ZIMBABWE

Shona

We received several Shona contributions, revealing that there is not one single way of expressing statelessness. Contributors describe it through citizenship, documentation, home, ancestry and belonging.

Citizenship and nationality

Kushaikwa kwehugari hwenyika / munhu asina chizvarwa

The contributor explains this as referring to a person who is not recognized or regarded as a citizen of a country.

• Papers and registration

Other expressions supplied include:

Vanhu vasina mapepa

“People without papers or identity documents.”

Vanhu vasina mapepa ekuzvarwa

“People without birth certificates.”

Munhu asina gwaro rekuzvarwa kana chitupa

“A person who has no birth certificate or identity card.”

Munhu asina kunyoresewa kwamudzviti

“A person who has not been registered by/with the headman.”

Musina mapepa enyika

“One who has no papers of the country.”

The contributors also emphasize an important distinction: being undocumented and being stateless are not necessarily the same thing. Lack of documentation may contribute to statelessness or characterize someone's experience, without necessarily meaning that the person is stateless.

Home and abandonment

Munhu asina kumusha kwake

“A person who has no home/homestead of his/her own.”

Munhu arashwa

“A person who has been thrown away/discarded/abandoned.”

Here the language moves beyond documentation and toward experiences of homelessness, rejection and absence of a place of origin or ancestral home.

• Lineage and belonging

Mutorwa

“A foreigner/stranger/outsider.”

Munhu musina dzinza/mutupo

“One who has no clan/lineage or totem.”

This contribution connects the experience to lineage and social identity, rather than only formal citizenship.

• Another expression

Mubvandiripo

The contributor describes this approximately as:

“The one who just exists.”

It is presented as a colloquial/legal term for someone of unknown origin and can carry a sense of someone being unwanted or merely tolerated.

Ndebele

The contributor reports no specific word for statelessness.

Instead, they identify the central idea as:

“Not belonging.”

Expression

Umuntu wokuza

“Someone who just came/arrived.”

The contributor explains that the expression gives the impression that a person's roots are not known.

They do not feel that the available expression adequately captures statelessness