This study explores implications of the failure to accommodate formal land restitution in the Zimbabwean Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP), resulting in neglect of local communities’ autochthonous connections to land especially where their interests clash with those of political elites. It makes the point that this opened land reform to abuse by political elites and marginalized competing local community interests in prime land and valuable agricultural properties. In the absence of a formal policy for restitution, elites mobilized political and state power to enforce their commercial interests over those of neighbouring communities. Drawing from international experiences, the study argues that a formal policy of land restitution would enable local communities, including ethnic minorities, to legally reclaim lost ancestral land and limit elite capture of valuable agricultural properties.

This article examines the effect of social distancing on the social capital of beneficiaries of the A1 villagised model of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). In the A1 model beneficiaries were allocated individual arable and residential plots, but shared grazing land, social infrastructure, and services. A1 model beneficiaries rely on social capital to access resources, support agricultural production and other livelihood activities. In this setting, social capital is central to the normal functioning of these communities. When social distancing as a measure to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus was introduced, this presented many challenges in A1 communities. This article looks at the challenges of observing social distancing in A1 beneficiary communities, which rely on interpersonal interaction to sustain livelihoods and life in general. Drawing from interviews with key informants in these communities, the article shows that social distancing is difficult to implement in communities that are built around strong social capital. The article illustrates that when confronted by challenges which come with practicing social distancing, beneficiaries of A1 communities opted to unite and protect their social capital and livelihoods.

The Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) of 2000 redistributed land previously owned by White farmers to the majority Black Zimbabweans. In understanding the dynamics of land ownership, various studies have been conducted, and these highlight autochthonous claims to land based on attachment to graves and ancestral sites and contestations around them. However, non-ancestral claims to belonging have received limited attention. This article examines tensions between two groups of A1 villagised farms using empirical qualitative data from a case study in Bubi District. The article presents new forms of claims and contestations to autochthony and belonging in fast-track farms.

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