Artisanal Gold Mining and Farming: Livelihood Linkages and Labour Dynamics after Land Reforms in Zimbabwe

Abstract

While the rural development consequences of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme have been heavily debated, there is a dearth of literature focusing on the post-land reform inter-relations between artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and farming. This article discusses the growing ASGM sector, encapsulated by the phrase ‘mari yaputika’/‘gold has detonated’, examining the impacts of ‘liberating’ mineral resources in farming areas previously inaccessible to the rural poor. Drawing on research in Mhondoro Ngezi District, we argue for more subtle understandings of smallholder farming/ASGM linkages in relation to changing labour and class dynamics, challenging accounts that under-recognise the multifaceted interconnectedness of artisanal mining and farming.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express thanks to everyone who participated in the research as well as everyone who offered feedback on the issues, perspectives, and arguments discussed in this article. We would also like to extend an invitation to anyone who is interested in further data related to this research to contact either of the authors; we would be pleased to share additional information, datasets, and analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The names of the informants have been changed to protect their identity.

2. Some interviewees indicated that Chinese involvement in ASGM was disrupting traditional milling technologies epitomised by the stamp mill, through the introduction of a portable hammer mill that is believed to be more efficient in gold extraction. Historical analysis on socio-economic aspects of milling in Zimbabwe illustrates that milling has a long and complex history of exploitation (Spiegel, 2009b).

3. Miners use the word sample to refer to gold bearing ores.

4. In artisanal mining language, money is used to refer to gold.

5. Transparency International Zimbabwe and other NGOs have written about illicit activity in this sector’s economy as part of a ‘resource curse’ dynamic (Transparency International Zimbabwe, 2013).

6. A sample is a common word used by miners to describe gold bearing stones.

7. Some artisanal miners interviewed across various geographical locations tend to refer to old mine workings as German shafts, as it is claimed they were abandoned by the Germans during the colonial era. This has been observed during our research in other districts in Zimbabwe as well.

8. This figure is for A1 schemes – oriented for small-scale farmers (with the average A1 family farm being 37 hectares); additional people accessed land through A2 schemes (with the average size of new A2 farms being 318 hectares) (see Scoones et al., 2011).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/N006240/1].