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

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Periodical article

Title:	Legacies of 'madiro'? Worker-peasantry, livelihood crisis and 'siziphile' land occupations in semi-arid north-western Zimbabwe
Author:	Thebe, Vusilizwe
Year:	2017
Periodical:	Journal of Modern African Studies (ISSN 0022-278X)
Volume:	55
Issue:	2
Pages:	201-224
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zimbabwe
Subjects:	land conflicts livelihoods
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X17000052
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.