From Wilderness Vision to Farm Invasions: Conservation and Development in Zimbabwe's South-east Lowveld - Hardcover

Inhaltsangabe

African people were written out of the landscape in many parts of colonial Zimbabwe. Landscapes, as well as being physical spaces, are imagined and invested with meaning. Conservation and development programmes in Zimbabwe's south-east 'lowveld' have been rooted in the conceptualisation of this landscape as wilderness: either a wilderness to be tamed into a productive landscape by white 'pioneers', or a pristine natural landscape to be preserved, rehabilitated or consciously manufactured. The uses, perceptions and experiences of this landscape by African people have been ignored in policies derived from the 'wilderness vision'. Dryland agriculture in the lowveld has been regularly dismissed as inappropriate, rather than a key livelihood strategy. Land reform has failed to take account of the way the landscape is bound up with identity through its embodiment of ancestral spirits and function as a repository of social memories. The turbulent dynamics around farm invasions in Zimbabwe may open space for previously silenced constructions of landscape to influence policy. An awareness of the flexible and multiple nature of livelihood strategies, and debate concerning the restitution of ancestral lands would go a long way toward improving the livelihoods in the lowveld.

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