What can the everyday practices of people at the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border reveal about challenges to state power and state definitions of criminality? Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani is joined by Nicholas Nyachega to discuss Nyachega’s fascinating work on the Honde Valley and the Zimbabwe-Mozambique borderlands. Nyachega introduces us to the Honde Valley as an example of a contested space, in which local practices and customs challenge state definitions of legal border crossing as enforced by patrols and criminal convictions. Tune in for discussions of research methods, ethics and Nyachega’s call for new ways of interpreting and accessing the past in a postcolonial context.

More information about Nicholas Nyachega can be found https://icgc.umn.edu/nicholas-nyachega

This podcast was originally published on 26th March 2024 as part of the ERC research project ‘Dictatorship as experience: A comparative history of everyday life and the ‘lived experience’ of dictatorship in Mediterranean Europe (1922-1975)’ led by Prof. Kate Ferris at the University of St Andrews. To learn more about the wider project, visit: ⁠arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/everyday-dictatorship/⁠

Hosted by: Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani

Produced by: Islay Shelbourne

Music by: Oi Palaiológoi (Violin - Roddy Beaton, Outi - David Hughes