A synopsis of land and agrarian change in Chipinge district, Zimbabwe1

Abstract

This paper extends the analysis of Zimbabwe's Fast Track land reform to the district of Chipinge in Manicaland province in south eastern Zimbabwe, where particular agro-ecological, political and social dynamics are important. In the three A1 resettlement schemes studied, political loyalty and patronage largely explain how the new beneficiaries acquired land. Most scholarly work, media and advocacy reports acknowledge the role of political patronage in the acquisition of A2 farms but they underplay this on A1 resettlement schemes. Based on empirical data, I argue that some A1 land reform beneficiaries are clients of patronage networks. Even though the new A1 farmers have other legitimate claims to land they are being subordinated to a partisan state and authoritarian ruling party that is willing to exclude other ‘ordinary’ people with ‘wrong’ or weak political ties in a highly politicised landscape. Thus, the paper argues that in these cases the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)'s governing elite manipulated autochthonous, historical, political, social reproduction and livelihoods grievances among different groups of people to set in motion a party politicised Fast Track Land Reform (Fast Track) project meant to reassert its political hegemony.