| ID | 154237 |
| Title Proper | Legacies of ‘madiro’? Worker-peasantry, livelihood crisis and ‘siziphile’ land occupations in semi-arid north-western Zimbabwe |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Thebe, Vusilizwe |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | 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. |
| `In' analytical Note | Journal of Modern African Studies Vol. 55, No.2; Jun 2017: p.201-224 |
| Journal Source | Journal of Modern African Studies 2017-06 55, 2 |
| Key Words | Madiro ; Worker-Peasantry ; Livelihood Crisis ; Siziphile ; North-Western Zimbabwe |