FORTHCOMING BOOK "Zimbabwe's Land Reform : Myths and Realities"
| Scoones, I., Marongwe, N., Mavedzenge, B.,
Mahenehene, J., Murimbarimba, F. and Sukume, C. (2010, forthcoming). Zimbabwe’s Land Reform: Myths and Realities. James Currey, Oxford/Weaver Press, Harare |
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by Ian Scoones From early 2000, headlines around the world reported the invasion of Zimbabwe’s largely white-owned commercial farms in dramatic terms. This was ‘Mugabe’s land grab’, with an ‘unruly’, ‘violent mob’ of war veterans looting and destroying property across the country. Zimbabwe, it was claimed, had been turned from ‘bread basket’ to ‘basket case’. Zimbabwe’s subsequent economic collapse and widespread food insecurity were attributed to the ‘chaotic’ land reform, where property and human rights were violated and successful commercial farming had been transformed into underutilised plots run by ‘political cronies’ with no knowledge or interest in farming. But the story of Zimbabwe’s land reform is of course far more complex than the generalisations of the media headlines. A forthcoming book produced as part of the Livelihoods after Land Reform programme looks at the realities behind the headlines, and tries to tackle some of the oft-repeated myths about Zimbabwe’s land reform with a hard look at empirical data from one province – Masvingo – in the south and east of the country. |
| There is an enormous
amount of confusion, misinformation and misunderstanding about what
happened to whom, where and with what consequences over the last
decade, and a more nuanced story urgently needs to be told.
Misconceptions repeatedly arise because of a simple lack of solid,
field-level data. This book aims to fill this gap by providing insights
from 16 different sites and some 400 households, situated along a
transect of contrasting agro-ecological conditions in Masvingo
province. In the last decade, there have been some major changes in the rural landscape of Zimbabwe, with a radical reconfiguration of land, production, economy and livelihoods. But the implications of this are often not clear. There have been benefits and opportunities as well as costs, challenges and pitfalls. Why is this assessment important? It is important for Zimbabwe, as land remains – as it always has been – a highly emotive and political issue, and boosting production and livelihoods following land reform must be central to future policy efforts. For southern Africa more broadly, the spectre of land invasions destabilising an economy and the wider social and political system has sent shockwaves through the region. Zimbabwe’s experience is also suggestive of alternatives to an agricultural sector reliant on large-scale commercial farms, with a more equitably-distributed production system, rooted in small-scale production, highlighting the possibility of alternative rural development paths. The empirical material presented in Zimbabwe’s Land Reform offers important insights, charting a way forward which challenges the myths generated by the stereotypical views presented in media and other commentaries of Zimbabwe’s recent history. |
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20–22 SEPTEMBER 2010 — NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STRUCTURAL POVERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA "Overcoming inequality and structural poverty in South Africa: Towards inclusive growth and development"