From Wilderness Vision to Farm Invasions: Conservation and Development in Zimbabwe's South-east Lowveld - Couverture rigide
Synopsis
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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Présentation de l'éditeur
Conservation and development programmes in Zimbabwe's south-east 'lowveld' have been rooted in the conceptualisation of this landscape as wilderness. The uses, perceptions and experiences of this landscape by African people have been ignored in policies derived from the 'wilderness vision'. 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.
Revue de presse
Another outstanding recent publication from James Currey. [...] A careful, nuanced study of contested visions over time of landscape and livelihoods in Zimbabwe's south-east lowveld. --Robin Palmer in Independent Reviews of Land Issues
Both an extremely useful way of interrogating the historical data and an enlightening analysis of the Zimbabwean lowveld. It also suggests a hosts of questions that could engage researchers for years to come. --Journal Of Southern African Studies
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