Pioneer Farmers and Family Dynasties in Marirangwe Purchase Area, Colonial Zimbabwe, 1931-1947

Shutt, Allison K.

doi:10.2307/525069

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The classic studies by Cheater in Musengezi near Harare (1982; 1984) are now over thirty-five years old. More recently, important historical work has been published, but this has not engaged fully with more recent developments (Shutt 1997; 2000; 2002a). Mujere (2014) undertook a fascinating study of the Basotho settlers in Dewure, also in Masvingo, but this concentrated on a particular group, not the wider area.…”

Section: The Native Purchase Areas: a Window Into The Future?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Medium-scale commercial farms in Africa: the experience of the ‘native purchase areas’ in Zimbabwe

Scoones¹,

Mavedzenge²,

Murimbarimba³

2018

Africa

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Across Africa there has been a growth in medium-sized farms, including in Zimbabwe following the land reform of 2000. What are the prospects of such farms driving new forms of agricultural commercialization? In this article we seek to learn lessons from the past by examining the experience of ‘native purchase areas’, which were established from the 1930s in Zimbabwe. Through a detailed historical study of Mushagashe small-scale commercial farming area in Masvingo Province, the article explores the changing fortunes of farms over time. Historical information is complemented by a survey of twenty-six randomly selected farms, examining patterns of production, asset ownership and accumulation. In-depth interviews explore life histories and changes in social arrangements that have influenced agrarian change. Four broad farm types are identified, including those that are commercialized, projectized, villagized, and held or abandoned. These categories are not static, however, and the article emphasizes non-linear patterns of change. Following Sara Berry, we show how pathways of commercialization are diverse and unpredictable, influenced by interlocking conjunctures of social dynamics, generational changes and political-economic conditions. Commercialization outcomes are dependent on the intersection of relational dynamics and more structural, political economy factors. Bursts of commercialization on these farms are contingent on access to employment by farm owners, labour (hired, squatters and offspring) and, perhaps above all, money to invest. The much-hyped policy vision of a new medium-scale commercial farm sector emerging in Africa therefore must be qualified, and divergent outcomes recognized.

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Section: The Native Purchase Areas: a Window Into The Future?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Medium-scale commercial farms in Africa: the experience of the ‘native purchase areas’ in Zimbabwe

Scoones¹,

Mavedzenge²,

Murimbarimba³

2018

Africa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…25 The Land Apportionment Act of 1930 was likewise intended to fix a grid of tenurial categories that segregated mere peasants from accomplished (black) yeoman farmers (Worby 1994(Worby , 2000Moore 1999Moore , 2001. The latter, given access to leasehold African Purchase Lands, were, in fact, often urban professionals more eager to see themselves as gentleman farmers and interested in settling their extended families on these lands (Cheater 1984;Shutt 2000).…”

Section: A Morally Charged Lexicon: 'Resettling' 'Squatting' 'Invadmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Redivided Land? New Agrarian Conflicts and Questions in Zimbabwe

Worby

2001

Journal of Agrarian Change

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The recent land invasions in Zimbabwe represent a profound and contradictory revolution in that country's agrarian social order, with implications that have already spilled over the borders of this small southern African country. A settler colonial heritage that tenaciously mapped land and tenure forms into unequal zones according to race is giving way to a more complex and spatially diversified configuration of agrarian property forms and production strategies. Control over access to the means of violence has been devolved to ruling party loyalists, war veterans, army personnel, provincial administrators and local councillors, thus shifting the forms and functions of power exercised in the name of the state and the nation. 'Resettlement', 'squatting' and 'farm invasions' constitute morally charged alternatives in the lexicon of movement across tenurial boundaries. Contested rights to land and to movement are mediated through discourses of national and sub-national belonging and exclusion, with commercial farm workersdeemed foreigners -the chief victims. The dramatic challenge that the invasions pose to private property, and to the rule of law more generally, suggest the possible collapse of large-scale capitalist farming and the withdrawal of aid and foreign investment. Yet, at the same time, new forms of capitalist investment

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Pioneer Farmers and Family Dynasties in Marirangwe Purchase Area, Colonial Zimbabwe, 1931-1947

Cited by 2 publications

References 29 publications

Medium-scale commercial farms in Africa: the experience of the ‘native purchase areas’ in Zimbabwe

Medium-scale commercial farms in Africa: the experience of the ‘native purchase areas’ in Zimbabwe

A Redivided Land? New Agrarian Conflicts and Questions in Zimbabwe

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