The complexity of farmworkers’ livelihoods in Zimbabwe after the Fast Track Land Reform: experiences from a farm in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

The Fast Track Land Reform programme in Zimbabwe was one of the largest land redistribution exercises in the world. The programme had varying impacts on the diverse rural population, leading to a binary projection of winners and losers. The authors use a micro case study of former farmworkers in Chinhoyi to highlight how this particular group has fared since 2000. The authors’ interest is in understanding how the programme impacted on the farmworkers’ livelihoods and how they have responded to the changing agrarian structure. The authors focus on the bulk of the permanent farmworkers on the A2 farms who remained in the farm compounds where they offered to work for the new black farm owners. Using qualitative methodology, this study assesses the fragile patterns of livelihoods for the resident farmworkers. The vast majority of these workers did not get land during the land reform programme, thus their livelihoods in large part derive from the labour they sell to their new employers. This livelihood option however remains limited, ephemeral and unreliable.

RÉSUMÉ

Le Programme accéléré de réforme agraire au Zimbabwe a été l’un des plus vastes exercices de redistribution foncière au monde. Le programme a eu des effets variables sur la population rurale diversifiée, ce qui a abouti à une projection binaire des gagnants et des perdants. Les auteurs utilisent ici une micro étude de cas d’anciens ouvriers agricoles à Chinhoyi pour mettre en évidence comment la situation de ce groupe spécifique a évolué depuis 2000. L’intérêt des auteurs est de comprendre l'impact du programme sur leurs moyens de subsistance et de quelles manières ils ont réagi à la structure agraire en mutation. Les auteurs se concentrent sur les ouvriers agricoles permanents des exploitations A2, dont la majorité sont restés dans les exploitations agricoles où ils ont proposé de travailler pour les nouveaux propriétaires agricoles noirs. En utilisant une méthodologie qualitative, cette étude évalue les modèles de subsistance précaires des ouvriers agricoles résidents. La grande majorité de ces travailleurs n’ont pas obtenu de terres pendant le programme de réforme agraire. Par conséquent, leurs moyens de subsistance proviennent en grande partie de la main-d’œuvre qu’ils vendent à leurs nouveaux employeurs. Cette option de subsistance demeure toutefois limitée, éphémère et peu fiable.

KEYWORDS:

• Fast Track Land Reform programme
• farm workers
• livelihoods
• commercial farms
• sustainability

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Programme accéléré de réforme agraire
• ouvriers agricoles
• moyens de subsistance
• fermes commerciales
• durabilité

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Manase Kudzai Chiweshe is a Senior Lecturer in the Sociology Department at the University of Zimbabwe and winner of the 2015 Gerti Hessling Award for the best paper in African studies. He is also a research associate with the Department of Sociology, Rhodes University, South Africa. His work revolves around the sociology of everyday life in African spaces with special focus on promoting African ways of knowing with specific interest in agrarian studies, land and livelihoods.

Takunda Chabata is the Chairperson for Social Sciences Department in the Faculty of Social and Gender Transformative Sciences. He has a wealth of teaching experience spanning a period of 10 years. He served as a Sociology Programme Coordinator since 2010 before his promotion to department chairperson. He has published on land, natural resources, culture and domestic work. He is also a founding member of YARA, a research network for youth researchers on African agriculture.

ORCID

Manase Kudzai Chiweshe http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9781-6633