The complexity of farmworkers' livelihoods in Zimbabwe after the Fast Track Land Reform: experiences from a farm in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe

• Published in: Review of African political economy Vol. 46; no. 159; pp. 55 - 70
• Main Authors: Kudzai Chiweshe, Manase, Chabata, Takunda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 02-01-2019; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Agrarian society; Agrarian structures; Case studies; commercial farms; durabilité; Employers; farm workers; Farms; Farmworkers; Fast Track Land Reform programme; fermes commerciales; Land reform; Livelihood; livelihoods; moyens de subsistance; ouvriers agricoles; Owners; Programme accéléré de réforme agraire; Qualitative research; Redistribution; Rural areas; Rural communities; Rural population; sustainability; Winners; Zimbabwe
• ISSN: 0305-6244; 1740-1720
• DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2019.1609920

The Fast Track Land Reform programme in Zimbabwe was one of the largest land redistribution exercises in the world. The programme had varying impacts on the diverse rural population, leading to a binary projection of winners and losers. The authors use a micro case study of former farmworkers in Chinhoyi to highlight how this particular group has fared since 2000. The authors' interest is in understanding how the programme impacted on the farmworkers' livelihoods and how they have responded to the changing agrarian structure. The authors focus on the bulk of the permanent farmworkers on the A2 farms who remained in the farm compounds where they offered to work for the new black farm owners. Using qualitative methodology, this study assesses the fragile patterns of livelihoods for the resident farmworkers. The vast majority of these workers did not get land during the land reform programme, thus their livelihoods in large part derive from the labour they sell to their new employers. This livelihood option however remains limited, ephemeral and unreliable.