The Adaptation of Quasi-Citizens to Political and Social Marginality: Farm Workers in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The adaptation of Zimbabwe's farm workers to a situation of social and political marginality is analysed. Comparisons are made with the political behaviour of the peasants—who are the main target of the government's development policy in the so-called ‘communal land’. The main finding is that the most basic needs of the workers are not improvements in basic services, but improvements related to their work situation. Therefore, the channels that the workers enter to voice their complaints are not the local officials of the Zimbabwean state, but the white farmers, the Workers' Committees and the trade unions. It is a paradox that the peasants, who not only had greater access to government services but also had better opportunities of political expression, are far more dissatisfied with basic services than the workers. One reason, which should be examined more deeply in future research, may simply be that the white farmers are better service providers than the Zimbabwean state.