Land and Agrarian Transformation in Zimbabwe by Grasian Mkodzongi

Author:Grasian Mkodzongi [Mkodzongi, Grasian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Sociology, General, Rural, Agriculture & Food
ISBN: 9781785274169
Google: TCnoDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2020-06-05T02:46:34+00:00

Conclusion

This chapter has demonstrated how the fast track land reform process transformed the rural authority structure. In the aftermath of land reform, authority over the countryside is contested between chiefs and the state. The relationship between the state and the chiefs is dynamic and influenced by complex patron–client relationships that are difficult to generalize. The chapter has also highlighted the centrality of ethnicity and belonging in the way newly resettled people compete to access land and ZANU PF patronage networks. Moreover, ethnicity is central in the way political elites compete for political positions. Discourses of ‘belonging’ are also central to the way chiefs have sought to claim authority over areas that were resettled under the fast track land reform. Discourses of indigenization which have gained some salience in the aftermath of the land reform have had a profound effect on the way authority over land is claimed by both state and chiefs. Chiefs have deployed ancestral autochthony as a way of claiming authority over land and natural resources in the newly resettled areas while political elites have utilized state patronage networks as a way of challenging the legitimacy of chiefly claims over natural resources. In the aftermath of land reform, the relationship between chiefs and the state is dynamic; although the chiefs and the state contest each other in claiming authority over the countryside, chiefs play an important role in the way the state can be embedded in rural society. For example, chiefs are used by the government to mobilize their subject populations in support of government programmes. The ZANU PF political party also utilize chiefs to mobilize their subject communities during elections. This demonstrates that although there are ongoing conflicts between the chiefs and the state, chiefs play an important role in the way the state is embedded in rural society and the way ZANU PF patronage structures operate in the countryside.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.