Corruption and the Morality of Everyday Life in Urban Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract:Narratives around the everyday experiences of corruption in urban Harare provide multiple perspectives on how Zimbabweans create specific moral repertoires to make sense of their actions. They highlight how ordinary people speak to the dissonance of engaging in actions they deem immoral, such as paying and receiving bribes. Our research is based on interviews with fifteen respondents involved in livelihood options where bribery or petty corruption is an everyday occurrence. We utilize the concept of moral economy to show how people make sense of their actions in contexts where survival often involves participating in transactions constructed as immoral. We demonstrate that the respondents have created mechanisms to make sense of and excuse their actions as necessitated by the need for survival in difficult contexts. This has thus led to specific moral economies in urban Harare.