A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of a Master of Arts (MA) in Migration and Displacement by research and coursework, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, March 2018 / In this paper, I argue that the denationalization project which occurred in Zimbabwe between 2001 to 2013 brought with it new forms of citizenship, with the stateless persons engaging in network-building in order to navigate space and claim rights. Through a ‘mini-ethnographic study’ involving six participants who stayed in Zimbabwe despite being rendered stateless, this paper argues that spatial navigation and rights claiming is done through the assertion of agency akin to Ranciere’s ‘dissensus’, with stateless individuals fulfilling their revolutionary potential. This paper goes further to rebut current international and state centric strategies when dealing with statelessness. I suggest that a more community-based approach will assist in ensuring that statelessness and its inimical effects are addressed at the appropriate level. / XL2019

The study addresses from a sociocultural-historical, in particular a missiological and medical perspective the question if Catholic hospitals in Matabeleland, affected by the dramatic down-turn of Zimbabwe’s economy since 2000, did whatever they could to continue offering quality services to their patients. It starts with a portrayal of the emergence of secular modernity in the North-Atlantic World, as regards its view of the world as solely governed by natural laws, and of people as capable of taking destiny into their own hands, unperturbed by spiritual forces. The question is explored how the Christian Occident could end up there, following its development through the Middle Ages, and its expansion by missionary activity, by preaching the Word, but also by military force. Next, the achievements of pre-1900 Western medicine are examined, to identify if/how missionaries in Africa could have benefited. The study describes how professional medicine did not become part of the early Zambesi Mission, not because of its curative shortcomings, but for spiritual reasons, insofar as the Jesuits did not follow the European trend to let worldly well-being take the place of eternal salvation. Vis-à-vis their other-than-modern view of life, suffering, and (self-)sacrifice, the promises of medicine appeared just trivial. Submissiveness to authority, both ecclesiastical and worldly, is identified as the core principle that informed the Jesuits’ educational approach towards Africans in all their efforts at conversions. The missionaries thereby colluded with colonialist thinking, in not attempting to make their pupils grow into self-confident, independent thinkers in their own right. In this educational tradition, grafted onto a pre-modern local culture, the study finds the reason why Zimbabwean medical staff, as managers of their clinics or hospitals, have shown little readiness to proactively prioritise the intrinsic needs of their institutions and push for corrective measures, prepared even to challenge their superiors when encountering aberrations in the health system, locally as well as higher up. The study asks if the Church could have opted for a different educational approach, considering the prevailing socio-economic and cultural framework conditions; finally, which options present-day Zimbabweans have to choose from, regarding their country’s future development. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)