Zimbabwean Army Deserters in South Africa

Scholarship on post-independence Zimbabwean soldiers ascertains that the military functions as perpetrators of political violence against unarmed civilians, with less emphasis on soldiers’ own dissatisfaction and disgruntlement with barrack lives and the politicization that took place within army barracks. This article examines the ways in which Zimbabwe soldiers were ‘made,’ later victimized in army barracks, deserted and lived their post army lives in exile in South Africa. Interviews with army deserters reveal that they faced violence and punishment in the barracks for not supporting the prolonged rule of the late President Robert Mugabe. The army desertion serves as a lens through which to understand the victimization of soldiers within the social structures of the barracks, where they are trained to live and serve. By detailing the deserters’ experiences both inside and outside the barracks, the article suggests that the act of desertion reinforces, rather than undermines, their soldier identity. This article presents an ethnographic account of life in the barracks, enriched by life story interviews with Zimbabwean army deserters now living in South Africa.