Polis! Geography 72 2019) 43-51 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect z Cort Political Geography journal homepage: wiww.clsevier.comocate/polgee — The non-politics of abandonment: Resource extractivisim, precarity and ® coping in Tete, Mozambique soa Gediminas Lesutis"”” *Daparme of Gena, Unity of Cambri, Downing lace, Cantri C2 JEN, "pls, Seal of ect cones, On ef Marcher, fd Rad, Monch, 3 PU Noes Thisanel reties o Jaeie Races thera af ic im order to explore the odio prea freay esi of anstomative atin inthe ester sof Cate eed er popeations posed ice pias lou for ming in Tet, Mocambigu Bringing he erate on pear in lao to Rares fanpage ‘understanding of politics, as well as ethnographic research on coping strategies the dispossessed populations a ply tonite como of pear creed ty te pesmi aie hile te cen maaan impossibility of transformative politics in Cateme. It argues that, shaped by the state violence associated with the So we decided to protest. So they [Vale and the government] would start listening to us (anonymous inter View no. 1, Cateme, July 2016). According to various accounts of the event, one month before the protest, the Cateme resettlement representatives sent an official com. plait letter to the District Government Authorities in Mostize, the District Committe of Frelimo and Vale. In this leer they demanded @ rapid intervention to effectively address the problems they had faced ater being rested. The letter also explained that the resetied popu- lation would organise a protest and block the railway and would set the coal train on fire on 10 January if no actions would be taken by that date Since no oficial response was received by the date specified in the Fewer, the Cateme population decided to barricade the railway that connects Vale mines with the railway infrastructures. AS Ertir 2017, 101) in her analysis of precarity observes, “barricades embody the ways in which something ofa structure emerges when bodies that are moved by or are beside themselves with indignation, desire, grief, or des eration actin concer.” This was the case in Cateme, where the con- tinuous precarty within the resetdement site resulted in collective mobilisation. Having discussed the protest strategies at a community ‘meeting, the Cateme residents prepare the protest overnight. As one of the Cateme residents who participated in the protest recollected, Wwe did not go to sleep that night < > As soon as the last train passed just before midnight, we blocked the railway by bringing three trunks. We <... > stayed there during the night, waiting for the rest of the population to join us inthe ‘morning. <... > Everybody participated. Only the old and blind stayed at home, < .. > AS the is train Was supposed to [pass by] at sx in the morning, the motorist had no choice but stop it. As we blocked its railway, we knew that Vale [would] have to-do some: thing (anonymous interview no. 2, Cateme, July 2016). By the end of the same day, the protest was broken down by the special unit of the Rapid Intervention Forces of the Mozambican Police that used batons, tear gas and firearms in onder to disperse the protest. According to the interviews carried out in Cateme, as well as the na- ‘ional and international media (see Exam, 2012; Verde, 2012), 15 men were beaten at the protest site, taken into police custody, held ‘overnight and released without any charges. Seven years following the protest, these men are stil waiting fr the court hearing on the case of, police violence that they had submitted to the Provincial Court in Tete with the assistance of the National Human Rights League in Mo- zambique. During my fieldwork, 1 interviewed three of these men who face stil resident in Cateme, As one of them recounted, {only protested for what is my right. I cannot be taken out of my land and put into the place where there is nothing They promised usso many things, but in the end, they gave us nothing. That's why 1 protested. <..> Loole at my skinny body ~ can you not sce that I am suffering? Look at my ribs that were broken. [only asked for What is mine. But they beat us like animals, ike we are nothing (anonymous interview no. 3, Cateme, July 2016). ‘These accounts of the protest and its aftermath are particularly telling about the precarity experienced by these men who were beaten ‘asa result of their participation inthe protest. As Butler (2009) ex Plains, the precariousness of the body ~ particularly its interdepend- ability on other bodies that ean be mediated by violenee, neglect oF care from the other — makes human life fundamentally’ dependent on broader socio-materal context for survival. That fs, for what we are, as social beings from the begining of our lives, we are dependent on that which is outside ourselves ~ other beings, institutions, sustained and sustainable socio-political and economie enviconments (Butler, 2009, pp. 14,28) Asthese accounts ofthe protest demonsrate, in Cateme this relation of interdependability was mediated through violence. It was Uhough the exposure of the dispossessed population to the physical Violence thatthe precarty created by the dspossession - namely, the land or water shortage and the lack of viable livelihood opportunities, as discussed above ~ was further heightened. The phrase “like we are nothing” evoked by the protest participants demonstrates how the precarty as a possibilty of resistance and social contestation is undon ‘and disavowed into extreme suffering through violence. ‘This state of “nothingness” described by the dispossessed families in ‘cateme has been analysed as the condition of “surplus populations” that are unnecessary forthe state and capitalist development, as a result ‘of whieh these populations are let die (see Banerjee, 2008; Li, 20105 Montag, 2005), or are “subjected to conditions of life conferring upon them the status of living dead” (Mbembe, 2003, no page; also see ‘Comaroff and Comaroff, 2002). In the context of Cateme, rather than. nevily constituted through the dispossesion, this state of being “sur plus” predated the resettlement site. AS I diseused inthe introduction and elsewhere (see Lesuts, 2019), in the context of the mining en Closure in Tete, i was only the most vulnerable small-scale holders in ‘areas enclosed for mining that were mandatory resettled to Cateme. Interests ofthese families that engage in subsistence agricultural labour are curently marginalised by the Mozambican state that focuses on large-scale industrial extractive projects (See Castel Branco, 2014). In this context, reflecting broader global trends of increasing superfuity of ‘vulnerable social groups (see I, 2010; Sassen, 2014), this part of the population in Tete is not needed for the state development vision and thus can be treated as “surplus and “disposable”. Therefore, itis ex actly this conltion of being “surplus” that enabled the dispossession of these families in the first place. However, in Cateme this dynamic of marginalisation is further heightened by the shortage of land, water, livelihood apportunities and state violence, as I discuss inthis paper. ‘The ease of state violence, in particular, has remained prominent in the tifeworlds of the dispossessed population. On numerous occasions, CCateme residents explained to me how, despite the continuing pre carious living conditions, they do not want to protest ~ they fear that ‘any protest will be deat with ina violent way, a they had experienced it before. in the seven years following the protest, between 2012 and 2019, despite the continuing preearity, there have been no other pro tests in the resettlement site. As one of Cateme community leaders and nobody will be held responsible for them, you will, see. You think anybody would bother paying any attention to us here, even if we were dead? Because we are already dead to them, ‘They do not need us (rom the fieldwork diary, Cateme, 23 June 2016). In the visual presence of the corpses produced by the ongoing vio lent confit between the two main politial partes in Mozambique, my assistants utterance on the dead bodies as similar to the condition of the population in Gateme highlights how everyday suffering crested by the dispossession and the state violence is embodied as precarty — feeling un-needed, with one's bodily interdependability on others tn done by violence, thereby constituting bodies whose living does not matter and isnot registered in the public discourse. This condition of being “un-needed” and “surplus” that, pre-existing the dispossesion, was further heightened in Cateme, is starkly revealed through eon- tinuous iteration of “being nothing”. Following the headlines of vio- lence in January 2012, the Cateme resettlement has disappeared from public registers in Mozambique; between 2012 and 2016, in the four ‘years following the protest, there has been no mention of Cateme in ‘seven main national Mozambican dafly and weekly newspapers. As Butler (2008, 15) writes, “without grievabiity, there is no life, ‘or, rather, there is something like living that is ather than life ~ sri ‘ability precedes and makes possible the apprehension of the living being as living, exposed to nondife from the start. In other words, death that is moumed ~ and thereby is socially and politcaly ac knowledged ~ is a signifier of life that was/is liveable (see Butler, 2009), life that was/is “visible” and had/has “a name and place” within ‘a given socio-materal order (Ranciére, 1999, . 29). AS we see through the discussion provided here, this has not been the eae in Cateme. On the one hand, the tun-grevability of life within the resettlement site is ‘demonstrated by the violence used to suppress the socal contestation that emerged in the escttlement site. On the other hand, this un-gric ‘ability is experienced by the dispossessed population as being made unnecessary and “surplus, 2s “nothing”, as already dead to the state. In this context where life is subjugated tothe power of death as a lagi of ‘governance ofa surplus population, the communally organised protest, to challenge the precarity created by the dispossession has become unlikely. Confrontation means exposure to violence an! possibly death. Nevertheless, whilst the social contestation of the precarity within Ca- teme was brutally suppressed by the state violence, is residents, rather than again direetly confronting Vale, have employed less confronts- onal coping strategies such as abandonment in order survive their precarty, I turn to discuss this dynamic next. 3. Abandoning the resettelement site: permanent migration Given the broader volatile political context in Mozambique, the residents of Cateme have very limited conditions of possiblity to challenge their precarty and the soco-materal order that produces it In this context, one of the most prominent eoping strategies in Cateme has been abandoning the resettlement site. In the first few years ft lowing the dispossession, faced with the searcity of land, food and water, some families started to sll parts of their houses that could be detached, such as window glas, roof tiles or doors, in Toeal markets, ‘and abandoned the resettlement site, The resettlement project of CCatome reflects a numberof cases when imaginaries of “development” attached to large-scale civil engineering projects, despite their appeal to ‘progress" and “modernity”, result in socially and economically dis ‘advantageous situations for vulnerable populations, thereby exposing the fallacy of these projects (for an example, see Gheriner, 2015; ‘Ortega, 2016). That i, inspite of the modern infrastructures provided inthe resettlement site, in the context of seaeity, these infrastructures had litle significance in improving the lives ofthe resettled population. AAs one Cateme resident recounted, It was a dificult time, i was the time of hunger. We hal nothing Pata! Gnrphy 722019) 4-51 here, only the houses, But what ae you supposed to do with a house when there is nothing? We cannot eat the house! So we had to do something. So that’s why some people started selling what they could, so (they] could buy a least haf a litre of maize (anonymous, Interview no. 6, Cateme, June 2016). “This dynamic has been observed by Meneses, Pedro, Maguico, and CGuatura (2014) in a study that found that a part of the resettled po- pulation did not adapt to the new conditions, and, due to the lack of fertile land, the Tong distance from Moatize and the loss of livelihoods, sold, rented or simply abandoned their houses in Cateme. This study (Meneses et al, 2014), however, does not provide an approximate rhumber of the abandoned houses. According tothe information I col lected, around 30 percent of the houses (214 houses of total 716) in CCateme have been abandoned. Whilst Meneses et al. (2014) indicate that the families deserting the resettement site have retumed to Moatize (again with no estimate of the approximate size of this pope: lation, in my research I found that these familie, rather than returning {o Moatize, have left in search of agriculturally fertile land in other parts ofthe district of Moatize or the province of Tete. Given that there is a shortage of fertile land in and around Moatize, and that the po- pulation of Moatize has grown substantially over the last decade, ‘mainly triggered by the coal mining boom, returning to Moatize i not a Viable option. A more suitable strategy has been looking for age: culturally fertile land in other locations where the resetled families are able to grow staple food erops such as maize or cassava. 1 visited five ofthese small population settlements all located in the district of Moatize." Because these villages are not registered at the local cadastre in Moatize, it was not possible to verify the distance between them and Cateme. However, based on the time of travel ceded to reach them on a motorbike, I estimate the distance to be roughly from 20 to 30 km fom the resettlement site. These villages had existed before the arrival ofthe residents of Cateme, and had two to thee families that worked the land in the ares. At the time of my visits they had four to sx families residing there permanently. interviewed 18 families who deserted Cateme between 2012 and 2013. In the face of the precarty constituted through the dispossession and the limited Possibilities to contest it, as I discuss in the preceding section, these families started t look for land in other parts ofthe Moatize district so they could Teave the resettlement site and find space to practice their livelihood strategies based on small-scale agriculture. It was throtgh the existence of social networks in and around these areas ~ such as distant relatives or friends ~ that they managed to acquire land for cultivation with a symbolic one-off payment that varied from 500 to 1000 metiats (8-16 USS) ‘The general living pattern that has emerged in these areas is that these families reside in these villages permancntly and no longer return to Cateme, With the agricultural produce not consumed within the household, one member ofthe family, usually father or an eldest son, travels to Moatize in order co sell it in informal markets and buy goods such as vegetable ofl oF salt that cannot be produced within the household. For example, a 45-year old man who lives in one of these villages with his wife and seven children explained to me that his family has lived inthe village of Minga for four years having left Cateme, ‘twas the time of hunger, We lost everything what we had [when we were resetiled), and we were given nothing in Cateme, only the house. The land that we [received] was no good, it was full of stones, we could not grow anything there. So we had to leave to escape this hunger. [knew somebody here inthis place, so we paid for 500 MT for this land, and we [have] stayed here the months preceding my fekdwork were marked by continuous clases, between the uella Renamo force an the Mozambican state military inthe province of Tete. Therefore, 10 visit more settlements outside ofthe dst oF Moatize was not possible de to the security concernssince, < .. > We do not go to Cateme anymore, There is nothing there for us. There never was (anything! for us (anonymous inter view no. 7, Minga, July 2016) ‘Therefore, we see that abandonment of the resetlement site Is a way to cope with the precarty within Cateme-the difficulty to practice semi-subestence small cale agriculture that the resetted popilation f= used to as well as the impossibility to collectively contest the extremely difficult conditions of life. I is important, however, to emphasise that seasonal agricultural migration was a common livelihood practice of these popuilations before the resettlement took place, and that livel- hoods of the rural and peri-urhan popilations of Moatize were char ‘acterised by episodic migration that interlinked with eyeles of agt- ‘cultural production.” Nevertheless, even ifthe resettlement process did not introduce a completely new dynamic into the lives ofthese families, it, however, significantly altered this dynamic by prolonging the period ‘of migration, as well as changing the destination of this Seasonal mi ‘gration all together. fore the resettlement process implementation, land cultivated by the dispossessed population was closer to their set ements Asa result, it was not necessary to permanently move to these ‘areas with agriculturally fertile land. Depending on the season andthe workload necessity forthe cultivation of land, some family members could relocate to these areas for shorter periods of time. However, in the current context, the dynamic i different as fertile lands are much further away from Cateme. Given that 80 percent of the district of Moatize had been assigned to the coal mining, as T discussed in the introduction, there isa shortage of land in the district, In the face of the precarity indicated by these families refering to the resetlement site as an unliveable space where “there is nothing for them", the residents of Cateme prefer to leave the resettlement houses, the more developed areas with sect lighting and better roads, ed. ‘ation and health facilites, and live in remote areas with none ofthese facilities, only the fertile land. These strategies enable some families to survive their precarty. One woman who has abandoned Cateme with her husband and five ehildren observed, its not like we want to be here in this bush, dont thnk that we are against development. <... > Why would we not want to have ‘modern houses, health centre, ood schools for our children? We are rot against it. < .. > But nothing changed, the life only became more difficlt, so we had to leave in oder to live (anonymous i terview no. 8, Golubwe, July 2016). However, whilst the abandonment of the resettlement site renders life livable, in a sense that it enables this part of the resettled popu- lation to live with the precarity within Cateme that relegate their bodies to suffering, this coping strategy results in different forms of precarity. In the resettlement area, as [have discusted above, the po: ulation was rendeced extremely precarious through the dispossesic ‘and the state violence that ensued to supress the contestation of the ‘extremely difieult life conditions in Cateme. In the ease of the aban ddonment of the resettlement site, however, whilst the population leaving the recetlement site overcomes some aspects of this precarity by, for example, finding fertile land, they are rendered precarious by having to leave the resettlement site for remote areas, They live in precarious conditions, in makeshift houses, some of which are only reachable by walking, far fom schools, health centres, roads and ‘lecricity. Asa 42-year old man who stays in one of these villages with his family with five children stated, look at how we live now inthis bush, It sas if we do nat belong to anywhere. But it wasn like this in Maotize, we had life there, we had our place. And now we are here like animals looking for food in in Mozambique, i is common for per-urban populations to temporarily relocate to rural areas to work land during a rainy season (ee Fe) & Thai, 2018) Pata! Gnrphy 722019) 4-51 the bush (anonymous interview no. 9, Minga, July 2016). ‘ese manifestations of precarity that stem from the abandonment of Cateme particularly have an impact on families with school-aged children. As observed by the Cateme secondary school principal, fa miles abandoning the resettlement ste tend to take their children with them. In each of the five villages I visited, I encountered families with School-age children who no longer attend school due to the long dis tance separating these villages and Cateme. As one father explained, have five children, and we took them here with us. <...> 1 un derstand that is not good to take children out of school. They will be literate, they will nt speak any Portuguese. But they are here with 1s, so at leas we can feed them. We cant leave them by themselves, in Cateme (anonymous interview no. 10, Galambe July 2016) Another 39-year old man who, having abandoned his resettlement house, currently lives with his family of seven a 90-min motorcycle drive away from the resettlement area explained t9 me, we stay here because we have to ~ we ean atleast manage to get Some food, But what if our children get il? What i they get malaria? wil take me the whole day to walk to Cateme or Moatize to get medical help. We are completely by ourselves here (anonymous interview no. 11, Minga, July 2016), ‘As we sce through the analysis ofthe precarity that emerges in the spaces created by the population abandoning Cateme, abandonment is a coping strategy and a form of precarity. On the one hand, the aban- ddonment ofthe resettlement site sa carefully thought-through practice that enables these people to cope with their precarity. It allows the families abandoning the resetlement ste to make thei lives liveable on uncertain terms outside of Cateme - that i, to work land, acquire food and reproduce themselves on everyday basis. On the other hand, however, this abandonment creates different forms of precarity that are constituted by new spatialities of coping, namely the remote villages witha dificult access to health and other services, which, as Farge, results inthe further precarisaion ofthe resettled population. As some families in Cateme abandon the resettlement site to live in remote areas, kilometres away from drivable roads, electricity, schools and health centres, they experience different forms of precarity that are directly created by the dynamics ofthe precarty constituted in Cateme. This precarity makes these peaple abandon the resettlement in order to render their lives liveable in an immediate sense. However through this abandonment, their precarity Is re-constituted in a diferent material context, inthe spaces co-preduced by themselves permanently leaving the Cateme resettlement. Therefor, the practice of abandonment does rot overcome, nor does it atively challenge, the precarity ereated by the dispossession and the state violence that characterised the reset ement process. Instead, this precarty is reproduced by the dis possessed population itself - thats, this precarty and everyday coping strategies to overcome it simultaneously reinforce each other and continuously (fe)produce the everyday suffering experience by the popitlation of Cateme. In the final section of the paper, 1 discuss pos- sibilities for contestation and transformative politics in this context of, abandonment as a practice of coping and a form of precarity. 4. The non-polities of abandonment {As I discussed in the introduction, inthe broader precarity literature the condition of precarity” is seen as a possible rallying point of re- sistance among those subjected to precarity (see Butler, 2015, 2016; Eris, 20173 linger, 2007; Lorey, 2015). Therefore, everyday coping practices of those experiencing heightened precarity should not only be !pproached as an important means of reducing, or dealing with, ones precarty, but aso should be perceived as constituting political prae- tices (Harker, 2012, p 960). As Sabsay (2017, p. 298) observes, under the conditions of heightened precarity, the actions of bodies should beunderstood as particular political articulations formed in response to this precarty. According to Butler (20112, no page), “when the body ‘speaks’ politically, tis not only in vocal or writen language” ~ pre ‘carious bodies that come together and claim a publie space also perform | certain particular articulation of resistance and enact the popula Gutler, 2016, p. 15). With this in mind, 1 ask what kinds of polities are constituted in ‘Cateme through the coping practice of abandonment that followed the violent crushing of the community protest organised to contest the precarity created within the resettlement site? What kinds of political articulations do the acts ofthe population abandoning the resettlement site constitute? Do these acts transform the dificult conditions of living in Catemo? Based on my discussion of the practice of abandonment ‘employed to cope with the precarity in Cateme, and following my Ranei@rean understanding of polities - as a symbolic and material ‘ruption of a surplus, excessive part, rendered precarious, into the so- ‘ial orders that had displace it into the margins ofthat ordering (See Raneidre, 2001, . 24; 2004, 226) 1 argue that even if the practice of ‘abandonment makes the precarty within the resettlement site surv vable, it, at the same time, does not result in transformative polis ‘This practice doesnot openly contest the socio-material order that has resulted in the dspossession, and therefore is unable to ereate a space of polities that would challenge the preearity of the dispossese popula tion, To emphasise the current impossibility of transformative polities in Cateme, I term these dynamies of coping with precarity as the “non- polities of abandonment” As T discussed in the preceding section 3, in the fleldwork en- ‘counters it hecame clear that the dispossessed population is perma rently leaving the resettlement ste in order to physically survive the hhunger that they had identified as the main problem in Cateme. Even if through this strategy the dispossessed people attempt to mediate the precarty that they are subjected to, they themselves do not identify these acts as contestation or resistance; when these people describe their current situation, they say that they are tying to survive and ‘escape the hunger: Importantly, they are not necessarily opposing the {development vision implemented inthe resetlement site; asthe quotes inthe preceding section reveal, they identity the possibilty of deve ‘opment in the resettlement site as desirable. Therefore, ata discursive level, the narratives that emerged inthe fieldwork encounters, although highlighting how the dispossessed population attempts to ive with the precarty, do not demonstrate an explicit attempt to challenge the soci ‘material order ofthe enclosure for mining in Tete that has produced the precarity within the resettlement sie. ‘Ata material level, the everyday practices ofthe resettled popu tion point ina similar direction. The acts of abandoning houses make {heir lives liveable atthe margins of the mining enclosure ~ that is, the people leaving the esetlement site are able to survive their precarty. ‘These dynamics of withdrawal from disadvantageous sociopolitical spaces have been described as disengagement within the broader It ‘erature on African politics (see Baker, 2000; Cohen, 1980; Herbst, 11990) or on power and polities more broadly (se Hirschman, 1970). However, even if these aes enable this part ofthe population to cope ‘with this procarty and provide the very basic needs forthe immediate reproduction of oneself, with these practices, their precarity is e-con- stituted atthe very margins ofthe mining enclave and the resettlement site ~ namely, the small villages inhabited by the poputation aban: ddoning the resetlement site. Therefore, ! argue that in the context of CCateme it is problematic to read the precarity created by the di possession and the state violence as a possibility of polities. In elation to the broader literature onthe politics of resistance, the likes of Seott (1985) and Bayat (1997) have argued that the power of marginalised groups lies in their ability 10 quietly eneroach on publie spaces and resources, instead of just making ends meet in peripheral spaces; that is, through non-confrontational means, such as theft or footdragging, these groups might be able to improve their dis ‘advantageous position unnoticed. However, the discussion provided in Pata! Gnrphy 722019) 4-51 this paper shows that it isnot the ease in Cateme, Rather than through "a silent, patient, protracted and pervasive advancement by ordinary people on the propertied and powerful to survive hardships and better their lives" (Baya, 1997, 8), oF through daily constant struggles to foutmanocuvre the power structures that aim “to extract labor, food, taxes, rents and interest fom them” (Scot, 1985, p. 29), the population of Cateme, abandoning the resettlement site, stays inthe areas that are remote tothe mining enclave. Asa result, their daly struggles are not registered in the socio-material order that dispossesses them, Nor do they improve their lives through this process. As I demonstrate in the paper, abandonment ofthe resettlement site becomes a different form of precarity. Therefore, whilst the spatialities and everyday dynamics of their precarty are transformed, the bodies of the resettled population that undertake permanent migration remain highly precarious and suscepuble to suffering, as the discussion provided in the preceding section demonstrates, Ic is, of course, essential to acknowledge the temporality of this dynamic. As this paper highlights, following the frst three years after the resettlement implementation, the collective action of the dis possessed population challenged the socio-materal order ofthe mining enclave by blocking with their very bodies the railway that transports the coal from the lands where they use to lve. The collective mobi- lisation ofthe community interrupted the flow of coal from the mining enclave. Thus, this coming-together of bodies introduced a rupture into the otherwise uncontested functioning of the mining enclave and made it wisible that this enclave has resulted in suffering of the population thar was dispossessed (also see Lesutis, 2019). Following Ranciére (1999; 2001), 1 argue that the protesting population, with ther bodies blocking the railway, inaugurated politics. It was through the act of protesting undertaken by the dispossessed population thatthe socio: ‘material order of the mining enclave was temporarily ruptured. These actions, as a “refusal to observe the ‘place’ allocated” to them (se Robson, 2005, p. 5), "made visible what had no business being seen (anciére, 1999, p 30) and made heard their suffering that had been overshadowed by the socio-material order created by the mining en: closure. Doing this, the protesting residents of Cateme shifted their bodies from the place of sufering to a place where they were able to voice their concerns, demanding “the part for those who have no-pa (Ranciére, 2001, p. 6) Ina similar vein, within the scholars 15) observes that the demand to end precarity is enacted publicly by those who expose their vulnerability to falling infrastructural conditions; there is, plural and performative bodily resistance at work that show how bodies are being acted on by social and economic policies that are decimating livelihoods. Bu these bodies, in showing this precarity, are also resisting these very powers they enaet a form of resistance that presupposes vulnerability of a specific kind, and opposes pre: catty. on precarity, Butler (2016, However, a discussed inthe frst section of the paper, this moment of polities that was introduced through the gathering of the dis possessed people, mobilising on their precarity, resulted in further heightening oftheir vulnerability ~ their bodies, already subjected to precarity through the dispossession, were exposed to the police bri- tally that ruthlessly sutured this moment of contestation. In other words, the state violence, evoked to suppress the socio-material con- testation and dissent ignited by the dispossesson, undid the momentary Inauguration of politics. Following these dynamics, currently, in order to cope with the Drecarty in Gateme a significant part ofthe population is abandoning the resettlement ste to live atthe margins ofthe mining enclave and the resettlement site, as I discuss in the preceding section. Therefore, the engagement with ths soio-material order that produces precaity as a condition of life is not one of active constructing, disclosing oF disrupting, aT understand pottes from the Rancférean perspective inthis paper. Iti one of disengaging from the current socto-material order created by the mining industry. Despite my attempt to reflect on the «ispossessed people's attempts to escape their precarty, and thus show thatthe enclosure of life into precarity ean never be completely ire versible [highlight the non-political nature ofthis practice of aban ‘donment, Ihave to bear witness tothe fact that eurrently the lives ofthe dispossessed population remain precarious given the very limited con litions of possibility that result fom the dispossession and the violenee associated with the mining enclosure and the Mozambican state more broadly as I discuss in Section 2. Their coping strategies such as abandonment cannot result in politial rupture that would reorganise “the hierarchical distribution” ofthe conditions of ite within the space that assigns the dispossessed people to “their particular place” of ex treme suffering (ee Nancie, 1998, p. 83; Ranciere, 1999, p, 29), That fs, the practiee of abandonment reconstitute their preearity and the sense of being made “nothing” that were continuously narrated in the fiekdwork encounters, a {discuss inthis paper. ‘Therefore, in light of these analyses, inthis very particular context ‘of living with precarity overtime and space in the resettlement site of CCateme, rather than approaching precarity as a mobilising point of politics and contestation, 1 understand this living with precarity in ‘Cateme as the articulation of the non-polities of abandonment that is ‘enacted by the dispossessed population. In this context of the dls possession, Cateme's population, inorder to materially reproduce itself, has no choice Dut fo abandon what is given to it through the dis. possession namely, the basic livin infrastructures, such as houses and ‘lecricity, that in the context of hunger, exclusion and the lack of I- velihood opportunities cease to have material significance. These acts are experienced in tension with other aspects of life such asthe health ‘entre, electricity or schools that are left behind in the resettlement sit. Nevertheless, this coping with the precarity created by the disposses sion and the broader context of state violence in Mozambique, and then reproduced and reartculated by the dispossessed populations them: selves in newly-emerged spatialities, enables the life to be lived on precarious terms atthe margins ofthe mining enclave, This, however, forecloses the possibilty of politics, and doesnot challenge, but sustains the eurrentsoeio-material formation of the mining enclosure in Tete. 5. Conclusion In this paper relied on Jacque Rancigre' theorsation of polities in ‘order to explore the condition of precarity asa possibility of transfor. mative politics in the resetiement site of Cateme created by the capi talist enclosure for mining in Tete, Mozambique, Firs, I discussed how in the face of the precarty created by the resettlement process, the population of Cateme organised a communal protest to challenge this precarity; thi protest, however, was met by the state violence that ‘rushed the protest, which, in the cantext ofthe broader volatile pol Uical climate in. Mozambique, has resulted in the extremely limited possibilty of open contestation of the precarity inthe resettlement sic ‘Second, | analysed the practice of abandonment employed by the re- ‘setled population to cope with the precarity within Cateme. Current facing the continuous problems of land shortage and the lack of viable livelihood opportunities, as wel as having extremely Limited condito to contest it the population of Cateme is abandoning the resettlement site and Is migrating permanently in search of agriulturally productive land elsewhere. Doing this, this population is able to survive the pre ‘arity constituted by the dispossesson and the state violence used to ‘supres the contestation that emerged in the resettlement site. However, in the paper, I demonstrated that through this practice of abandonment these people are not spared from the preearity ~ in spite of thei at tempts 10 mitigate dificult living conditions, their lives are con: tinuously marked by everyday suffering. This dynamic is most starkly revealed through their continuous iteration that they “do not mean anything", “are nothing”, or could "be killed witha blink ofan eye", as 1 ‘discussed throughout the paper. Therefore, I angued that abandonment Pata! Gnrphy 722019) 4-51 {s both a coping strategy and a form of precarity, which demonstrates thatthe precarity created by the dispossession is reconstituted in dif ferent spatialities ereated by the dispossessed population abandoning the resetlement site. Third, following the Ranciérean understanding of polities as a process that challenges established socio-material orders that relegate certain lives to the condition of precaity, [argued that abandonment should be perecived as the non-plities of abandonment. ‘The practice of abandonment is body articulated by the dispossessed population - in the face ofthe state violence that is evoked to suppress the social contestation in Cateme, the dispossessed population no longer openly contests the precarity oftheir lives, but merely survives it by abandoning the resettlement ste. This dymamic, however, 1 argue, forecloses the possibilty of politics and thus does not challenge the socio-material formation ofthe capitalist enclosure for mining in Tete that produces precarity as a condition of if in Cateme. ‘This argument about the non-polities of abandonment and the current impossibility of wansformative politics in Gateme contributes to the literature on precarity (see Butler et al, 2016; Lorey, 2015; Wale, 2000), as well as the scholarchip dedicated to hidden articulations of resistance and contestation even in stations characterised by violence and repression in the context of the Global South (see Scott, 1985; 2009; Bayat, 1997). On the one hand, i€ echoes these literature by showing how human life eannot be completely disavowed, and thatthe dispossessed popiation, even inthe face of violence, resto make their lives liveable, However, this paper also advocates that inthe context of the Global South, particulary in situations characterised by extreme suifering, overemphasising everyday coping as possibilities of trans- formative polities can end up depoliticising structural inequalities (also See Lesutis, 20185 also see; Ferguson & Harman, 2015). The account of the lives of the dispossessed population in Cateme demonstrates how, despite those attempts, the lives of this population continue to be characterised by precarity, and that their coping strategies do not challenge massive sociomaterial reconfiguration of land enclosure constituted by the coal mining industry in the region. Therefore, this argument about the non-political nature of abandonment highlights the importance of a politically responsible understanding of precarity as a condition of life, and inthe ease of Cateme~ the current impossibility of transformative polities, By acknovledging how in Cateme the practices af coping with precarty are not able to challenge socio-material orders that produce precarity a6 a condition of life, I demonstrate how this Ranciérean reading of transformative politics of precarity is important in order to Avoid the potential danger of glorifying coping and survival strategies and overlooking the limited conditions of possibility. This is why 1 deem it necessary to talk about nor-poltcs ~ the focus on the non-poit nature of coping practices highlights the almost-full closure of life to precarity that the enclosure for mining achieves in Cateme. Even if any Aisavowl of life to precarity and production of capitalist space contains suxplis and dormant possbiies of alternative imaginaries of life, and thus is contestable by its very nature, currently in Cateme they appear to be overshadowed by the soio-material orders created by extractive capitalist accumulation in Mozambique. As scholars we need to theorise how these dynamice of limited conditions of possibility minnce our understanding of transformative polities in the face of the everex- ppanding capitalist enclosure of life. cont of interest None. Funding “The research on which this article is based is part of the PhD re: search completed in the Politics Department, the University of Manchester, and it was funded by UK's Economic and Social Research Council (North West Doctoral Tratning Centre).Acknowledgments ‘The author is grateful to Carl Death, Japhy Wilson, Andrea Zev, ‘Amanda Hammar, and three anonymous reviewers who provided ‘comments on earlier drafts of this article. References Lesa, G. 201, The plc of martin: Meola veltons om analysing ies ofthe giz in An. fen Afar 138), 509-521 Lenin € D1) Speco exc Sad me: Resnerel clave and pone ‘son in Tete, Morambique, Cf foseaing. ke, (200), cape ro doar rc: Pcl Agneta scm Sequoc Tento Ate Wool Pres er 200) oiing td the fn Morambiue Pinan Scie, 192, osx, (2006) Nercaplalin. 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