The negotiability of state legal and bureaucratic authority during land occupations in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

The article explains how state legal and bureaucratic authority over land access was renegotiated, and at times undone, during land occupations in Mazowe District, Zimbabwe from 2001 to 2002. It explains the logics and strategies used by land occupiers to make use of legal and bureaucratic procedures, in contradictory ways, as they made, protected and validated claims to land and related resources. It also explains the ambiguous role of local state institutions during farm occupations. The author illustrates how certain state institutions adhered to long-standing technocratic ideas and practices of controlling land access, while others undermined and, at times, subverted them.

RÉSUMÉ

L'article explique comment l'autorité légale et bureaucratique de l'État sur l'accès aux terres a été renégociée et parfois défaite pendant les occupations de terres dans le district de Mazowe, au Zimbabwe, de 2001 à 2002. Il explique les logiques et les stratégies mobilisées par les occupants des terres pour utiliser les procédures légales et bureaucratiques, de manières contradictoires, à mesure qu'ils formulaient, protégeaient et validaient leurs revendications à la terre et aux ressources associées. L’article explique également le rôle ambigu des institutions étatiques locales lors des occupations agricoles. L'auteur montre comment certaines institutions de l'État ont adhéré aux idées et pratiques technocratiques de longue date en matière de contrôle de l'accès aux terres, tandis que d'autres les ont sapés et parfois subverties.

KEYWORDS:

• Zimbabwe
• land reform
• jambanja
• state authority
• ZANU–PF

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Zimbabwe
• réforme agraire
• jambanja
• autorité étatique
• ZANU-PF

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Arnold Chamunogwa holds a DPhil in International Development from the University of Oxford. He researches on governance and state–society relations in Africa.

Notes

1 Interview (January 25, 2016, Mazowe).

2 Ibid.

3 A term generally used in the recording and naming of farms whose deed of grant was divided, with a new deed issued specifying the new farms created.

4 http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/mugabe-land-grab-to-press-on-urgently-42027 (July 1, 2000).

5 Interview with an official in the DA's office (February 17, 2016, Concession).

6 Interview with an Agritex official (November 10, 2015, Mazowe).

7 The report by Human Rights Watch (2002) on land occupations cites numerous examples and methods of eviction.

8 Interview with an occupier at Craigengower Farm who originally came from Chiweshe communal area (August 19, 2015, Mazowe).