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The rise of ‘Mashurugwi’ machete gangs and violent conflicts in Zimbabwe's artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.exis.2020.10.001

2214-7918

Grasian Mkodzongi,

African history and culture studies

In the last quarter of 2019, Zimbabwe experienced a dramatic increase in machete gang violence across Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) areas. The gangs, popularly known as 'Mashurugwi' which literally refers to people from the small town of Shurugwi in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe, were reportedly terrorizing mining communities – robbing people of cash, gold and ore. There was hardly a day that passed without a story in the media of Mashurugwi having robbed miners or businesses. The extremely violent nature of the robberies and lack of police intervention especially in the earlier period led to many claims being made in the media about who the violent gangs were and their relationship with politicians in Zimbabwe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) political party. As a result, a simplistic discourse of lawless bandits roaming across the countryside robbing and killing people was popularized. However, very little attention was paid to the origins of the machete gangs and the root causes of mine related violence. This article is an ambitious attempt to examine the origins of the Mashurugwi and the root causes of the machete violence across Zimbabwe's ASGM areas. The paper argues that Mashurugwi must not be simply conceptualised as violent bandits as portrayed in the media, but as a protest movement against elite capture of resources. The paper is based on ethnographic data gathered with artisanal miners in Norton, Kadoma, Battlefields, Zvishavane, Makonde and Hurungwe areas of Zimbabwe.