Surviving marginality?: stateless persons’ spatial navigation and rights claiming during the Zimbabwean denationalisation project (2001 – 2013) : a Southern Zimbabwe case study

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the denationalization project which occurred in Zimbabwe between 2001 to 2013 brought with it new forms of citizenship, with the stateless persons engaging in network-building in order to navigate space and claim rights. Through a ‘mini-ethnographic study’ involving six participants who stayed in Zimbabwe despite being rendered stateless, this paper argues that spatial navigation and rights claiming is done through the assertion of agency akin to Ranciere’s ‘dissensus’, with stateless individuals fulfilling their revolutionary potential. This paper goes further to rebut current international and state centric strategies when dealing with statelessness. I suggest that a more community-based approach will assist in ensuring that statelessness and its inimical effects are addressed at the appropriate level.