Paper short abstract:

The paper unpacks how policy decrees by the Zimbabwean state are re-negotiated, re-routed or overtly resisted by urban communities located at its margins, specifically looking at the protests by communities astride the Beitbridge border post in July 2016 against a ban on importation of goods.

Paper long abstract:

The paper unpacks how policy decrees by the Zimbabwean state are re-negotiated, re-routed or overtly resisted by urban communities located at the margins. This specific case pertains to developments at Beitbridge border post in July 2016 where communities engaged in violent protest against the government's ban on importation of goods by individuals without licenses. Although sporadic and short-lived the protests sent signals to the state which prompted the Minster of Industry and Trade to offer some concessions, though minimal, to the cross-border traders. These protests in part gave momentum to a national shutdown of business activities in the country the following week, spearheaded by what have been referred to as hash tag movements. It is argued in this paper that the occurrence of protests in borderlands adds a fresh perspective to scholarly understandings of resistance among borderland communities. The norm in most of the literature is to conceptualise smuggling by communities who live astride international borders as a form of resistance to extortion by the predatory state—a norm which this paper will depart from.