This year it’s 25 years since Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform. Ever since the year 2000 when people invaded the land and former white farmers were dispossessed of their farms, we have been tracking what has happened. We have been asking a very simple question: what happened to livelihoods once people got land?
This year is therefore a moment to reflect on this process over a quarter of a century. This is important for Zimbabwe, as the country looks forward to economic regeneration with land and farming central, but also more generally as other countries in the region, notably South Africa, grapple with land reform and more widely as debates about the roles of agrarian reform in galvanising growth through increasing equity via land redistribution.
Our ‘25 years after Zimbabwe’s land reform’ project kicks off this year with explorations of the processes of change in our three core sites: Mvurwi, Masvingo/Gutu and Matobo. These offer contrasting settings with which to ask questions about change over time. Across these sites we have been working with around 1000 households across A1, A2 and some comparator communal area sites (now increased by new entrants, subdivisions and so on).
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.
