The role of “food” in network formation and the social integration of undocumented Zimbabwean migrant farmworkers in the Blouberg-Molemole area of Limpopo, South Africa

Abstract

This article examines the role of food in mediating social relations between undocumented Zimbabwean migrant farmworkers and other Zimbabweans living and working in the Blouberg and Molemole local municipalities in Limpopo province, South Africa. Based on ethnographic research, the article reveals that food, besides the utility of its physical matter as a necessity to satiate hunger, has a deeply embedded social meaning through which relations and modes of belonging can be expressed. This social meaning is best understood by invoking the concept ukama igasva hunozadziswa nekudya [a relationship is not complete until there is food]. Food mediates reciprocal social exchanges that lighten the burden of precarious working conditions associated with agricultural labour and reinforce a sense of belonging and oneness. Food also lubricates mutually supportive networks between undocumented farmworkers and Zimbabwean citizens working in other sectors. The article concludes that using ukama igasva hunozadziswa nekudya as an analytical concept provides rich explanations of the role of food in unifying the Zimbabwean migrant community in Limpopo. Food facilitates the production of macro-level connections in which individual Zimbabwean migrants, irrespective of their professional pursuits, identify with the larger network cluster based on citizenship.