Smuggling and (Il)Legal Cross-Border Trade Across the Lake Kariba Borderscapes

Long-standing unregulated cross-border activities in the Kariba region are aided and abetted by the involvement of security officials (including those working for the police, National Parks and the army), such that they act not as law enforcers but mainly as facilitators of illegalities. In this context, this chapter documents different facets of unregulated cross-border activities in the region, focusing mainly on the actors involved and the influence of the waterscape in shaping mobilities, as well as the implications of these activities for the socio-economic development of the region. The different cases shared show how the involvement of law enforcement agents serves to normalise and perpetuate illegalities. The chapter builds upon and contributes to debates about cross-border illegalities in sub-Saharan Africa by showing how the materiality of Lake Kariba (and the Zambezi River) configure the (il)legalities and (im)mobilities of people. It situates everyday cross-border illegalities within the landscapes in which they occur, in terms of what the landscapes enable, disenable and afford.