The Editorial Working Group of the Review of African Political Economy is pleased to announce the 2019 winner of our Ruth First prize. The prize is awarded for the best article published by an African author in the journal in a publication year.
This year, the prize was awarded to Paddington Mutekwe for his article ‘Resistance and repression in Zimbabwe: a case study of Zimplats mine workers’. It was published in ROAPE volume 46, issue 160, in June 2019.
The article
contends that contemporary resistance in the mining sector in Zimbabwe is grounded in everyday acts of resistance and is directed towards power relationships exercised at work. Overt forms of resistance have been waning in Zimbabwe because of various pieces of draconian legislation, and subterranean forms of resistance have been gaining traction and deserve to be studied. Drawing on in-depth interviews and participant observations at Zimplats, the article employs Scott’s [1985] concept of the ‘weapons of the weak’, which posits that covert forms of resistance are favourable when open and collective resistance seems dangerous, as a means to understand some of the current dynamics of worker struggles in Zimbabwe. (Mutekwe 2019, 246)
‘It was well structured and argued, drawing on existing literature on infrapolitics, but extending Scott’s argument by showing that there is collective organisation in this form of resistance as well. Mutekwe is also effective in drawing out the voices of individual mineworkers and their struggles with exploitation. Overall, this paper resonates with Ruth First’s legacy, which is grounded in labour struggles, race, class and political movements.’
‘I found this reading the closest to First’s ways because of the strength and primacy of the voice of the ‘oppressed’ in the data. … letting the voices of the workers, proletariats, peasants, and other oppressed speak through their oppression and emancipation stands out as a hallmark of Ruth First’s work. … this was the most accessible reading for me in terms of clarity and articulation of ideas around subterranean resistance and in terms of its very clearly written theoretical framework based on Scott’s ‘weapons of the weak’ and the very informing and equally clear literature review and research context. In short, this piece is the freest from the sort of academic and other kinds of jargon that often make research meanings inaccessible to those outside particular fields of research.’
‘This is the liveliest of all the papers. Looking at – through Scott’s “weapons of the weak” – resistance in name calling, absenteeism and foot-dragging etc. … [where] low levels of strike action and state repression [have] led to a growth of other forms of ‘subversion’, the paper uses Zimplats as a case study. The ‘name-calling’ section – Tollgate and Satanist – made me hoot with delight. Quite a fitting submission for the Ruth First prize.’
Paddington holds a master’s degree in Industrial Sociology from UJ that investigated subterranean forms of workplace resistance at Zimplats between 2000 and 2016. He authored the article ‘Resistance and repression in Zimbabwe: a case study of Zimplats mine workers’ out of his master’s dissertation. He has worked as a research assistant with the UJCSC, as a tutor, and currently as an assistant lecturer in the UJ Department of Sociology.
The prize-winning article can be read free of charge until July 2021 on the Taylor & Francis Online ROAPE website: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03056244.2018.1557041.