Royal African Society

Review
Author(s): JoAnn McGregor
Review by: JoAnn McGregor
Source: African Affairs, Vol. 100, No. 399 (Apr., 2001), pp. 344-346
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal African Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3518781
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344 AFRICANAFFAIRS

All of these issues, as well as othersWoltontakes up, such as racial segregation

and Africanemployment in thecolonialservice,are extremelycomplex.In hereffort
to demonstratediscernible'shifts'regardingrace,Woltonat timesunderminesthis
complexity byoffering over-simplifiedgeneralizationsthatdo a disserviceto thehis-
toricalrecord.Her book certainlyoffersstrongindicationsthatracial issues and
assumptionswereinextricably bound up withthe imperialand international nego-
tiationsthat took place duringthe Second WorldWar. In this sense,Wolton has
drivenhome theimportanceof includingempireand race as criticaldimensionsfor
explainingthehistoryof international relations.Readershavereasonto be cautious,
however,in acceptingher generalperiodizationand arguments,not because she is
overtly wrong,but because the events,ideas, and issues in herbook are ofteninsuf-
ficientlydifferentiated forreadersto be certainshe is right.

WellcomeUnit, Oxford University HELEN TILLEY

Land Reform under Structural Adjustment in Zimbabwe: Land use change

in the Mashonaland Provinces, by Sam Moyo. Uppsala: NordiskaAfrikainsti-
tutet,2000. 225pp. ?12.95 paperback. ISBN 91-7106-457-5.

Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Constraints and prospects, edited by Tania

Bowyer-Bowerand Colin Stoneman. Aldershot:Ashgate,2000. xiv + 206pp.
?40.00 hardback. ISBN 0-7546-1547-2.

Both thesebooks werewrittenbeforethe currentcrisisoverland in Zimbabwe,

whichemergedin themonthsrunningup to theJune2000 parliamentary elections.
Faced witha new,credibleurban-basedoppositionparty,PresidentRobertMugabe
and therulingZANU(PF) designedtheirelectioncampaignto appeal to ruralvoters
wheretheycould stillfinda degree of support.ZANU(PF) promisedto give the
land back to the people, blamed whitefarmersand the forcesof imperialismfor
blockingthe process of land redistribution, and used veteransfromthe liberation
war to lead the occupationof commercialfarmland.Aspects of thisstrategy were
familiar,but the violence accompanyingthe 'occupations'was new and the emer-
gence of thewar veteransas a keyconstituency in debates overland was unantici-
pated. Furthermore,ZANU(PF)'s decision to encourage war veterans and
'squatters'to act as a forceoutsidethe law completelyside-linedthose arms of the
statepreviouslyresponsibleforland and squattercontrolas well as manytechnical
aspects of the debate overland reform.
The fact that Zimbabwe's land question has been newlypoliticizedsince the
writingof thesebooks does date them,but certainlydoes not make themirrelevant.
Both provideimportanthistoricalcontextsforthe currentcrisisand are rooted in
the political and technicaldebates of the period immediatelyprecedingit. They
providea usefulreminderof themountingfrustrations on all sides in thelate 1990s.
Bothwill also be of broaderinterestto non-Zimbabweanists interestedin issues of
land reformin Africa.
Land Reform underStructuralAdjustment is based on researchconductedbetween
1995 and 1997 in Zimbabwe's threeMashonaland Provincesand is writtenby the
country'smost prominentresearcheron the land question.Mashonaland contains
some 75 percentof Zimbabwe'sprimeagricultural land,and manyof themostpro-
ductivelarge-scalecommercialfarms,as well as the bulk of the country'ssmall-
holder surplusproducers.It has most of the country'sirrigationschemes and its

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 BOOK REVIEWS 345

best developedtransportserviceand infrastructure. It was, therefore,an ideal place

to exploretheeffectsof structuraladjustmentpoliciesimplementedoverthecourse
of the 1990s, as it could be expectedthattheliberalizationof domesticmarkets,the
promotionof new exportcropsand new land uses would have a particularly marked
impactthere.
The book takes the reader throughdiscussionsof the 'policy and institutional
context',throughevidencefor'changingland uses and the reconstruction of the
land question', and 'the politics and actors in new land struggles'.It includes a
detailed discussionof thewildlife,horticultureand ostrich-farming sectors,all of
which have grown dramaticallyover the 1990s. Moyo discusses how wildlife
expanded, controversially, even in the high-potentiallands of the Mashonaland
Provinces.
Moyo arguesconvincingly thatboth the growthof new land uses and the finan-
cial benefitfromthemhaveexacerbatedexistingsocial divisions.The majorshiftinto
new land uses and cropshas occurredin the large-scalecommercialfarmingsector,
in which30 percentof farmshave adopted one of thenew land uses. State agencies
were also notable beneficiaries,includingthe Departmentof National Parks and
WildlifeManagement,theForestryCommissionand theAgricultural Development
Authority. Those least able to takeup thenew opportunities werein the communal
landswhereold inequitiesin access to resourcespreventedthemfromdoingso.
Moyo's approach is politicalin its emphasis,and he aims to show the shifting
influenceof old and new interestgroups,and the re-alliancesproduced by struc-
tural adjustment.He argues that new alliances - such as those that developed
aroundwildlife'conservancies'or cut flowerproducers'outgrowerschemes- pro-
vided the large-scalecommercialsectorwithnew defencesagainstland expropria-
tion.But at thesame time,theproliferation of interestgroupsaroundland,and their
increasedpressureon the state,particularlyover the issue of indigenization, were
politicallyusefulto ZANU(PF).
Interestingly,in the lightof subsequentevents,Moyo findsthatbetween 1995
and 1997, 'squatting'by the ruraland urban poor was spreadingwithinall tenure
categories.He arguesthatthis'suggeststherewerereal benefitsbeingderivedfrom
thisprocessby local elitesand land administrators and thatlocal power structures
were increasingly gainingstrengthand autonomyvis-a-viscentralgovernmentpar-
ticularlyin mattersrelatedto land administration and law enforcement at the local
level' (p. 162). It would be fascinatingto know how such local dynamicsand the
mountingtensionsMoyo hintsat interacted withthenew politicsof 'land invasions'
that emergedin 2000. It is unfortunate, however,thatlittledetail is givenon the
politicsof thesemovements.Indeed, the volume'sprincipalweaknessis its lack of
historicaldepthin explainingthe politicsof Mashonaland.
The second book underreviewhere,Land Reform in Zimbabwe,is theproductof
a conferenceheld at theSchool of Orientaland AfricanStudies,London University,
in March 1998,whichbroughttogetheracademics,keymembersof the Zimbabwe
governmentresponsiblefor land reform,donors, NGOs and representatives of
importantstakeholderssuch as the leaders of the unions representinglarge and
small-scalecommercialas well as communalarea farmers. The conferencewas held
in the immediatewake of Mugabe's designationof 1,471 farmsfor compulsory
acquisition(thoughbeforemost of the farmsweredelistedon appeal). It preceded
theimportant1998 donors'conferenceatwhichprinciplesfora second-phaseLand
Reform and ResettlementProgrammewere agreed, and on the basis of which
fundingwas at firstsecured (notwithstanding Mugabe's increasingly inflammatory
rhetoricas the 2000 electionsapproached),beforebeing suspendedlater.

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346 AFRICAN
AFFAIRS

The book is a collectionof shortchapterscoveringa range of topics and per-

spectives.The contributions rangefromdigestsof thepositionsof keyactorsin the
land debate (such as the variousfarmers'unions) and statementsfromrepresenta-
tives of the Governmentof Zimbabwe on the principlesand objectivesof land
reform, to summariesof researchon different aspectsof theland issue.The research
discussedincludes:evaluationsof the earlyindependenceresettlement programme
and its impacton ruralwelfare,genderrelationsand vegetation;surveysof public
opinion on land reform;an analysisof the compositionof the 1,471 farmsdesig-
nated forcompulsoryacquisition;a reviewof the conclusionsof two officialUK
governmentreviewsof land reform;and briefdiscussion of issues such as land
inheritance,customarylaw and the on-goingcommitmentto technicalland-use
planning.
Some of the issues addressedby the volume have been by-passedby events,at
least temporarily.One exampleis debates overthe consensuson the part of all the
farmers'unions (and againstcurrentacademic opinionin and outsideZimbabwe)
in favourof technicalland-useplanningwithinthe communalareas and theissuing
of privatetitles(discussed in severalchapters).Anotheris debate overthe relative
importanceof land redistribution in relationto otherissues,whichmade headline
news in 1995 when a surveyof 18,000 ruraland urbanhouseholdswas reportedto
have found that only one percentof respondentswanted land, only two percent
thoughtredistributing land could resolvepoverty, and mostwantedjobs and better
salaries.
Of particularinterest,given the UK's role and influenceover the donor com-
munityin Zimbabwe,is the chapterbyJohnCusworth,whichdiscussestwo official
UK government appraisalsof land reformconductedin 1988 and 1996. These were
influentialdocumentsand, unlikesome of theothermaterialin thevolume,are not
widely available elsewhere.The chapter throwsinterestinglight on the fading
supportforresettlement fromthe mid-1980s - on the part of both the Govern-
mentof Zimbabweand the donorcommunity- notwithstanding theprogramme's
evidentsuccess bothin termsof povertyalleviationand itseconomicrateof return.
Althoughmanyof the chaptersin thiscollectiondo not breaknew ground,it is
veryusefulto have such a wide rangeof debatesoverZimbabwe's20 yearsof experi-
ence of land reformbroughttogetherin one volume.

University
ofReading JoANNMCGREGOR

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