Transient workspaces : technologies of everyday innovation in Zimbabwe

309 Pages·2014·28.857 MB·English

by  Mavhunga, Clapperton Chakanetsa

Transient Workspaces

Transient Workspaces
Technologies of Everyday Innovation in Zimbabwe
Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mavhunga, Clapperton Chakanetsa, 1972–
Transient workspaces : technologies of everyday innovation in Zimbabwe / Clap-
perton Chakanetsa Mavhunga.
pages cm. — (Mobility studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-02724-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Material culture— Africa. 2. Sub-
sistence hunting— Africa. 3. Economic anthropology— Africa. I. Title.
GN645.M3526 2014
306.4’6096— dc23
2013036289

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For the reader of footprints, tracker of people and animals, whose
technologies and innovations are now criminalized as poaching.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue 1
Introduction 5
1 Guided Mobility 23
2 The Professoriate of the Hunt 41
3 The Coming of the Gun 71
4 Tsetse Invasions 99
5 The Professoriate of the Hunt and the Tsetse Fly 125
6 Poaching as Criminalized Innovation 151
7 Chimurenga : The Transient Workspace of Self-Liberation 171
8 The Professoriate of the Hunt and International Ivory Poaching 203
Conclusions: Transient Workspaces in Times of Crisis 221
Notes 239
References 257
Index 281

Acknowledgments
In the chiShona language of Zimbabwe, to not say “ Ndatenda ” (Thank you)
is not just an indictment of one ’ s humanity. K usatenda uroyi (To not thank
is witchcraft). I am not a witch, so I will say N datenda to many people who
have shaped what I do in this book.
First, I wish to thank two professors on the knowledge of my ancestors:
my father Peter Masango Mavunga and my mother Violet Mavunga, né e
Chiseka. This book is following the footprints of your wisdom. May I be a
good steward of it and pass it on to my children. To my late brother Denny;
our strict yet loving mentor in the valleys, rivers, forests, and fields in
which we learned and mastered herding, fishing, trapping birds with rubber
(urimbo) you taught us to make from the chitatarimbo tree. I will always
love and miss you.
Ndatenda vaKusemamuriwo, my Form 1 chiShona teacher at Chizengeni
Secondary School; vaMuparamoto, my O-level chiShona teacher at Rakodzi
High School; and Amai Chiunda, my A-level chiShona teacher at Maron-
dera High School. And to my English teacher at Rakodzi, Bernard Mate-
sanwa, thank you for inspiration.
I also thank Arwen Mohun at University of Delaware, who referred me
to Gabrielle Hecht when I wanted to start studying science, technology,
and society (STS) in the context of Africa— which I eventually did, at the
University of Michigan. To Gabrielle Hecht, an exceptional doctoral adviser,
a friend indeed— what a wonderful human being, advisor, and teacher!—
thank you, n datenda . My thanks also to Nancy Rose Hunt, who first wel-
comed me to Michigan, and shaped my l ongue dur é e approach to things
and the need to appreciate the work that Africanists have done more closely
and not get carried away with STS. Zingerman’ s was the place where our
Africa reading group would meet for hours! To David William Cohen, who
encouraged us to think about the politics of knowledge production in
Africa. To Mamadou Diouf, who introduced me to African philosophy, and