An estimated 300,000 people in Zimbabwe are stateless. The group comprises descendants of migrant workers from Southern African countries, including Malawi and Mozambique, who were brought in by colonial authorities to work on farms before the country gained independence in 1980. Generations of ethnic Ndebele people in Matabeleland and the Midland provinces who were affected by the Gukurahundi massacre in 1982 make up the other fraction.
In 2021, Amnesty International released a report detailing how Zimbabwe's discriminatory and arbitrary nationality laws have left generations of migrant workers and their families marginalized in the only country they have ever called home.
In this project, Iqra Salah examines this issue and tries to establish what efforts have been and are being made to recognize these groups of people. What are the stumbling blocks, and is this issue a problem of accountability?
Image caption: Nkosana Moyo at Bidi Village, Matabeleland. Image by Iqra Salah. Zimbabwe, 2022.
