Conciliatory whiteness: white farmers’ accommodations and responses to land reform in Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

This article seeks to contribute to growing academic literature on land reform and whiteness in Zimbabwe, where there have been calls for nuance in the analysis of agrarian change. The research which underpins it explores differentiated responses to land reform on the part of a sample of white farmers (as well as A1 and A2 beneficiaries), in the environs of Matobo district, Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. It characterises a range of responses on the part of white farmers – dropping out, pushing back, accommodating and adapting – and charts the various outcomes of these strategies. I further utilise the concept of subjectivity to reflect on these diverse responses and to disaggregate essentialised or homogenised understandings of whiteness. The article focuses on the small number of white farmers who retain a connection to the land and agrarian production in the study area and argues they embody aspects of a particular subjectivity. This conciliatory subjectivity is characterised by openness to reconciliation, rapprochement and partnership-making. Specifically, it is located along the following lines: (1) in contrast to the perceived ‘islands of privilege’ of some of their peers; (2) within a challenging context where they no longer occupy a hegemonic position; (3) wherein they are inclined or required to (re)form collaborations and alliances in the new dispensation; and (4) the subjectivity of these farmers could be said to be pre-occupied less with issues of identity and belonging, than with surviving and ‘becoming’ amidst the multi-faceted challenges of contemporary Zimbabwean rural agricultural endeavours and socio-political life.

KEYWORDS:

• Land reform
• whiteness
• subjectivity
• agrarian change
• Zimbabwe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Adrian Nel is a human Geographer and is currently a senior lecturer and academic co-ordinator in the Discipline of Geography at the University Of Kwazulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. His main research interest is in the political ecology of social and environmental change in Southern Africa; touching on issues related to conservation, sustainability, green economy, environmental politics and governance, and environmental movements. He can be contacted at: [email protected]

Notes

1 There is a leather tanner remaining in his farmhouse closer town, and there are also white owned tourist establishments in the ward.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Institute for Development Studies [Grant Number AD/0807].