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Communal Land Rights in Zimbabwe as State Sanction and Social Control: A Narrative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Beacon Mbiba
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Abstract

This article takes a historical approach to argue that communal lands in Zimbabwe are a construct inherited from colonial days (prior to 1980) which governments in post-colonial Zimbabwe have found convenient to maintain rather than dismantle. The construct is not only a convenient framework for the delivery of collective consumption goods but in turn it enables the government to subtly use communal lands as a framework for social control, especially in terms of urban management. The continued existence of communal land areas and land rights also sustains processes of social control at the household level. However, these are issues that will not receive attention in land debates as long as the larger problem of redistribution of large-scale commercial farms remains unresolved.

Résumé

Cet article adopte un point de vue historique pour affirmer qu'au Zimbabwe les terres communautaires sont un concept hérité de la période coloniale (avant 1980) que les gouvernements postcoloniaux du Zimbabwe ont jugé plus commode de conserver que de démanteler. Ce concept n'est pas seulement un cadre pratique de distribution de biens de consommation collective, il permet aussi au gouvernement d'utiliser subtilement les terres communautaires comme cadre de controle social, notamment en termes de gestión urbaine. Le maintien des terres communautaires et des droits afférents à ces terres soutient également les processus de controle social au niveau des ménages. Cependant, ces questions ne vont pas retenir l'attention dans les débats consacrés à la terre tant que le problème plus vaste de la redistribution des grandes exploitations agricoles commerciales n'est pas résolu.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , August 2001 , pp. 426 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2001

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