This article examines the role of food in mediating social relations between undocumented Zimbabwean migrant farmworkers and other Zimbabweans living and working in the Blouberg and Molemole local municipalities in Limpopo province, South Africa. Based on ethnographic research, the article reveals that food, besides the utility of its physical matter as a necessity to satiate hunger, has a deeply embedded social meaning through which relations and modes of belonging can be expressed. This social meaning is best understood by invoking the concept ukama igasva hunozadziswa nekudya [a relationship is not complete until there is food]. Food mediates reciprocal social exchanges that lighten the burden of precarious working conditions associated with agricultural labour and reinforce a sense of belonging and oneness. Food also lubricates mutually supportive networks between undocumented farmworkers and Zimbabwean citizens working in other sectors. The article concludes that using ukama igasva hunozadziswa nekudya as an analytical concept provides rich explanations of the role of food in unifying the Zimbabwean migrant community in Limpopo. Food facilitates the production of macro-level connections in which individual Zimbabwean migrants, irrespective of their professional pursuits, identify with the larger network cluster based on citizenship.

本文研究了食品在调解无证的津巴布韦移民农民与其他在南非林波波省的Blouberg和Molemole当地市政当局生活和工作的津巴布韦人之间的社会关系中的作用。根据人种学研究，该文章揭示了食物，除了将其物质作为满足饥饿感所必需的用途外，还具有深层的社会意义，可以通过它表达关系和归属方式。通过调用概念ukama igasva hunozadziswa nekudya可以最好地理解这种社会意义。[直到有饭，关系才完整]。食品调解了相互的社会往来，减轻了与农业劳动有关的不稳定工作条件的负担，并增强了归属感和统一感。食品还可以润滑无证农民工和在其他部门工作的津巴布韦公民之间的相互支持的网络。文章得出的结论是，使用ukama igasva hunozadziswa nekudya作为分析概念可以对食品在统一林波波的津巴布韦移民社区中的作用提供丰富的解释。食品促进了宏观联系的产生，在津巴布韦移民个体中，无论其职业追求如何，都以基于公民身份的更大的网络集群为基础。