Environmental policing in the Tribal Trust Lands and African peasant responses in Zimbabwe, c.1960 – 2005

Date
2024-03
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Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines African peasant responses to environmental policing in the Tribal Trust Lands in Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) from c.1960, when rural administration and policy were changed, to 2005, when the government nationalised farms acquired through the Fast Track Land Reform Programme. It demonstrates how the colonial state, white settler state and post-colonial state used environmental policies to control, win over and ultimately marginalise peasants. This thesis shows how environmental policies were restrictive to the growth of peasant agriculture and how it impacted on their access to and use of water, forests, and fecund land. It analyses some of the key policies implemented under white-minority rule by Ian Smith and thereafter by the Robert Mugabe government. It demonstrates the varying ways in which these policies impacted in social, economic, environmental, and political mindsets of the African peasant and accounts for their subsequent and shifting attitudes towards the state and its policies. At times implemented to win the hearts and minds of peasants and their chiefs, often these policies were implemented in a coercive and authoritarian way, causing hostility between the state and peasants. This hostility led to a growing peasant consciousness and rural nationalism. Peasant resistance shaped environmental policy from below as the government responded by revising or abandoning certain policies. The study demonstrates that peasants were central in environmental policy changes and that conservation policies were not static but changed over time. These were influenced by key socio-economic and political events. The policies showed the colonial, settler, and post-colonial state’s unwillingness to lose rural control feeding off a state of undeveloped rural areas. Joining the enduring historiographical conversation on environmental and peasant studies, this study demonstrates how peasants navigated various environmental policies instituted (and sometimes forcefully imposed) by the two regimes for survival. Drawing on a global, regional, and Zimbabwean historiography on environmental policies the study explores rural development in relation to state intervention programs through conservation and agriculture. The study localises peasant resistance to conservation policies in Zimbabwe showing that peasants though different from one country to the other, all face similar challenges. Relying on archival, oral interviews and secondary sources, the thesis demonstrates how African peasants were over time able to influence the nature of policymaking as the governments reacted in response to African discontent and pushback.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek bestaansboere in Afrika se reaksies op die omgewings polisiëring van die Stam Trust Lande in Zimbabwe (voorheen Suid-Rhodesië) vanaf 1960, toe die landelike administrasie en beleid verander het, tot in met 2005, toe die regering genasionaliseerde plase bekom het deur middel van die Fast Track grondhervormingsprogram. Dit demonstreer hoe die koloniale, -wit setlaar en die post-koloniale state gebruik was om omgewingsbeleid te kontroleer asook om boere te oorwin en uiteindelik te marginaliseer. Hierdie tesis bewys hoe beperkend omgewingsbeleid was vir die groei van kleinboer landbou en hoe dit hul toegang tot die gebruik van water, woude en vrugbare land geaffekteer het. Dit analiseer sommige van die hoof beleide wat deur die wit-minderheidsregering soos Ian Smith en daarna ook deur die Robert Mugabe regering geïmplementeer was. Dit demonstreer die verskillende maniere hoe hierdie beleide die sosiale, ekonomiese, -omgewings, en politieke denkwyse van Afrika boere beïnvloed het en gee rekening vir hulle daaropvolgende en veranderende houdings omtrent die staat en sy beleide. Sekere tye het hierdie implementering die harte van bestaansboere en hoofmanne oorwin, maar telkemale was hierdie beleide op ‘n dwingende en outoritêre wyse geïmplementeer wat vyandigheid tussen die staat en bestaansboere veroorsaak het. Hierdie vyandigheid het gelei tot ‘n groeiende boere bewussyn en landelike nasionalisme. Hierdie weerstandigheid het die omgewingsbeleid van onder af help vorm en het die regering aangespoor om sekere beleide te hersien of heeltemal te los. Die studie demonstreer dat bestaansboere sentraal was vir die omgewingsbeleid veranderinge en dat bewaringsbeleide nie staties was nie, maar dat dit met tyd verander het. Hierdie was beïnvloed deur belangrike sosio-ekonomiese en politieke gebeure. Die beleide het gewys hoe ongewillig koloniale, -setlaar en post-koloniale state was om landelike beheer te verloor wat voeding gee aan ‘n staat van onontwikkelde landelike gebiede. Om aan te sluit by blywende historiografiese gesprekke op omgewings-en kleinboer studies, bewys hierdie studie hoe bestaansboere moes oorleef deurdat hulle deur verskeie omgewingsbeleide moes beweeg wat deur die twee regimes (soms ook met geweld) ingestel was. Op grond van ‘n globale, streeks en Zimbabwiese historiografie op omgewingsbeleide, verken hierdie studie ‘n landelike ontwikkeling in verhouding met die staat se intervensieprogramme deur middel van bewaring en landbou. Hierdie studie lokaliseer bestaansboere se weerstand teenoor bewaringsbeleide in Zimbabwe wat wys dat bestaansboere, tog verskillend van ander lande, steeds dieselfde uitdagings in die gesig gestaar het. Deur op argief, mondelingse onderhoude en sekondêre bronne staat te maak, demonstreer hierdie tesis hoe bestaansboere in Afrika mettertyd in staat was om die natuur van beleidmaking te beïnvloed terwyl die regering op ontevredenheid en terugstooting gereageer het.
Description
Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.
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