The Politics of Land Acquisition and Struggles Over Land in the ‘Communal’ Areas of Zimbabwe: The Gokwe Region in the 1980s and 1990s

Abstract

How do histories shape the way people map their present and envision the future, especially at a moment of rapid political, economic and social transformation like that associated with the shift from socialism to liberal market economy/polity in Tanzania? Is the past a`foreign land' (as Lowenthal argues) or are reproductions and traces of multiple temporalities constitutive of the present and the possibilities for the future? In this article I explore how different moments and aspects of the past in the sisal industry in Tanzania are helping shape definitions of the present and visions of the future by workers, managers/owners of sisal plantations, and government officials. Locating present socioeconomic realities within historical processes of economic and political transformation allows us to dispel some of the assumptions that underlie the unequivocal celebration of the`market' and the`private sector'. Further, it opens up the space to analyse the dynamics between knowledge and management as they operate at different levels within the social organisation of production/circulation of international commodities. This brings to the fore the intricate relationship between labour, capital and the state on the one hand and the interplay between local conditions and global markets on the other.Much of the debate about sisal's past and future is taking place within the context of liberalisation of the economy and polity of Tanzania. Within the sisal sector in particular, privatisation opened up the space for negotiating how to revive an industry once declared dead' by its participants. Diverse and contradictory productions of the past under the Mandate and independent socialist Tanzania mark how different groups of people (workers, managers, state officials) are negotiating their locations and claims to rights within a transformed social, political and economic order. The debates within/about the sisal industry are thus intimately linked with the production of the political geography of Tanganyika/Tanzania at large, while carrying the imprints of the reconfiguration of the politico-economic order internationally

Whatever It Takes: Tenure Security Strategies of Communal Land Right Holders in Zimbabwe

“…With regard to the referencing of interviews, Nyambara (2001a: 266) notes an unwillingness of informants to provide full information about cash transactions in land, and in my own research a reticence and fear of reprisals was evident, and information generally only vouchsafed following an assurance of confidentiality. This dovetailed with university ethics requirements, and consequently no names and no detailed locations are given in this article.…”

“…My research showed that the emerging land market in Zimbabwe's communal areas is insecure for a number of reasons, and that those buying land rights not only strategize to maintain access to land (Nyambara 2001a: 281) but also to secure their rights once acquired. Bolstering of land right security is achieved first by investing in interpersonal links (both with the living and the dead), and second by the pragmatic adaptation of land-related ceremonies and practices to suit contemporary contexts (including that of urban land with links to rural land) and contemporary beliefs (for example the Christianizing of ceremonies).…”

“…One avenue of scholarship has noted a propensity for colonial authorities to interpret custom expediently (Mamdani 1996; Ranger 1983; Cousins 1990, 2007), and to put traditional authorities on the payroll in order to pre-empt opposition or to facilitate the collection of taxes (Alexander 1994: 328; Cousins 1993: 34–5). Alternatively, a narrow interpretation of custom has been perpetuated in order to justify increased state control over land (Nyambara 2001a: 254). Berry, in contrast, suggests a more dynamic picture, where ‘property rights and labour relations were neither transformed according to the English model nor frozen in anachronistic “communal” forms, but instead became subjects of perpetual contest’ (1993: 40), while May points to ‘a number of interlocking “external” processes or interventions’ (May 1987: 29), and Bruce to the wide degree of ‘situational give-and-take’ in African tenure rules (Bruce 1988: 30).…”

“…Thus, where custom has veered to permit a land market or has merely turned a blind eye to the existence of such a market, this has become the de facto law. A growing body of literature points to the buying and selling of communal land having become an established fact (see Chimhowu and Woodhouse 2006, 2010; Cousins 1993: 35; Nyambara, 2001a: 260, 265). Reasons for selling land include the untimely death of siblings (which may, for example, give a surviving son surplus fields, allowing him to sell one or more); right holders moving permanently to urban centres; resettlement land becoming available; and daughters gaining land through marriage and selling off family homesteads (Goodwin 2008).…”

Single women, land and livelihood vulnerability in a communal area in Zimbabwe

“…It is viewed as individualistic, rational, equally applied, written down, abstract, and has clear procedures (Griffiths 1986). State law has limited influence on land transactions in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa (Moore, 1986;WLSA, 1995;Andersson, 1999;Nyambara, 2001a;Whitehead and Tsikata, 2003).…”