Strangers, Spirits, and Land Reforms

Conflicts about Land in Dande, Northern Zimbabwe

Marja J. Spierenburg

 

  • Brill
  • Unknown city
  • 2004
  • English
  • Paperback
  • 255 pages

Synopsis

This book describes efforts by the Zimbabwean government to enforce land reforms on African farmers in northern Zimbabwe. These efforts compounded rather than alleviated the problem of land scarcity for black small-scale farmers, a problem government now allegedly seeks to redress through invasions of white-owned farms. The book describes the similarities between the post-Independence land reforms and those attempted by the Rhodesian regime.

Review

...there is a great deal more to the land issue in Zimbabwe than Mugabe's land seizures. This is a valuable work that should be read by anyone interested in the anthropology of religion (or) the anthropology of development'. - David O'Kane, European Journal of Anthropology

Author

Marja J. Spierenburg, Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Amsterdam (2003), is Assistant Professor at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam.