Participation and Stakeholder Dynamics in the Water Reform Process in Zimbabwe: The Case of the Mazoe Pilot Catchment Board

by Bevlyne Sithole Abstract One aspect of water reform in Zimbabwe is increased stakeholder participation in water management through catchment boards. This paper uses discourse analysis to explore relationships among different stakeholders in consultative meetings facilitated to achieve wider participation among all stakeholders. Consultation over the water allocation system provides a case for the analysis […]

Transforming Traditional Institutions for Sustainable Natural Resource Management: History, Narratives and Evidence from Zimbabwe’s Communal Areas

by Dale Dore Abstract A major question that has emerged from the research and discourse on community-based natural resource management in southern Africa is whether traditional rules comply with generally accepted principles of common property management. In other words: do traditional institutions offer a solution for the sustainable management of natural resources held in common? […]

Gender-Sensitive LP Models in Soil Fertility Research for Smallholder Farmers: Reaching De Jure Female Headed Households in Zimbabwe

by Maxwell Mudhara, Peter. E. Hildebrand, and Christina. H. Gladwin Introduction Zimbabwe faces a challenge in meeting food requirements of its 12 million people. The population is growing at three percent per annum compared to 1-1.5 percent per annum growth in agricultural production. Therefore, per capita food production is declining. To meet its food requirements, the […]

Globalizing Land and Food in Zimbabwe: Implications for Southern Africa

by Carol Thompson Abstract For political and economic crises as severe as Zimbabwe, domestic causes are central, but the conflict in Zimbabwe is not simply internal; it is regional and international and in that sense, it is a post (political) apartheid struggle. Taking an international perspective, this article delineates the context and the constraints on […]

Press and Politics in Zimbabwe

by Stanford D. Musaka Abstract This paper provides a historical background to the development of the press in Zimbabwe and identifies the political, social and economic interventions that have shaped the editorial policies and directions of the press. The development of the press in Zimbabwe press, the paper suggests, can be categorized into three eras: colonial/nationalist (pre-1980); transitional […]

Crisis in the State and the Family: Violence Against Women in Zimbabwe

by Mary Johnson Osirim Abstract Since the early 1990’s, Zimbabwe has been enmeshed in a major economic crisis that has seriously eroded the status of women in that country. For the past three years, the economic crisis has been joined by a political crisis which marks the first major challenge to the Mugabe regime since […]

War Veterans: Continuities Between the Past and the Present

by Norma Kriger Abstract This article makes the case for strong parallels in the collaborative relationship between veterans and the party in the first seven years of independence and in the extended election campaign period from February 2000 to the presidential election in March 2002. Just as the ruling party used ZANLA veterans to build […]

Opposition Politics in Independent Zimbabwe

by Liisa Laakso Abstract Zimbabwe has implemented a multi-party system on a universal franchise for more than two decades. This era has witnessed consolidation of power into the hands of the ruling ZANU party and its leader Robert Mugabe, and a gradual evolution of political crises. All general elections have shown support for the opposition […]

The Experience of Resettled Farmers in Zimbabwe

by Sophia Chiremba and William Masters Abstract This study assesses the relative productivity of smallholder farmers in zimbabwe’s land reform and resettlement programme. We use a panel of survey data collected in 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997 from up to 400 resettled households, who in 1981-84 had been moved onto previously large-scale commercial farms in […]

Narratives on Land: State-Peasant Relations Over Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe

by Bevlyne Sithole, Bruce Campbell, Dale Doré and Witness Kozanayi Abstract In the last few years, slogans have become more elaborate and fervent with regards to promises of delivering land to peasants in Zimbabwean communal areas. Conditions in communal areas suggest that peasants should be highly receptive to the slogans and the narratives from which they […]

African Studies Quarterly

Tag: Zimbabwe