An exposé ethnography of Zimbabwe's internally displaced ex-farm workers: Practical and ethical dilemmas

Abstract

From 2000 onwards, Zimbabwe's often violent land invasions displaced at least 500 000 farm workers from white-owned commercial farms across the country. While studies subsequently conducted on the land invasions tended to focus on their impact on farm workers who remained on the farms, very little ethnographic research was conducted on the impact of displacement on those who were evicted from the farms. The lack of research on the post-displacement lives of the latter group can be attributed to the great practical, political and ethical difficulties faced by researchers in conducting such research in post-2000 Zimbabwe. And yet, in spite of these challenges, there remained a huge need for in-depth, ethnographic research on the post-displacement situations of evicted farm workers: an exposé ethnography that would ensure that the complexities of their experiences, the injustices they faced, and their responses were recorded and broadcast to those unfamiliar with their situation. However, for vulnerable populations of displaced people, particularly those living with the continued threat of persecution, such attentions and attempts to expose both what happened to them and the ways in which they now cope may not be entirely welcome. This brings into question the value of exposé ethnography and raises many ethical questions for anthropologists working in difficult research environments. This paper explores the practical, political and ethical challenges associated with conducting ethnographic research with one group of displaced farm workers in Zimbabwe. Ultimately, it explores the thin line between the need for exposé ethnography in unjust societies and the need to ensure that displaced populations are not brought into further danger by the unwanted attention such research might bring them. In so doing it raises wider questions relating to research with all types of mobile populations.