Marginal communities and livelihoods: San communities’ failed transition to a modern economy in Tsholotsho, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The San community in Zimbabwe is one of the indigenous tribes that have had a rather belated encounter with modernisation and globalisation. Their transition from a hunting and gathering economy to an agro-capitalist economy is widely considered as failed. Using the sustainable rural livelihoods framework, the study ethnographically investigates the performance of San livelihood portfolios. The main objective of the study was to interrogate the factors that prevent San communities from climbing up the social ladder to gain equal access to resources when compared with their Bantu neighbours. The study found out that some of the key drivers of the failed San communities’ transition include their location close to wild animals, systematic structural oppression by the Ndebele and Kalanga ethnic groups, and the natural environmental challenges such as climate change. We recommend that programming for San communities should take into cognisance these structural and contextual issues.