Livelihood resilience in a hyperinflationary environment: experiences of people engaging in money-burning (kubhena mari) transactions in Harare, Zimbabwe

At the zenith of Zimbabwe's protracted politico-economic crises around 2007, which resulted in record hyperinflation, the majority of ordinary people confronted monumental livelihood challenges and complex reconfigurations of social and economic relationships. Many people could hardly sustain themselves from their meagre salaries from formal employment. In spite of this seemingly insurmountable livelihood catastrophe, people did not remain passive victims of such economic quandary. Rather, in the midst of this economic crisis, many people demonstrated great ingenuity, resilience and displayed immense resourcefulness in terms of rationally navigating through the economic crisis. This study explores a widespread survival strategy adopted by many people in Harare as a response to economic conditions: that of "money burning" or illegally exchanging money on the black market through electronic transfers. It is argued in this study that the emergence of money "burning" was a clear manifestation of human agency directed at individual survival amid livelihood catastrophe. Research findings revealed that money burning had become the lifeblood of many urbanites' survival and livelihood portfolio. Interestingly, people's perceptions on the money-burning practice were rather ambivalent. In trying to dissect the money-burning practice, I adopted Giddens's structuration thesis and more especially the "structure-agency" dichotomy as my analytical insight, showing how the structure constrains and enables simultaneously.