‘Becoming Mozambicanised’: Nostalgic amnesia among Zimbabweans adapting to ‘disorder’ in Mozambique

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘Becoming Mozambicanised’: Nostalgic amnesia among Zimbabweans adapting to ‘disorder’ in Mozambique

AU - Hammar, Amanda

PY - 2017/4/3

Y1 - 2017/4/3

N2 - This article explores the ways in which displaced Zimbabweans who migrated to Mozambique’s Manica Province in the 2000s in the wake of political and economic crisis, constructed a largely unreflective discursive dichotomy between remembered ‘order’ in Zimbabwe and perceived ‘disorder’ in Mozambique. It does so through the lens of two empirical domains of practice: that of public policy, and that of production and enterprise. Unpacking the complexities of these domains, and juxtaposing them in relation to a more realistic version of Zimbabwe, exposes the Zimbabweans’ discursive over-simplifications and stereotypes. It suggests that rememberings and representations of an ‘ordered’ past in Zimbabwe set in contrast to a ‘disordered’ Mozambique, are part of a nostalgic amnesia that assists these ambivalent migrants to deal with (or deny) their displacement and losses, and helps them adapt to the new and strange ‘disordered’ present and to do the work of ‘becoming Mozambicanised’.

AB - This article explores the ways in which displaced Zimbabweans who migrated to Mozambique’s Manica Province in the 2000s in the wake of political and economic crisis, constructed a largely unreflective discursive dichotomy between remembered ‘order’ in Zimbabwe and perceived ‘disorder’ in Mozambique. It does so through the lens of two empirical domains of practice: that of public policy, and that of production and enterprise. Unpacking the complexities of these domains, and juxtaposing them in relation to a more realistic version of Zimbabwe, exposes the Zimbabweans’ discursive over-simplifications and stereotypes. It suggests that rememberings and representations of an ‘ordered’ past in Zimbabwe set in contrast to a ‘disordered’ Mozambique, are part of a nostalgic amnesia that assists these ambivalent migrants to deal with (or deny) their displacement and losses, and helps them adapt to the new and strange ‘disordered’ present and to do the work of ‘becoming Mozambicanised’.

KW - Faculty of Theology

KW - Mozambique, Zimbabwe, displacement, migration, order, disorder, cross-border, nostalgic amnesia

U2 - 10.1080/00020184.2017.1322869

DO - 10.1080/00020184.2017.1322869

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0002-0184

VL - 76

SP - 243

EP - 259

JO - African Studies

JF - African Studies

IS - 2

M1 - 4

ER -