tinashe Nyamunda, Blessed Masawi, Joseph P. Mtisi and Takesure Taringana examine how different sections of society resorted to informal businesses like street vending, flea markets, gold panning, and small-scale tobacco farming to survive the deepening economic crisis. This section explores how informal traders operated illegally, sometimes negotiating their position and managing their unstable relationships with both local and central government and the police.

One notable example is a discussion in chapter 3 by Wellington Bamu and Tinashe Nyamunda, of artisanal gold mining as a survival strategy that was adopted by informal miners in Insiza as the national economy began to decline from the 1990s onwards. Until the outbreak of the diamond rush in Chiadzwa between 2006 and 2009, which captured headlines and resulted in the involvement of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in monitoring developments, artisanal mining received relatively little government attention despite being a key livelihood activity in Zimbabwe.

In the second section entitled, ‘‘State and Non-State Institutions in Zimbabwe’s Challenged Economy,’’ contributors Ivo Mhike (the late), Pius S. Nyambara, Ushehwedu Kufakurinani, Nathaniel Chimhete, Nicola Yon, Eric Kushinga Makombe, Mark Nyandoro, Tinotenda Dube, Albert Makochekanwa, Tafara Evelyn Kombora and Bernard Kusena examine how state institutions in the fields of education, health, finance and security developed innovative ways to retain staff on one hand and to remain in business. One notable example is a discussion in chapter 10 by Ushehwedu Kufakurinani and Eric Kushinga Makombe, of currency denominations issued by the then Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Dr. Gedion Gono.

This policy which was dubbed, ‘Operation Sunrise’ was an attempt to retain liquidity in the market and to avoid a crash in the system because of the number of zeros that were constantly accumulating on the currency due to hyperinflation. Another notable example is a discussion in chapter 11 by Tafara Evelyn Kombora and Bernard Kusena, of the role of teacher incentives in the education sector with reference to specific case studies of Harare Urban Schools.

This chapter analyses the rationale behind the introduction of teacher incentives in Zimbabwe and the impact thereof on teachers, students, parents, trade unions and the education system as a whole. The policy of monetary incentives for teachers was introduced in 2009 after the government failed to pay salaries commensurate with the prescribed minimum wage of US $500 for a number of reasons, including hyper-inflation and state near-bankruptcy.

In the third and last section entitled, ‘‘Borders and Survival,” contributors Rudo Gaidzanwa, Anusa Daimon, Tinashe Nyamunda, Slyvesta Dombo and Joseph Mujere examine discourses and dynamics around borders and borderlands. They particularly focus on the role played by Zimbabwean migrants in the diaspora in supporting their impoverished families, relatives and friends to survive the deepening economic crisis. One notable example is a discussion in chapter 13 by Anusa Daimon and Tinashe Nyamunda, of human and commodity smuggling across the Zimbabwe-South Africa border.

The chapter investigates how cross-border traders exploited the fluidity of the border to smuggle goods through the border post at Beitbridge, among others, or across the crocodile-infested Limpopo River which separates Zimbabwe and South Africa. It discusses the everyday interaction of police officers and border patrol authorities with ‘border jumpers’ and smugglers. The chapter reflects on the endurance of smuggling activities, the sophistication, innovation and dynamism of the activities within the context of the enforcement of border legislation, and the control of illegal migrants and goods across the Zimbabwe–South Africa border.

We learn from this book that one of the reasons why the Zimbabwean crisis has been perennial for decades is the resilience of Zimbabwean citizens and their state institutions. Inasmuch as resilience is in itself a positive attribute, it has not worked in favor of Zimbabweans over the years. It appears that as a people, we normally adapt to a crisis rather than resist or fight its root causes, and by doing so we trap ourselves in a cycle of prolonged hardships.  The challenges that have besieged our country over the years cannot be solved by ad hoc or short-term strategies directed at individual ‘survival’’ but collective solidarity directed at achieving lasting solutions. Addressing internal misgovernance and corruption is key to achieving this.

There is very little that the international community can do as economically and as efficiently as the people of our country can do themselves. Although the book’s title Zimbos Never Die, depicts a picture of an extraordinary group of people with outstanding adaptation and resilience qualities, it is important to note that the same can be said for other African countries that have endured decades of economic crises although the context and extent varies from one country to the other. Notable examples include the DRC, Nigeria, Tanzania and Burkina Faso,

Overall, Zimbos Never Die is a good read, it is well written, and it contributes new knowledge to the field of African economic history. The book is of fundamental importance to students of economic history, governance studies, development studies and economics.

Anotida Chikumbu is a Teaching Associate and Frederick Gilbert Bauer Research Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the USA.