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Negotiating a Space of Belonging: A Case Study from the Zambia-Angolan Borderlands

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Forging African Communities

Part of the book series: Global Diversities ((GLODIV))

Abstract

Through a case study of Angolans settled in north-west Zambia, this chapter explores the gap between the formal regulatory environment that prohibits the integration of refugees and its local articulation that delivers precisely the opposite. Those who arrived as Angolan refugees have established a durable space of belonging, with a sustained welcome from local villagers, which has proved robust in the face of the government’s repatriation programme. The chapter shows how the underlying patterns of mobility, cross-border livelihoods and the sense of belonging have a continuity which is little affected by the vagaries of refugee policy defined by distant governments. This is not a story of resistance but one of local adaptation and reinterpretation of the law enabling former refugees effectively to become Zambian citizens.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    National Archives of Zambia: NWP 1/2/2 Tour Report No. 4 of 1938: N.S Price.

  2. 2.

    Cabinet Minutes 28/7/1967 MFA/5/266/01CONF/Part 1/Loc 527, Refugees from Zambia, Zambian National Archives.

  3. 3.

    Reservations made to Articles 17(2), 22, 26, 28 and 34.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Oliver Bakewell

Authors
  1. Oliver Bakewell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Oliver Bakewell

  2. African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Loren B. Landau

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Bakewell, O. (2018). Negotiating a Space of Belonging: A Case Study from the Zambia-Angolan Borderlands. In: Bakewell, O., Landau, L. (eds) Forging African Communities. Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58193-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58194-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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