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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Matose, Frank; Maravanyika-Mutimukuru, Tendayi |
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Conference:
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Workshop on the Workshop 4 |
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Location:
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Indiana University Bloomington |
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Conf. Date:
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June 3-6, 2009 |
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Date:
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2009 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/1805
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Sector:
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Social Organization
Forestry |
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Region:
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Africa |
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Subject(s):
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land tenure and use
forests
property rights
authority
power
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Abstract:
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"An analysis of squatting around a protected forest in north-western Zimbabwe is done in the paper to further scholarship that focuses on the 'negotiability' over access to land in a broad political economic context of an unfolding land reform. This case focuses on the politics of that broader process at a micro-level in one district perceived by the government as having excess land while the reality on the ground is more complex. Land reform in Zimbabwe has largely focused on land privately owned by white commercial farmers and neglected State land, particularly national parks and forests. Some districts such as the one the paper focuses on are defined as having adequate land for its inhabitants, albeit in a patron-client manner. The paper therefore analyses the contestation by people who invaded a protected State forest thereby resisting this general misconception surrounding state land. The paper examines the unfolding struggles over land around the forest in relation to the complex negotiations over property and authority in the country. The paper also analyses the power relations among the players who 'invaded' the State forest which is at the centre of this paper. Different layers of the exercise of authority are witnessed where at the national level, ruling party leaders have provided a framework for giving land to peasants which in turn unleashes local level actors (political leaders) to seize the opportunity to exercise authority by leading land invasions and squatting. We conclude by suggesting that in situations of conflict and uncertainty, examining authority relations (processes of legitimacy) may provide useful insights about the connections between authority and property."
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