Majoni-joni – Wayward Criminals or a Good Catch?: Labour Migrancy, Masculinity and Marriage in Rural South Eastern Zimbabwe

This article explores how intense cross-border flows of young Zimbabwean men across the border into South Africa are reworking ideas of masculinity and marriage in rural sending communities. It examines moral discourse in rural Chiredzi over these issues, exploring performances of masculinity on the part of returning male labour migrants themselves, the evaluations and agency of young women who enter into relationships with them, and the views of rural elders whose derogatory opinions of the youth of today are underpinned by romanticised versions of respectable labour migration in the past. Even during the crisis period, I argue that cross-border migrancy was about more than simply work: young people’s decisions and mobility in desperate economic times are deeply enmeshed with their sexuality and aspirations towards marriage, the future and the quest for respectable adulthood. By scrutinising polarised stereotypes of majoni-joni as either wayward criminals or a good catch, the article reveals more complex realities shaped by class, types of work and levels of education, providing a nuanced picture of the moral economies of migrancy, marriage and sexuality as these are debated and enacted in rural Chiredzi. The circulation of both stereotypes of majoni-joni matters: the derogatory view underpins elders’ efforts to control youthful sexualities, particularly those of young women, while the positive view underpins young people’s own dreams for a better future and attempts to seek out opportunities to fulfil them.