Читать книгу Border Jumping and Migration Control in Southern Africa - Francis Musoni - Страница 8

Acknowledgments

THIS BOOK IS a result of almost ten years of research and writing during which I received support from numerous people and institutions in different parts of the world. I owe my deepest gratitude to my PhD advisor Clifton Crais for his mentorship, which has continued since I completed my studies at Emory University. In addition to teaching me the art of asking the “so what” type of questions, he also read and critiqued several drafts of the chapters in this book. It was under his guidance that I also developed a strong interest in understanding the state not as a thing but as a result of contested processes. While this book is not necessarily a study of the state, it benefited from a critical historical reading of statecraft and conceptions of mobility and border control in Zimbabwe and South Africa. I am also grateful to Regine Jackson, who kindly agreed to direct an independent study on “migration theory” and to David Eltis for putting together a minor field on “coerced migration” for my qualifying exams at Emory university. The readings and discussions I had with both of them broadened my understanding of various aspects of migration as an economic, political, and sociocultural phenomenon. Gyanendra Pandey helped me to think critically about the politics of the “subalterns” and how they relate to mainstream politics, while Bruce Knauft, Corrine Kratz, and the late Ivan Karp introduced me to the anthropological way of thinking about the state, migration, borders, politics, culture, and power. Combining historical and anthropological methods enabled me to develop a better understanding of my research and how to approach it. As members of my dissertation committee, Kristin Mann and Pamela Scully gave me timely encouragement and helpful comments on earlier drafts of the book. They also wrote letters in support of my applications for research funding and jobs. Without their support, I would not have made it into the University of Kentucky as a member of the faculty. Fellow graduate students, who include Andrea Arrington, Katherine Fidler, Jane Hooper, Daniel Domingues da Silva, John Thabiti Willis, Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, Sunandan K. N, Molly McCullers, Husseina Dinani, Jill Rosenthal, Durba Mitra, Robyn Pariser, and Kara Moskovitz provided the camaraderie that made my stay at Emory enjoyable.

The bulk of the writing of this book took place after I joined the history department at the University of Kentucky as an assistant professor. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my colleagues for giving me a chance when I barely knew what it meant to work in America’s higher education system and for patiently guiding me through the labyrinth over the past few years. The comments I received when I presented draft chapters under the department’s Works-in-Progress seminars helped me to package my ideas and arguments in ways that made it possible for non-Africanists to understand the complicated history of border jumping across the Zimbabwe–South Africa border. Special thanks go to Karen Petrone and Mark Kornbluh for not just supporting my research and teaching activities but also providing timely intervention when the process of changing my immigration status became more complicated than I had anticipated. I am very thankful for their support.

This book also greatly benefited from the comments I received from Tim Scarnecchia, Blair Rutherford, and Martin Murray, who read earlier versions of the entire manuscript, and from Luise White, Loren Landau, Eliakim Sibanda, Tapiwa Mucherera, JoAnn McGregor, Diana Jeater, Munya Munochiveyi, Anna Hüncke, Nedson Pophiwa, Olivia Klimm, Andrea Arrington, Husseina Dinnani, Kara Moskovitz, Alois Mlambo, Lea Kalaora, Zoe Groves, Maxim Bolt, and Wendy Urban-Mead, who read parts of the book as draft chapters or conference papers. The feedback I got from participants at several meetings of the African Studies Association, where I presented drafts of chapters in this book, was very helpful. I am also grateful to the British Zimbabwe Society, the Southern African Historical Society, the North Eastern Workshop on Southern Africa, the African Borderlands Research Network, the Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies, and the Association of Borderlands Studies for the feedback I received at the conferences they organized. I also owe special thanks to the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies at the University of Pretoria and the Center for African Studies at the University of Florida for opportunities to present chapters of the book and receive helpful feedback. Researchers at the African Center for Migration and Society (formerly the Forced Migration Studies Program) at the University of the Witwatersrand, which I have called my academic home in South Africa since 2006, have also been supportive of my work on this book and other projects.

Without the materials I accessed at the National Archives of Zimbabwe in Harare, the National Archives of South Africa in Pretoria, the British Library in London, and the University of Johannesburg’s (Doornfontein Campus) Special Collections, it would have been impossible to write this book. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the staffs at these very important institutions. Many thanks to Natasha Erlank and Dunbar Moodie, who provided the information and connections that helped me to access the rich archives of the Witwatersrand Native Labor Association and its successor, called the Employment Bureau of Southern Africa, in the Special Collections of the University of Johannesburg’s (Doornfontein Campus) Library. Victor Maronga and Boniface Hlabano, along with their families, opened their homes to me on several occasions when I visited Johannesburg and Pretoria to conduct research for this book or attend conferences, and Irene Staunton and Murray McCartney always made their cottage available to me whenever I was in Harare. I am so grateful for their hospitality. I am also thankful for the research assistance provided by David Siyasongwe, Busani Mhlanga, Anusa Daimon, and Nicholas Nyachega and for the moral and intellectual support I received from numerous friends, especially Gerald Mazarire, Awet Weldemichael, Mhoze Chikowero, Terence Mashingaidze, Clement Masakure, Douglas Mpondi, Enocent Msindo, Joseph Mujere, and Ivan Marowa.

Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge the support I got from the offices of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Harare, Beitbridge, and Musina. Special thanks go to the Chief of Mission of the IOM Harare office, Marcelo Pisani, for taking me in as an affiliate during the time I conducted field research in the Zimbabwe–South Africa border zone. Katie Kerr and Peter Mudungwe helped with the process of obtaining affiliation, and Nick van der Vyver hosted me at the IOM offices in Beitbridge. In addition to introducing me to local government representatives in the border district, Nick allowed me to join IOM teams on several of their field trips. It was during those trips that I met most of the people I interviewed for this project. I am also thankful for the support I got from the staffs at the IOM office and the Refugee Reception Center in Musina. The bulk of the ethnographic materials I use in this book came from my interviews and informal interactions with migrants and residents of the border towns of Beitbridge and Musina. I extend my special thanks to them. Thanks to Simon Muleya, the district administrator for Beitbridge, for providing introductory letters that I carried as I traveled in the border area. Special thanks to Thupeyo Muleya, Gift (Papi) Mbedzi, Remember Ndou, and the management of the Beitbridge Country Club for the warm welcome that made my stays in Beitbridge town enjoyable.

Funding from Emory University’s Laney Graduate School, the Institute of African Studies, the Race and Difference Initiative, the Institute of Critical International Studies, and the Joseph Mathews Fellowship sponsored the first phase of my research in Zimbabwe and South Africa, which lasted from July 2009 to July 2010. Subsequent trips in 2012 and 2013 benefited from funding provided by the history department, College of Arts and Sciences, and Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Kentucky. I am grateful for the generosity of these institutions. Last, but not least, I would like to salute my father, who died around the time this project was born; my mother and siblings; and my wife, Everjoy, and our children, Nyasha, Anopa, and Taonashe, for their understanding and unconditional support, which eased the pain of writing and rewriting this book.

An earlier version of chapter 2 appeared as an article in the African Studies Review (Francis Musoni, “The Ban on ‘Tropical Natives’ and the Promotion of Illegal Migration in Pre-Apartheid South Africa,” African Studies Review 61, no. 3 (2018): 156–177, doi:10.1017/asr.2018.73).