Colonial and Post-Colonial Reconstructions of Customary Land Tenure in Zimbabwe

Published date01 March 1998
Date01 March 1998
DOI10.1177/096466399800700105
Subject MatterArticles
77-
COLONIAL
AND
POST-
COLONIAL
RECONSTRUCTIONS
OF
CUSTOMARY
LAND
TENURE
IN
ZIMBABWE
LAWRENCE
TSHUMA
International
Development
Law
Institute,
Rome,
Italy
ABSTRACT
Settler
colonialism
in
Zimbabwe
involved
the
alienation
of
land
as
well
as
the
restruc-
turing
of
customary
tenure.
The
restructured
customary
tenure
vested
title
to
land
in
the
colonial
state
thus
merging
sovereignty
and
property.
The
merger
facilitated
administrative control
of
rural
society.
Institutionalized
customary
tenure
was
said
to
be
communal
and
excluded
individual
rights.
Despite
the
official
version,
local
customary
tenure
was
dynamic,
recognized
individual
use
rights
and
facilitated
accumulation
and
differentiation.
The
post-colonial
state
has
continued
the
merger
of
sovereignty
and
property
thus
continuing
the
undemocratic
relations
between
the
state
and
rural
society.
Customary
tenure
is
still
considered
communal.
It
continues
to
be
dynamic
and
mediates
class
and
gender
differentiation.
INTRODUCTION
IMBABWE’S
AGRARIAN
question
is
one
of
its
most
enduring
colonial
~T
legacies.
This
is
not
surprising
given
that
the
country
was
a
settler
colony
for
almost
90
years.
As
in
other
settler
colonies
in
Africa,
most
of
the
fertile
land
was
alienated
to
agrarian
settler
capital
while
African
com-
munities
were
forced
into
marginal
areas.
Throughout
the
colonial
period,
the
inequitable
distribution
of
land
became
a
rallying
point
for
nationalist
and
local
level
anti-colonial
struggles.
Demands
for
liberating
the
land
from
the
settlers
featured
prominently
in
Zimbabwe’s
guerrilla
war
of
liberation.
At
the
1979
Lancaster
House
Conference,
negotiations
to
bring
an
end
to
the
war
almost
floundered
over
British
constitutional
proposals
which
sought
to
restrict
the
future
government
of
Zimbabwe’s
powers
of
compulsory
land
acquisition.
Since
Zimbabwe’s
independence
in
1980,
attempts
to
acquire
and
SOCIAL
&
LEGAL
STUDIES
0964
6639
(199803)
7:1
Copyright @
1998
SAGE
Publications,
London,
Thousand
Oaks,
CA
and
New
Delhi,
Vol.
7(l),
77-95;
002397
78
redistribute
land
have
generated
conflicting
responses
with
proponents
arguing
that
they
are
inadequate
while
opponents
view
them
as
unfair.
While
the
inequitable
distribution
of
land
has
been
the
most
visible
aspect
of
Zimbabwe’s
agrarian
question,
another
and
by
no
means
less
important
issue
has
been
the
different
tenure
systems
and
the
consequent
land
rights
they
confer.
This
paper
analyses
the
reconstruction
of
’customary
tenure’
in
Zimbabwe
and
its
implications
for
rural
governance
both
during
the
colonial
and
post-colonial
periods.
The
first
part
examines
the
colonial
construction
and
interpretation
of
customary
tenure.
It
also
examines
the
nature
of
prop-
erty
rights
that
the
colonial
tenure
conferred
on
African
rural
communities.
The
paper
argues
that
colonial
customary
tenure
facilitated
administrative
control
of
African
rural
communities
and
thus
mediated
undemocratic
relations
between
the
colonial
state
and
the
rural
population.
The
second
part
examines
local
level
interpretations
of
customary
tenure
amongst
rural
com-
munities
themselves.
It
argues
that
local
customary
forms
mediated
class,
gender
and
generational
interests.
The
third
part
discusses
post-colonial
reconstructions
of
customary
tenure
and
their
consequences
for
relations
between
the
state
and
rural
society.
The
final
part
analyses
local
level
agrar-
ian
relations
and
how
these
are
mediated
through
customary
forms.
CUSTOMARY
TENURE
AND
GOVERNANCE
IN
COLONIAL
ZIMBABWE
From
the
outset,
the
chartered
company,
the
British
South
Africa
Company
(’the
Company’),
which
spearheaded
the
colonization
of
Zimbabwe
intended
the
country
to
be
a
settler
colony.
Soon
after
it
was
granted
a
Royal
Charter
in
1889,
the
Company
organized
an
expedition
which,
between
1890
and
1893,
defeated
the
Shona
polities
and
the
Ndebele
state.
Members
of
the
expe-
dition
were
recruited
with
the
promise
of
a
free
farm
of
1500
morgen
(3175
acres)
and
15
reef
of
gold,
a
promise
which
was
honoured
with
free
land
grants
under
permit
of
occupation
(Palmer,
1977a:
26;
Mosley,
1983:
14).
In
1894
the
Company
Administrator
issued
Survey
Regulations
which
con-
verted
the
permits
of
occupation
into
title
deeds.
Section
27
of
the
Regu-
lations
provided
that
’for
purposes
of
these
regulations
the
Administrator
shall
be
deemed
and
taken
to
be
an
owner
with
regard
to
vacant
or
unalloted
lands,
and
also
with
regard
to
native
reserves’
(emphasis
provided).
The
Regulations
were
expropriatory
and
formalized
in
law
the
deprivation
of
Africans
of
their
land
rights.
They
were
displaced
and
dispersed
from
alien-
ated
and
expropriated
land
in
several
phases
in
subsequent
years.
Following
the
defeat
of
the
Ndebele
state
in
1893,
the
British
enacted
the
Matebeleland
Order
in
Council
of
1894
which
made
provision
for the
establishment
of
a
Land
Commission
whose
mandate
was
to
assign
sufficient
agricultural
and
pastoral
land
and
cattle
for
the
needs
of
the
Ndebele.
Within
two
months
of
its
appointment,
the
Commission
assigned
the
Ndebele
two
native
reserves
in
the
dry
and
infertile
part
of
the
country.
Additional
native
reserves
were

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