Zimbabwe's Land Reform: myths and realities

Zimbabwe’s land reform is the first book on contemporary Zimbabwe that offers an empirically-rich and detailed account of redistributed farms that arose from ‘fasttrack’ land reform 10 years ago. In order to fully appreciate the significance of this book, it is necessary to outline briefly recent intellectual debates on Zimbabwe. Two main positions exist on Zimbabwean politics and society. The first position argues that the radical restructuring of agrarian relations (including undermining white agricultural capital and breaking up large commercial farms into smaller units) is a progressive tendency that has opened up opportunities for black small-scale farmers. Simultaneously, this position often underplays the existence of state restructuring of an authoritarian kind. The second position argues that land redistribution has dramatically undercut agricultural production thereby severely compromising food security for all Zimbabweans. It brings to the fore violent state action in instigating land occupations and in thwarting political opposition to ‘fast-track’