Climate change & human mobility : the interconnectedness of colonial, contemporary development policies, and climate change in shaping human mobility in Zimbabwe’s small-scale rural farming areas

Abstract

Climatic and non-climatic factors affect small-scale agriculture leading to high cases of food insecurity and subsequent human mobility in Zimbabwe’s communal areas. These farming areas were established by the colonial British government for African farmers during the colonial era, and livelihoods in these marginal areas have endured a long history of poverty, poor agricultural production, and underdevelopment. Communal farming areas still exist today and continue to shape the livelihoods of most African farmers, subjecting them to high cases of food insecurity and poverty. Compounding these livelihood challenges in communal areas, are contemporary global and national economic development decisions brought about by the international community and the new African government in Zimbabwe after independence. The turn of the 20th century has seen climatic factors working together with other human mobility drivers in exacerbating the existing food security challenges, increasing the imperative of people to move in Zimbabwe. The motives behind human mobility have been working together to create a complex web of mobility patterns in Zimbabwe’s communal areas. Unfortunately, there are no peer-reviewed studies explaining this interplay of multicausal factors contributing to human mobility patterns in Zimbabwe. As a result, this study examines the interconnectedness of climate change, colonial and contemporary development policies in shaping modern-day human mobility patterns in Zimbabwe. I argue that climate change adaptation challenges in communal areas of Zimbabwe cannot be addressed without first dealing with the complex political and historical context of the country. Additionally, climate change is being ignored in human mobility studies in Zimbabwe, and there is a need to seriously consider climatic factors alongside other traditional human mobility drivers in the country. Lastly, human mobility as a climate adaptation strategy should be incorporated into the country’s climate policy framework, mimicking a strategy at the national level that has been effectively used by households at the local level to cushion themselves from climate and livelihood related stresses over the years.