Longstanding traditions around land and its use within and between families and amongst men and women are up for renegotiation in post-land reform Zimbabwe. Young people must balance cultural norms – sometimes insisted on by their elders – with the necessities of providing for the next generation in highly land-constrained settings
Changes in inheritance patterns, for example, are occurring in the land reform areas, resulting in a reinvention of ‘tradition’. The ‘traditional’ approach is that male children inherit parents’ land, with the youngest getting preference. Female children are expected to get married and following their husbands and get land through the marriage contract. These ‘traditions’ have changed. Today, the imperative is to find a child who is willing and able to take on a farm. Whether this is a son or daughter or their respective ages/birth order matters much less than the practical question of who will farm the resettlement plot in the future.
This article is from Zimbabweland, a blog written by IDS Research Fellow Ian Scoones. Zimbabweland focuses on issues related to rural livelihoods and land reform in Zimbabwe.