Transcending Global and National (Mis)representations through Local Responses to Displacement: The Case of Zimbabwean (ex-)Farm Workers

Categories currently used to describe displaced people, such as ‘internally displaced person’, ‘refugee’ and ‘development-induced displaced person’, are increasingly recognized as problematic; more in-depth research is needed on the complexity of displacement experiences and responses. This paper, arising out of an anthropological study of internally displaced Zimbabwean farm workers, seeks to provide more empirical data on the everyday lives of internally displaced people. Displaced Zimbabwean farm workers offer a complex insight into the different kinds of representations that have been applied to them both before and after displacement and the ways in which they have managed these representations. The often simplistic representations of farm workers have been a significant causal factor in their displacement since February 2000. Farm workers are still viewed, especially in nationalistic discourses, as ‘foreigners’ who do not deserve the same rights and entitlements as other citizens of Zimbabwe. They have also been portrayed as supporting the interests of their white bosses and the opposition party in opposing the land invasions, have thus often been the main targets of violence and have largely been ignored as recipients of land. This paper shows how, through local responses to displacement, displaced workers are able to counter the discourses of the powerful by subverting global, national and local representations, using local agency to create their own practical discourse of displacement. It also shows the importance of anthropology in highlighting an alternative and locally grounded discourse, arising out of the interplay of agency and dependency on the part of the actors involved.