Zimbabwe became a colony of the British Empire on 13 September 1890, and attained independence in 1980. During the colonial period of 1890 to 1980 land was expropriated primarily from the indigenous Ndebele and the Shona tribal groups through the institutionalisation of legislation that brought about the segregation of Africans and paved the way for settlement and farming by whites. Between 1980 and 1990 there was little progress in terms of resettlement programmes because of financial constraints and the terms and conditions of the Lancaster House Agreement regarding the willing seller willing buyer principle. There were serious economic challenges in the decade 1990 to 2000, but the period post 2000 witnessed brisk land repossessions which were spearheaded by war veterans and politicians. At the heart of the “land invasions,†as they were popularly termed, lay historical injustices. This paper seeks to provide an insight into the centrality of the oral tradition or oral history as legal basis for the land repossessions that took place. Neither legal recourse nor visiting archives and other information centres for the purposes of authentication were a priority. The Lancaster Constitution was viewed as an obstacle when dealing with land. The National Archives of Zimbabwe is placed in context within the situation discussed.
The well-worn routes of colonial history leading to London, Paris, Lisbon, and elsewhere may remain fruitful for historians of the post-colonial period. Since former colonial powers remained involved, or at least interested, in what was going on in their former colonies, intelligence reports and diplomatic materials from the last fifty years may be of value to social scientists of the present. Historians also have turned to records from the United States, the former USSR, and other states with extensive involvement in African politics. The archives of humanitarian groups, non-governmental organizations, newspapers, and other institutions also contain materials produced by African governments. Some intentionally gathered materials, while others accreted them indirectly over the course of their work. (Samuel Fury Childs Daly 2017).Although Daly's quotation was focused on the post-independence period in Biafra, the sentiments resonate precisely with circumstances elsewhere in understanding African history through the archives.
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