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Kamete A Y, 2012, "Not exactly like the phoenix—but rising all the same: reconstructing displaced livelihoods in post-cleanup Harare" Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 30(2) 243 – 261
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Not exactly like the phoenix—but rising all the same: reconstructing displaced livelihoods in post-cleanup Harare

Amin Y Kamete

Received 15 February 2008; in revised form 10 May 2011; published online 22 December 2011

Abstract. Studies of displacement often emphasise massive physical dislocation. In this paper, based on a study of displaced youth in Harare, Zimbabwe, I argue for the freeing of the concept from ‘physical uprooting’ and build a case for focusing on in situ displacement and displaced livelihoods. I consider attempts by youth to reconstitute displaced livelihoods in the wake of ‘cleansing’ by the state. I scrutinise evolving recovery tactics in the face of determined efforts by the authorities to repress the ‘filth’, demonstrating that the youth’s resistance comprises a myriad of spatialised recovery strategies for dealing with spatialised repression. I argue that it is the mutation of the youth’s modes of operation that have enabled them to (re)contaminate and (re)subvert the ‘purified’ spaces.

Keywords: Harare, Zimbabwe, Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order, youth, displacement, repression, resistance, recovery

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