Hyenas Of The Limpopo

An increasing number of people today cross the Beitbridge border of South Africa and Zimbabwe. This comes with a corresponding growth of creative strategies that seek to aid the crossing of those people and goods that may lack the necessary documentation. Such ‘informal’ border crossings have come to define one of the important economic regions in Southern Africa, the post-1994 Limpopo Valley. This thesis approaches routine acts of facilitating undocumented border crossings as an everyday social politics with deep historical roots. By use of archival and ethnographic methods, the thesis examines the social history and embodied practices of a variety of actors who engage in undocumented border crossings. A particular focus is placed on the role of private transporters (omalayitsha), who represent an important link between an exclusionary and yet fragmentary migration regime and undocumented travellers. In three theoretical and four empirical chapters, and inspired by border studies as well as the critical realist approach in migration studies, the thesis connects border practice to irregular movement and cheap labour within a regional context defined, in part, by dispossession. Through thick interpretations of the lived experience of border practice, the study also connects such political economic processes (e.g. migrant irregularity, labour precarity and economic informality) to questions of social identity and migrant subjectivities. By situating the figure of the hyena at the centre of Southern African border struggles, the thesis invents an analytical concept that serves both an empirical and a theoretical task. Empirically, it enables a synthetic understanding of how everyday contestations around the possibility to work across the border for low-skill migrants have been interacting, through time, with broader processes of capital accumulation to partly shape the region’s migrant labour system. Theoretically, it shows how facilitation of undocumented border crossings calls for new sociological models that can account for processes that escape binary classification (as formal or informal, inclusive or exclusive, legal or illegal, ordered or disordered), thus contributing to a better understanding of the role of migration in the contemporary world. Allt fler människor korsar idag gränsen vid Beitbridge mellan Sydafrika och Zimbabwe. Samtidigt sker en motsvarande ökning av kreativa strategier som gör att även personer och varor som saknar rätt handlingar kan ta sig över gränsen. Dessa ‘informella’ gränsövergångar har kommit att definiera vad som efter 1994 blivit en av de viktigaste ekonomiska regionerna i södra Afrika, Limpopodalen. I denna avhandling betraktas rutinerna vid sådana oregistrerade gränsövergångar som en vardagens politik med djupa historiska rötter. Genom arkivstudier och etnografiska observationer undersöker avhandlingen en samhällshistoria och en mänsklig aktivitet där en rad aktörer är inblandade i en pågående, papperslös migration. En viktig roll i sammanhanget har omalayitsha, dvs. privata transportörer, som ofta är en viktig länk mellan de papperslösa resenärerna och den migrationsregim som å ena sidan stänger dem ute och å andra sidan är så fragmenterad att de tillåts passera igenom. I tre teoretiska och fyra empiriska kapitel, samt med ett angreppssätt hämtat från gränsstudier (border studies) och den kritiskt realistiska skolan inom migrationsstudier, syftar avhandlingen till att förstå gränsövergångens praktik i förhållande till den irreguljära mobilitet och det överskott på billig arbetskraft som sätter sin prägel på en region där många är fattiga och fördrivna. I avhandlingens djuptolkningar av migranternas levda erfarenhet vid gränsen förbinds i sin tur de politiskt-ekonomiska processerna (irreguljär migration, prekära arbetsvillkor och ekonomisk informalitet) med frågor om samhällelig identitet och migrantens subjektivitet. Avhandlingen ser hyenafiguren som central för förståelsen av de ’gränskamper’ (border struggles) som utkämpas i södra Afrika; med hyenan introduceras också ett analytiskt begrepp. Empiriskt sett möjliggör begreppet en syntetisk förståelse av hur vardagliga tvister och problem som präglar arbetsmigrantens försök att jobba på andra sidan gränsen över tid samverkar med större processer av kapitalackumulation, som delvis formar regionens migrantarbetarsystem. I teoretiskt avseende visar begreppet hur förhandlingarna som sker vid gränskontrollen klargör behovet av nya sociologiska modeller som kan redogöra för samhällsprocesser som undflyr varje binär klassificering (som formell eller informell, inkluderande eller exkluderande, legal eller illegal, ordnad eller oordnad), och på så vis bidrar det till en bättre förståelse av migrationens betydelse i dagens värld.

Humans and Hyenas examines the origins and development of the relationship between the two to present an accurate and realistic picture of the hyena and its interactions with people. The hyena is one of the most maligned, misrepresented and defamed mammals. It is still, despite decades of research-led knowledge, seen as a skulking, cowardly scavenger rather than a successful hunter with complex family and communal systems. Hyenas are portrayed as sex-shifting deviants, grave robbers and attackers of children in everything from African folk tales through Greek and Roman accounts of animal life, to Disney’s The Lion King depicting hyenas with a lack of respect and disgust, despite the reality of their behaviour and social structures. Combining the personal, in-depth mining of scientific papers about the three main species and historical accounts, Keith Somerville delves into our relationship with hyenas from the earliest records from millennia ago, through the accounts by colonisers, to contemporary coexistence, where hyenas and humans are forced into ever closer proximity due to shrinking habitats and loss of prey. Are hyenas fated to retain their bad image or can their amazing ability to adapt to humans more successfully than lions and other predators lead to a shift in perspective? This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the environmental sciences, conservation biology, and wildlife and conservation issues.

Only 15 kilometres away from the border of Zimbabwe, Musina is an obscure town in South Africa that the media cast into the public eye in the wake of the 2008 Zimbabwean economic crisis. Taking as its starting point the arrival of thousands of displaced Zimbabwean migrants at Musina, this book presents valuable new perspectives on the temporality of migration and the governance of immobilities. The author explores the role of humanitarian actors in supporting migrants and examines the outcomes of government-led activities in the longer term. This is an insightful assessment of how state and non-state practices intertwine in the management of largely immobile people, and of the importance of time in understanding African migration and borders.

Provides comprehensive information on the anatomy, special skills, habitats, and diet of hyenas.

Hyenas can't walk without limping. Read this book to find out the story behind the hyena's limp. This story 'Why Hyenas Limp' has been published on StoryWeaver by African Storybook Initiative. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.

While many people think of hyenas as devious scavengers, these unusual African animals are actually resourceful hunters who live together in complex clans. This myth-dispelling book introduces kids to this unique animal.

"Each book in this series showcases one of Africa's most fascinating animals. Readers will learn about the animal's physical features, diet, and natural habitat, as well as the challenges it faces"--

Learn all about the hyena.