Power, Welfare and Belonging on Commercial Farms Before and After “Fast-Track Land Reform” in Zimbabwe
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Cultivations on the Frontiers of Modernity: Power, Welfare and Belonging on Commercial Farms Before and After “Fast-track Land Reform” in Zimbabwe Andrew Hartnack Thesis presented for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Social Anthropology School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN University of Cape Town February 2015 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town Acknowledgements The financial support of the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the National Research Foundation and the University of Cape Town towards this research is hereby gratefully acknowledged. The opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to OMT, the NRF or UCT. My profound thanks go to these organisations for supporting me during the course of this study, and particularly to Clare Digby of OMT and Bongiwe Ndamane of the UCT Postgraduate Funding Office for their assistance. A large debt of gratitude is owed to all those who agreed to participate in my research and gave so generously of their time, insights, stories and histories: I hope to have done justice to these. Many people assisted me in various invaluable ways during the course of fieldwork and writing up. My thanks go to the Kunzwana Women’s Association and Emmie Wade and her staff in particular for welcoming me and sharing much insight into their work. Similarly, my thanks go to Peter Murwisi and Moira Ngaru of the Farm Orphan Support Trust, Godfrey Magaramombe of the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe, Sue Bradshaw and Elizabeth January of the Musha we Vana Children’s Home and Craig Deall of Foundations for Farming. For purposes of anonymity I cannot name the farmers who so generously allowed me to conduct research at their farms, but my deepest gratitude is given for allowing me this opportunity despite the uncertain political environment. During fieldwork I was helped in various important ways by Bill Kinsey, Ben Purcell Gilpin, Sue Parry, Lynn Walker, Maxwell Kapachawo, Irene Beta, Gift Konjana, Anne Hartnack, Richard Hartnack, Kumbukani Phiri, Kate Raath, April Piercey, James Maberley and Margan Bower. Many thanks for this assistance, without which I would not have managed. During thesis writing I was grateful for the valuable feedback of participants at the North-eastern Workshop on Southern Africa (NEWSA) (Burlington, Vermont, 17–19 October 2014), as well as Irene Staunton, Dan Wylie and Alison Shutt. An old friend, Marc Carrie-Wilson, proved an invaluable resource on technical and legal matters relating to land and labour in Zimbabwe, for which I am deeply grateful. My supervisor, Prof. Fiona Ross, not only provided exceptional guidance, support and feedback during fieldwork and the write-up, but also showed incredible faith in my abilities and the potential of my research. For this I am deeply grateful. I was also fortunate to have the expert advice and copy-editing services of Helen Hacksley, to whom I also owe much. Lastly, my profound thanks go to my family, who have supported me throughout. In particular I cannot thank Helen and Michael, who was born during the course of the project, enough for their love and support, and for allowing me to be away for so long in pursuit of this project. I will always be grateful for this. Plagiarism Declaration Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it is one’s own. I have used the author/date convention for citation and referencing. Each contribution to, and quotation in this research project from the works of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. This project is my own work in concept and execution. Signature: Date: CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..1 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms………………………………………………………….2 Maps…………………………………………………………………………………………...5 Chapter One: Introduction and Methodology: Masculinity, Power and “Improvement” on Zimbabwe’s Highveld ……………………………7 Chapter Two: The Taming of “Virgin” Bush, Frontier Masculinity and “Raw Natives”: Farmworkers and the Civilising Mission in Colonial Zimbabwe…………………………………………………………….43 Chapter Three: From Homo Technologicus Par Excellence to Personae Non Gratae: Modernity, Welfare and Trusteeship on White-owned Commercial Farms, 1980–2000……………………………………………………79 Chapter Four: The Politics and Pragmatics of Labour, Welfare and Livelihoods on (Former) Commercial Farms in the Context of Radical Agrarian Change………………………………………………………………115 Chapter Five: Strategising for Survival: The Decline of Farm-focussed NGOs and the Role of New Welfare and “Improvement” Initiatives for Farm Dwellers after Fast-track Land Reform……………………………..147 Chapter Six: Personhood, (Inter)dependence and Agency in Crooked Times: Multiple and Flexible Subjectivities in Rural and Urban Zimbabwe…………………………………………………………...175 Chapter Seven: Conclusion: Modernity, Civilisation and Power in the Longue Durée………………………………………………………………..205 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………...215 Appendix A: Details of interviews, focus groups, meetings and surveys conducted…………………………………………………………...248 Abstract Forms of power on commercial farms and power relations between white farm owners and black farmworkers in Zimbabwe have been explored by scholars such as Clarke (1977), Loewenson (1992), Amanor-Wilks (1995), Tandon (2001) and especially Rutherford (2001a). While most focus on the capitalist exploitation of farmworkers and forms of structural violence, Rutherford has gone beyond political-economy to understand power relations on farms in terms of the histories and complex forms of identity formation among both white farmers and black workers in pre- and post-independence Zimbabwe. However, the subtle and often obscured role of the “farmer’s wife” in farm power relations, determined by the dynamics of a system Rutherford (2001a) has called “domestic government”, has not been examined much in the literature. In this thesis I address this omission through an examination of the role of welfare initiatives and related activities intimately linked to domesticity and white “farmer’s wives” within Rhodesian/Zimbabwean white settler society. I show that this “maternalistic” role was not only important in the colonial civilising and modernising endeavours of white farmers as they “cultivated” African fields, African workers and their own identities, but also became an important foundation on which post-independence welfare endeavours (linked to a new kind of civilising mission: that of neoliberal “civil society”) were built. I then trace the impacts of the radical agrarian shifts introduced in 2000 with the “Fast- track Land Reform Programme” (FTLRP) on such interventions and on their beneficiaries, black farmworkers, as well as on the emergent power relations which farmworkers and dwellers now negotiate. Based on nine months of fieldwork, and on archival and library research, this multi-sited study takes a historical-ethnographic approach which pays attention to the longue durée and the entanglement of political-economic and gendered socio-cultural factors shaping power regimes and relations in rural Zimbabwe. The dissertation weaves together several strands of argument relating to the changing dynamics of power, welfare, modernity and belonging and how these changes are affecting white farmers and their wives, NGOs and (former) farmworkers and dwellers in contemporary Zimbabwe. It contributes to a fuller, more nuanced and gendered understanding of the (dynamic) nature of labour relations and the role of welfare and “improvement” endeavours on (former) commercial farms over the course of more than a century. 1 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms AIAS African Institute for Agrarian Studies AIDS acquired immune deficiency syndrome ALB Agricultural Labour Bureau ART anti-retroviral therapy BIPPA Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement BSAC British South Africa Company BSAP British South Africa Police CCJP Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace CFU Commercial Farmers Union CIO Central Intelligence Organisation DA District Administrator DANIDA Danish International Development Agency DfID Department for International Development (UK) EED Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst EHAIA Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa ESAP Economic Structural Adjustment Programme ETI Ethical Trade Initiative FA farmers association FACT Family AIDS Caring Trust FADCO Farm Development Committee FAWC Federation of African Women’s Clubs FCTZ Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe FfF Foundations for Farming FHW farm health worker FHWP Farm Health Worker Programme 2 FLO Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International FOST Farm Orphan Support Trust FTLRP Fast-track Land Reform Programme FWAG Farm Workers Action Group FWISR Federation of Women’s Institutes of Southern Rhodesia FWP Farm Worker Programme GAPWUZ General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe GDP gross domestic product GPA Global Political Agreement HIV human immunodeficiency virus HPC Horticulture Promotion Council of Zimbabwe IMF International Monetary Fund JAG Justice for Agriculture KWA Kunzwana Women’s Association LSCF large-scale commercial farm MDC Movement for