Legacies of 'madiro'? Worker-peasantry, livelihood crisis and 'siziphile' land occupations in semi-arid north-western Zimbabwe

Legacies of 'madiro'? Worker-peasantry, livelihood crisis and 'siziphile' land occupations in semi-arid north-western Zimbabwe

Author: 
Thebe, Vusilizwe
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press
Date published: 
2017
Record type: 
Journal Title: 
Journal of Modern African Studies
Source: 
Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 55, No. 2, June 2017, pp. 201-224
Abstract: 

This paper examines acts of land 'self-provisioning' ('siziphile' land occupations) and 'radical land restitution' (of land previously annexed from people by the local authority for a pilot grazing project) by villagers in a communal area in Lupane District in north-western Zimbabwe. Situating these occurrences within the wider and historical context of 'madiro' (freedom farming and unauthorised development of settlements) and Matabeleland land politics and semi-proletarianisation, it stresses the livelihood history of households, the disappointments with local job opportunities and destruction of urban-based livelihoods in a crumbling economy, and the accompanying crisis of communal area agriculture. It concludes that these factors provided a real threat to semi-proletarianisation. By self-provisioning of the land the overriding concern of villagers was to maintain a certain level of livelihood survival, even if it was at odds with their livelihood strategies, while they sought opportunities to maintain semi-proletarianisation.

Language: 
Country focus: 

CITATION: Thebe, Vusilizwe. Legacies of 'madiro'? Worker-peasantry, livelihood crisis and 'siziphile' land occupations in semi-arid north-western Zimbabwe . : Cambridge University Press , 2017. Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 55, No. 2, June 2017, pp. 201-224 - Available at: http://library.au.int/legacies-madiro-worker-peasantry-livelihood-crisis-and-siziphile-land-occupations-semi-arid-north