Author: Sam Moyo Publisher: African Books Collective ISBN: 2869785534 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 374
Book Description
The Fast Track Land Reform Programme implemented during the 2000s in Zimbabwe represents the only instance of radical redistributive land reforms since the end of the Cold War. It reversed the racially-skewed agrarian structure and discriminatory land tenures inherited from colonial rule. The land reform also radicalised the state towards a nationalist, introverted accumulation strategy, against a broad array of unilateral Western sanctions. Indeed, Zimbabwe's land reform, in its social and political dynamics, must be compared to the leading land reforms of the twentieth century, which include those of Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Cuba and Mozambique. The fact that the Zimbabwe case has not been recognised as vanguard nationalism has much to do with the 'intellectual structural adjustment' which has accompanied neoliberalism and a hostile media campaign. This has entailed dubious theories of ëneopatrimonialismí, which reduce African politics and the state to endemic ëcorruptioní, ëpatronageí, and ëtribalismí while overstating the virtues of neoliberal good governance. Under this racist repertoire, it has been impossible to see class politics, mass mobilisation and resistance, let alone believe that something progressive can occur in Africa. This book comes to a conclusion that the Zimbabwe land reform represents a new form of resistance with distinct and innovative characteristics when compared to other cases of radicalisation, reform and resistance. The process of reform and resistance has entailed the deliberate creation of a tri-modal agrarian structure to accommodate and balance the interests of various domestic classes, the progressive restructuring of labour relations and agrarian markets, the continuing pressures for radical reforms (through the indigenisation of mining and other sectors), and the rise of extensive, albeit relatively weak, producer cooperative structures. The book also highlights some of the resonances between the Zimbabwean land struggles and those on the continent, as well as in the South in general, arguing that there are some convergences and divergences worthy of intellectual attention. The book thus calls for greater endogenous empirical research which overcomes the pre-occupation with failed interpretations of the nature of the state and agency in Africa.
Author: Adeoye O. Akinola Publisher: Springer ISBN: 3319787012 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 188
Book Description
This book is an examination of post-colonial land reforms across various African states. One of the decisive contradictions of colonialism in Africa was the distortion of use, access to and ownership of land. Land related issues and the need for land reform have consistently occupied a unique position in public discourse in Africa. The post-colonial African states have had to embark on concerted efforts at redressing historical grounded land policies and addressing the growing needs of land by the poor. However, agitations for land continue, while evidence of policy gaps abound. In many cases, policy change in terms of land use, distribution and ownership has reinforced inequalities and affected power and social relations in respective post-colonial African countries. Land has assumed major causes of structural violence and impediments to human and rural development in Africa; hence the need for holistic assessment of land reforms in post-colonial African states. The central objective of the text is to identify post-independence and current trends in land reform and to address the grievances in relation to land use, ownership and distribution. The book suggests practicable policy options towards addressing the land hunger and conflict, which could derail the ‘moderate’ socio-economic achievements and political stability recorded by post-colonial African nation-states. The book draws its strength and uniqueness from its adoption of country-specific case studies, which places the book in context, and utilizes field studies methodology which generate new knowledge on the continental land question. Taking a holistic approach to understanding Africa’s land question, this book will be attractive to academicians and students interested in policy and development, African politics, post-colonial development and policy, and conflict studies as well as policy-makers working in relevant areas.
Author: Lionel Cliffe Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 131798126X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 278
Book Description
The struggle over land has been the central issue in Zimbabwe ever since white settlers began to carve out large farms over a century ago. Their monopolisation of the better-watered half of the land was the focus of the African war of liberation war, and was partially modified following Independence in 1980. A dramatic further episode in this history was launched at the start of the last decade with the occupation of many farms by groups of African veterans of the liberation struggle and their supporters, which was then institutionalised by legislation to take over most of the large commercial farms for sub-division. Sustained fieldwork over the intervening years, by teams of scholars and experts, and by individual researchers is now generating an array of evidence-based findings of the outcomes: how land was acquired and disposed of; how it has been used; how far new farmers have carved out new livelihoods and viable new communities; the major political and economic problems they and other stakeholders such as former farm-workers, commercial farmers, and the overall rural society now face. This book will be an essential starting place for analysts, policy-makers, historians and activists seeking to understand what has happened and to spotlight the key issues for the next decade. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.
Author: Prosper B. Matondi Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1780321503 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
The Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe has emerged as a highly contested reform process both nationally and internationally. The image of it has all too often been that of the widespread displacement and subsequent replacement of various people, agricultural-related production systems, facets and processes. The reality, however, is altogether more complex. Providing new and much-needed empirical research, this in-depth book examines how processes such as land acquisition, allocation, transitional production outcomes, social life, gender and tenure, have influenced and been influenced by the forces driving the programme. It also explores the ways in which the land reform programme has created a new agrarian structure based on small- to medium-scale farmers. In attempting to resolve the problematic issues the reforms have raised, the author argues that it is this new agrarian formation which provides the greatest scope for improving Zimbabwe's agriculture and development. Based on a broader geographical scope than any previous study carried out on the subject, this is a landmark work on a subject of considerable controversy.
Author: Ian Scoones Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781983498497 Category : Languages : en Pages : 238
Book Description
Zimbabwe's land reform has been highly controversial. Too often, ideological positions trump empirical realities and detailed analysis. This book aims to fill a gap by drawing on extensive longitudinal research from across Zimbabwe, pointing to policy challenges, as well as solutions. In the post-Mugabe era, moving forward is vital if the agrarian economy is to revive and the benefits of the land reform are to be realised. Across nine sections and 44 chapters, the book discusses a range of themes - from livelihood change in land reform areas, to the particular challenges of medium-scale farms, youth, farm workers and land administration to food security, market development, small towns and the potentials for local economic development.
Author: Horman Chitonge Publisher: African Books Collective ISBN: 9956550477 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 407
Book Description
This book focuses on the work of one of the leading African scholars on the land question and agrarian transformation in AfricaSam Moyo. It offers a critical discussion, in conversation with Sam Moyo, of the land question and the response of African states. Since independence, African states have been trying to address the colonial legacy on land policy and governance. After six decades of formulating and implementing land reforms, most countries have not succeeded in decolonising approaches to land policy and the administrative framework. The book brings together the broader debates on the implications of decolonisation of Africas land policy. Through case studies from several African countries, the book offers an empirical analysis on land reforms and the emerging land relations, and how these affect land allocation and use, including agricultural production. Most of the chapters discuss how the unresolved land question in post-colonial Africa impacts on agricultural production and rural development broadly. The failure to decolonise colonial land policy and the imported tenure systems has left post-colonial African states dancing to two tunes, resulting in schizophrenic land and agrarian policies. The book demonstrates that the failure by African states to reconcile imported and indigenous land tenure systems and practices is evident in the deliberate denigration of customary tenure. It is also evident in the rising land inequality and the neglect of the agricultural sector, the small-scale and subsistence sub-sectors in particular.
Author: Praveen Kumar Jha Publisher: ISBN: 9788193926949 Category : Agriculture and state Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
This book brings together renowned scholars from four continents to celebrate the lifelong and seminal contribution of Professor Sam Moyo to the social sciences. Moyo was a Zimbabwean scholar whose intellectual trajectory was part of the emergence of a critical scholarship based in the realities and traditions of Africa and the Third World.
Author: Mararike, Munoda Publisher: Langaa RPCIG ISBN: 9956550221 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 318
Book Description
This is a thought-provoking original book, based on a wealth of empirical case studies of how Zimbabwe experienced illegal economic sanctions. It is a study of how the humanly constructed obstructions – from external remittances/finance flows into the country to finance embargos or total financial blockages – are deliberately created by so-called ‘powerful’ governments to deal with an ‘errand’ country. The infamous Zimbabwe Democracy Economic Recovery Act of 2001 (ZDERA) is part of a raft of punitive measures and discourses that the USA, UK and Europe used to make the economy, in the words of US’s Chester Crooker “scream”. It is the same ‘powerful’ countries who allow their Multinational Corporations to loot while they impose sanctions against African governments and their peoples to make them scream. The book is an insightful contribution on Africa’s contemporary post-colonial liberation politics of development economics. It focuses on Zimbabwe as a synthesis of microcosmic study that provides accessible in-depth analysis of key aspects of sanctions as a weapon of control wielded by the so-called ‘powerful’ governments of the Global North. Zimbabwe was clobbered with post-independence economic sanctions after its land reform programme, which benefitted its mostly colonially dispossessed African citizens. The land reform was intended as a reversal of colonial injustice and a counter restitutive measure against imperialism. The book invites the reader to see power differently: as compassion and the capacity to right past wrongs by protecting all and sundry from inequality and poverty. Sanctions, even when called targeted, are non-discriminatory as they affect ordinary citizens with the same ferocity and savagery as against intended target, albeit often missing the target. Sanctions are lethal. Sanctions are a graveyard for the poor, weak and vulnerable. This is an idea of power that the Global North failed to grasp when they decided to punish the Mugabe government for daring to contemplate justice and restitution.
Author: Sam Moyo
Author: Medicine Masiiwa
Author: Adeoye O. Akinola
Author: Ian Scoones
Author: Lionel Cliffe
Author: Prosper B. Matondi
Author: Ian Scoones
Author: Horman Chitonge
Author: Praveen Kumar Jha
Author: Mararike, Munoda