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National parks have been the centre piece of international conservation strategies in developing countries. The expansion in the network of national parks has enabled the conservation of biodiversity and habitats but the acquisition of vast areas into the park system has often been achieved through the displacement of resident local communities. Displaced people are exposed to a variety of impoverishment risks and this stokes up animosity towards parks. The research reported here seeks to understand the key issues involved in the occupation of a section of Gonarezhou National Park by Headman Chitsa's people. The paper examines how the interplay between the history of displacement and dispossession, demographic pressures, limited economic opportunities, the 'fast track' land reform programme and dynastic politics are fomenting the land conflict between Gonarezhou and Chitsa community. Secondary actors with diverse interests have also come into the fold. Official efforts to resolve the conflict using a top-down approach have yielded little success. This culminated in a shift towards the use of traditional mechanisms of resolving a chieftaincy dispute as a step towards addressing the broader parks-people land conflict. Lessons from the case study are, inter alia, that interventions aimed at resolving parks-people conflicts should be alive to local culture, livelihood needs and power dynamics and, to the extent possible, eschew forcible relocations. Finally, we draw attention to the need to address the wider contradiction between policies promoting wildlife conservation and those promoting agriculture. The article is written to share lessons with readers interested in parks-people conflicts. (Résumé d'auteur

This article critically discusses modernisation and Marxist theories on ethnicity and political development in Africa in general. It attempts to unravel the formative and reproductive processes at the heart of the ethnic phenomenon. To this end, and with particular reference to the Zimbabwean context, the genesis as well as the dissemination of the ethnic factor in politics is located in the nooks and crannies of unequal colonial racial power structures and relationships. The article also illustrates that the prominence of ethnicity in political development is, largely if not wholly, evoked by the situational blending of structural elements and variable subjective interpretations which ethnic actors make of those situations. Perhaps this analysis will be of some practical relevance to the easing of ethnically based conflicts in contemporary polities.

Despite its inclusion in Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5) to end all harmful gendered practices by 2030, child, early and forced marriage continues to be a pervasive problem globally. While there is consistent evidence on the physical health consequences of child marriage, there is a lack of evidence and inquiry into the mental health consequence. Method: We completed a change-oriented Delphi study to establish consensus on priority areas of research and intervention in relation to the mental health consequences of child, early and forced marriage. Invited experts (n = 11), survivors (n = 27), and professionals (n = 30) participated in our Delphi. Four rounds of data collection included: a blended in-person and online workshops with invited experts, an online mixed-methods questionnaire, focus groups in Zimbabwe with women who are survivors of child marriage and a repeat questionnaire sent to the first round of experts . Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and ranking methods, consistent with other Delphi studies. Qualitative data was analysed using thematic network analysis. Findings coalesced around three areas: perspectives on the relationship between mental health and child marriage, policy action; and treatment driven solutions. Consensus was reached on 16 items across these areas which included the need to prioritise psychosocial and social interventions to improve mental health outcomes for women and girls in existing marriages. They also called for new approaches to advocacy to drive awareness of this issue in policy circles. Implications for future practice are discussed.

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