Bogen beskæftiger sig ikke med den kaotiske og voldelige beslaglæggelse af hvide farme og med, hvordan det ville have været, hvis de hvide farmere stadig havde deres jord, men konkluderer, at tusinder af sorte landmænd i dag klarer sig langt bedre end antaget.
LONDON, 5 February 2013 (IRIN): More than 10 years after the chaotic and often violent farm invasions that accompanied Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform programme, a new book argues that the redistribution programme has dramatically improved the lives of thousands of smallholder farmers and their families.
Starting in 2000, the government implemented an initiative to acquire 11 million hectares of white-owned farmland and redistribute it on a massive scale; the programme was often carried out in the form of farm invasions led by frustrated war veterans and supporters of President Robert Mugabe.
By its conclusion, only 0,4 percent of farmland remained in the hands of white commercial farmers, and smallholder farmers dominated the agricultural sector.
The land reform programme was followed by years of drought, hyperinflation and an economic meltdown.
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Thirteen years later and more than 8.000 km away, the programme still raises strong emotions.
At a recent event hosted by London’s Chatham House at which authors of the new book, “Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land”, defended their work, the hall was packed, and a polite but persistent group of anti-Mugabe protesters occupied the pavement outside.
The book avoids passing judgement on the often violent manner in which the programme was executed.
“This is not a book about what might have been, could have been, or should have been,” write authors Joseph Hanlon, Jeanette Manjengwa and Teresa Smart.
Instead, it focuses on the results of a study they carried out in Mashonaland, a region of northern Zimbabwe covering three provinces, which found that many of the ‘fast-track’ farmers are faring much better than has been widely assumed.
Despite receiving very little government assistance, “we saw that these farmers had a real passion for farming. We found that farmers are making investments, building houses and barns… and buying farm implements,” said Manjengwa, adding:
“They are making the land their own, and they are becoming serious commercial farmers.”
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97407/A-new-take-on-land-reform-in-Zimbabwe
