Graffiti as a Participatory Method Fostering Epistemic Justice and Collective Capabilities Among Rural Youth: A Case Study in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This chapter draws on findings from an AHRC-GCRF-funded project that used the capability approach to explore graffiti as an arts-based method and its contribution to epistemic justice. Graffiti on board was used as a participatory method that created opportunities for collaboration among youth from across social categories including ethnicity, age, and social class. In this chapter, we demonstrate how graffiti on board, a method not widely used in Zimbabwe and broadly, fosters epistemic justice and encourages social cohesion by providing space for Tonga youth to tell stories about the lives they value. The collaborative and participatory nature of the method provided an opportunity for the youths’ experiences and knowledge to be visible in a context where their voices have for long been silenced and opportunities for higher education and employment limited. The nonexistence of opportunities for voice and higher education has resulted in generational and cyclical exclusion. The project involved 12 youth from Binga, a rural district south of Zimbabwe, a representative from a local youth non-governmental organisation (NGO), and another representative from the district museum. The project started with a five-day workshop mapping out and artistically illustrating the challenges experienced by Binga youth, followed by multi-city exhibitions as well as stakeholder workshops in the largest cities (Bulawayo, Gweru, and Harare). The capability approach allowed not only for the identification of valued opportunities among the youth but also a nuanced understanding of how arts-based methods can be used to address epistemic injustices among marginalised communities. The findings show that collective action and platforms for self-expression for marginalised rural youths create new opportunities to work towards a common good. Further to this, youth become creators of knowledge rather than passive consumers of selective narratives that often exclude them.