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Room S1, ARB
About
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This paper contributes to debates on thinking from Africa by examining how social and economic meaning is produced under conditions commonly described as a crisis in contemporary Zimbabwe. It moves beyond reductive crisis narratives that dominate interpretations of African societies. Rather than viewing prolonged instability as exceptional or disabling, the paper demonstrates how social and economic actors reinterpret, adapt to, and negotiate structural constraints in everyday life. Drawing on three empirical examples, crisis as an analytical category, the reconfiguration of legal professional ethics under economic strain, and the historical and contemporary role of tobacco auction floors, the study shows how institutions, livelihoods, and moral economies are continually reshaped. The legal profession illustrates how economic pressure transforms authority and justice, while tobacco auction floors reveal historically embedded spaces that enable new forms of regulation, accumulation, and survival. Overall, the paper argues for an Africa-centred approach that foregrounds continuity, adaptation, and social meaning over narratives of rupture and failure.
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Sibanengi Ncube is a Senior Lecturer (History) at Walter Sisulu University, Eastern Cape, South Africa. He holds a PhD in Africa Studies from the University of the Free State, a MA in African Economic History, and a BA in Economic History from the University of Zimbabwe. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow in the Centre of Africa Studies, University of Cambridge. His publications include a 2022 book, Politics, Profits and Protection: Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry since 1947. Derived from his PhD thesis, the book is published under the African Humanities Series of the African Humanities Association.
Please note that exceptionally, the CAS seminar series will take place on Tuesdays from 16:30 to 18:00 throughout Lent Term 2026.
All are welcome to attend. An informal drinks reception will be held after the talk.