To Live or Leave: Rethinking Ubuntu and Migration in a Context of Uncertainty—The Zimbabwean Case

From the year 2000, Zimbabwe has been facing socio-economic and political crises of unimaginable magnitudes. Zimbabweans have been caught up in these crises which have caused many to make life-changing decisions. While some have resolved to stay on and find alternative ways of survival, others have been losing hope and choosing to emigrate. For any African, migration is embedded within notions of Ubuntu. It is a choice between leaving one’s identity (rudzi rwako) and venturing into the world of the unknown (kumazivandadzoka). This study proceeds from the premise that the decision to migrate from one’s place of birth is not an easy one. It is a struggle between belonging and alienship, but probably one which has to be taken in contexts of socio-economic and political uncertainty. The study seeks to find out how the ethic of Ubuntu plays a crucial role when making the decision to either stay or leave one’s country of birth. It questions if the very notion of migration is reflective of the weaknesses of the Ubuntu ethic in the contemporary Zimbabwean society. For example, how useful is Ubuntu if African children find hope and comfort in foreign lands? For those that choose to stay, how useful is Ubuntu in conditions of lack and suffering? Does all this point to the death of Ubuntu in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular? The study also engages with the gendered nature of migration. It seeks to untangle the web of Ubuntu and migration from the perspective of who makes the decision to migrate. Do women have the choice to migrate or not? The study seeks to argue that re-thinking Ubuntu in contemporary Zimbabwe in the context of migration provides us with ways to reconsider its utility and relevance in modern African societies. This is largely a qualitative study whose data were gathered through online interviews with both groups of Zimbabweans in the diaspora and in Zimbabwe. Content analysis was used to interpret the data.