This article explores how intense cross-border flows of young Zimbabwean men across the border into South Africa are reworking ideas of masculinity and marriage in rural sending communities. It examines moral discourse in rural Chiredzi over these issues, exploring performances of masculinity on the part of returning male labour migrants themselves, the evaluations and agency of young women who enter into relationships with them, and the views of rural elders whose derogatory opinions of the youth of today are underpinned by romanticised versions of respectable labour migration in the past. Even during the crisis period, I argue that cross-border migrancy was about more than simply work: young people’s decisions and mobility in desperate economic times are deeply enmeshed with their sexuality and aspirations towards marriage, the future and the quest for respectable adulthood. By scrutinising polarised stereotypes of majoni-joni as either wayward criminals or a good catch, the article reveals more complex realities shaped by class, types of work and levels of education, providing a nuanced picture of the moral economies of migrancy, marriage and sexuality as these are debated and enacted in rural Chiredzi. The circulation of both stereotypes of majoni-joni matters: the derogatory view underpins elders’ efforts to control youthful sexualities, particularly those of young women, while the positive view underpins young people’s own dreams for a better future and attempts to seek out opportunities to fulfil them.
For a long time, perspectives of governments, civil societies and humanitarian organisations have overshadowed the voices of host communities during humanitarian emergencies. In a few instances where literature mentions host communities, they are often portrayed as homogenous groups that share similar views and attitudes towards those in need of assistance. In this article, I draw from host-refugee interactions to argue for the incorporation of local voices in civil society and humanitarianism studies and to illustrate the need to disaggregate host communities and pay attention to local politics during interventions. The influx of thousands of migrants from different countries and ethnic groups, changes the environment of the host community positively and negatively. Often, initial benevolence gives way to hostility as resource scarcities and insecurities arise. When this happens, it creates an environment of suspicion, blame, and stigma, which negatively impacts relations and cohesion between the two groups. Paying attention to local residents’ diverse perspectives during humanitarian emergencies may contribute to conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
is a researcher working on unceded Wurundjeri land, including at the University of Melbourne where she received her PhD in 2018 and was a Gilbert Early Career Postdoctoral Fellow in 2019. She researches the persistence of British imperial culture through studying contentious landscapes, buildings, and bodies, with current work drawing on autoethnographies of energy-limiting disability to explore contemporary historical consciousness. Her monograph Milton Keynes in British Culture: Imagining England was published by Routledge in 2019.
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