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The Dynamics of Cotton Production and Smuggling by Farmers Along the Mukumbura Border Post Between Zimbabwe and Mozambique

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The Dynamics of Cotton Production and Smuggling by Farmers Along the Mukumbura Border Post Between Zimbabwe and Mozambique Borderland Entrepreneurs: The dynamics of cotton production and smuggling by farmers along the Mukumbura border post between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. By Dombo Sylvester University of KwaZulu-Natal [email protected] Abstract The Zimbabwe-Mozambique borderland, which stretches for thousands of kilometres, is one of the longest and poorly managed in the Southern Africa region. Cotton is the major crop grown along the border. As the borderland communities are full of related people, the production seasons see Mozambican farmers coming to Zimbabwe to buy planting seeds and other inputs whilst Zimbabwean farmers would cross the border in search for fertile soils. The marketing period, depending on the strength of the country’s producer prices, is marked by cotton smuggling to both sides of the border as farmers search for higher prices. This paper seeks to explore the dynamics of cotton production and marketing (smuggling) along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border as the farmers take advantage of the porous border to obtain better rewards for their crops. It examines the role played by cotton buyers who are often willing accomplices in the smuggling of this bulky commodity. While not taking the initiative away from the farmers, this paper also looks at the role of corrupt border officials in aiding this smuggling. Though there are several routes used by farmers from both sides of the border to smuggle cotton, this paper will focus on the smuggling at the Mukumbura border post. This paper is premised on oral interviews with farmers on both sides of the border as well as various cotton buyers and border officials. 1 Introduction The Zimbabwe-Mozambique border is one of the longest and poorly managed in Southern Africa. It extends for over 1231km, and is the second longest after the Malawi and Mozambique border which extends for 1569km.1 The popular perception about African borders in general and Mukumbura Border post in particular is that borders are a colonial creation which ignored the way people used to live before the advent of colonialism. Even though it is assumed that the people from Mozambique and those from Zimbabwe speak different languages, at the areas on either side of the Border, people speak the same or similar language and share the same customs. Therefore, for the inhabitants of this borderland, the border is an inconvenience. The people always moved between the two countries, and they continue to do so up to this day with little regard to border control measures. To some inhabitants, it is not really a border in the stricter sense of the word as they can walk in and out of both countries without following the correct procedures of cross-border movement of using passports and other travel documents. The Mukumbura Border post, as it is known in Zimbabwe or Mecumbura Border post as known in Mozambique, has become a source of livelihood for its inhabitants. While the border is predominantly located in a rural setting, this has allowed the majority of the people to make a livelihood out of agricultural commodities, primarily cotton, which is the major cash crop grown on both sides of the border. This paper examines how farmers on both sides of the border negotiate favourable prices for their contraband; make choices whether to sell in Zimbabwe or Mozambique and also how they maneuver through a maze of cotton merchants. This, as will be shown, has caused a ‘border dispute’ between the cotton merchants from the two countries involved. The paper further argues that Mukumbura border post has become a locus of opportunity primarily for cotton farmers who obtain inputs from Zimbabwe, but grow their crop in Mozambique for a predominantly Zimbabwean market. The paper attempts to map out the livelihoods afforded to these farmers at the border, and how, with the help of border officials, they have participated in the ‘illegal’ marketing of cotton at the borderland. The marketing of 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Zimbabwe. Accessed 25 August 2011 2 cotton along this border has never been a concern for the two governments until early 2011, when Mozambican merchants began losing most of the cotton produced on the borderland to Zimbabwean cotton merchants. Research for this article was conducted in the Mukumbura area, primarily on the Zimbabwean side of the border between January and February and May to July in 2011 when the selling season for cotton was at its peak. I mostly dealt with the cotton farmers. Mozambican cotton farmers were interviewed when crossed the border to sell their produce in Zimbabwe. However, it has to be noted that that some of these people are transnational beings, thus at times it is difficult to tell whether they are Zimbabweans or Mozambicans. In addition to these sources information was obtained from Zimbabwean companies that finances most of the farmers in getting inputs. Given that this trade is illegal, winning their confidence was difficult since they suspected that I was an undercover custom official. Once I got their trust, they provided useful information on the ‘smuggling’ of cotton between the two countries and how it is effected, and the benefits and challenges that have accrued to both the farmers and the cotton merchants respectively. However, the identity of my informants is protected by the use of pseudonyms in this paper. As will be shown later, the language of commerce in this particular area is predominantly Kore-kore, a sub dialect of the Shona language which I speak fluently. Although a large number of Mozambican farmers speak Sena, they are also able to speak this Kore-kore language because of their historical interaction with Zimbabwean communities across the border. Therefore communication was never a problem for me as I managed to converse without problems with most of my informants. Contextualizing Cross-Border Trade Like most international borders in Africa, the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border was arbitrarily drawn by the European colonizers following the Berlin Conference of 1884/5. These unilateral borders cut across ethnic and kinship groups and this has led to the controversies over the legality of the livelihoods pursued by such people at the 3 borderlands.2 While the authorities see the people as engaging in clandestine and illegal activities, the inhabitants of the borderlands see themselves as entrepreneurs who are only taking advantage of the prevailing economic conditions on both sides of the border to make ends meet. There is also agreement in the literature on cross border trade that while economic, social and political pressures are the major reasons for the escalation of informal cross-border activities, a critical facilitating factor is the close historical and cultural ties linking the border communities of contiguous states.3 Borderland inhabitants therefore see no reason why states should curtail their economic activities as they are free to belong to each side of the border as they have relatives on either side. Indeed, the most challenging aspect of controlling these people is that some do have dual identity cards, have families across the border and most of their children attend schools especially on the Zimbabwe side of the border. It is because of the restrictions imposed by the states that the people concerned do not use the official entry and exits points but their own, which the authorities have failed to control. Literature on cross-border trade has been on the rise as evidenced by the works that have come up in the last decade or so. There are different perspectives that have been propounded by scholars to explain cross border trade. From one perspective, cross border trade is viewed as ‘informal’, illegal activity that threatens the economic stability of the regions and countries concerned.4 My study draws much from Ellis and MacGaffey’s study which attempted to describe some of the methodological and conceptual problems in researching aspects of sub-Saharan Africa's international "underground" trade, meaning commercial transactions which are conducted across international frontiers but which are unrecorded in official data.5 The cross border trade at Mukumbura can be described as part of what is variously referred to as the "second," "hidden," "parallel," "underground" and "informal" economy, all terms intended to convey the sense of 2 For an analysis of smuggling in other parts of the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border see N. Pophiwa, ‘Smuggling on the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border’ in J. Crush and D. Tevera, Zimbabwe’s exodus: Crisis, Migration, survival (Cape Town: Southern African Migration Programme, 2010) 3 S. L. Chachage, ‘Citizenship and Partitioned people in East Africa: The case of WaMasaai’, African Development, 28,1, 2003, pp. 53-54. 4 S. Ellis and J. MacGaffey, ‘Research on Sub-Saharan Africa’s Unrecorded International Trade: Some Methodological and Conceptual Problems’, African Studies Review, Vol. 39, No. 2 5 Ibid. 4 economic activity which is not officially reported to state authorities and which is therefore not directly taxable.6 Although such activities are not necessarily illegal, they may involve a wide range of degrees of illegality. In the same vein, Brenda Chalfin argues that the border zone of north-east Ghana, a tri-juncture spanning Ghana, Togo and Burkina Faso, is characterized by the extreme mobility of persons and things on the one hand and extreme state surveillance on the other.7 Numerous layers of state personnel- police, border guards, customs agents and army officers-occupy this site with the aim of regulating trade.8 On the Mukumbura border, it will be argued that there is a huge presence of the para-military police, popularly known as the Support Unit on the Zimbabwe side and the Border Frontera Guards on the Mozambican side. Whilst these officials are meant to regulate movement and ensure that no smuggling takes place at the border, more often than trade, in this case they are primarily there to aid in promoting illegal crossings and trade by extorting the farmers.
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