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Review of African Political Economy Vol. 38, No. 128, June 2011, 345–346 BOOK REVIEW Land, liberation and compromise in more liberal approach focusing on production Southern Africa, by Chris Alden and Ward rather than redistribution. This shift in the Anseeuw, London, Palgrave Macmillan, policy on land reform was reflected across 2009, 272 pp., £57.50 (hardback), ISBN the region. In South Africa for example, the 9780230230842 elites of the African National Congress (ANC) initially supported broad-based This book brings a long-overdue regional per- social reforms including land and agrarian spective to the analysis of Southern Africa’s reform, under the Reconstruction and Devel- unresolved land issues. Alden and Anseeuw opment Programme (RDP), but later shifted explore the ramifications of Zimbabwe’s con- towards a liberal approach that supported troversial fast-track land reform, in particular agricultural production rather than redistribu- how events in Zimbabwe have helped to tion. These changes reflected the influence of reignite a debate that had long been forgotten neoliberalism in macro-economic policy for- by policy makers and donors. This is a mulation during the Mbeki era. compact book based on empirical research. The book’s analysis of land-reform pro- It analyses the fundamental flaws of liberal grammes across the Southern African constitutionalism and neoliberal macro-econ- region highlights the constraints imposed omic policies, and their impact on post-colo- on redistributive land reform by market- nial state making in Zimbabwe, South based approaches. It shows how Robert Africa and Namibia. Mugabe, facing a crisis of legitimacy after Through analysis of post-colonial state many years of failing to deliver the ‘prom- making, the book provides a fresh approach ised land’ under the constraints of the to how we can better understand the impact ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ approach, of liberal constitutionalism on the delivery sought to challenge liberal constitutional- of social reforms in the post-liberation era. ism by using the liberation narrative as a The book analyses the crises of liberal con- locus to reclaim legitimacy. This was stitutionalism, in particular how the ‘willing achieved through a radical transformation seller, willing buyer’ concept, which gov- of property ownership. Mugabe’s fast- erned land redistribution in Zimbabwe, track land-reform programme, tinged with South Africa and Namibia, failed to deliver megaphone diplomacy and anti-imperialist land to the landless. It also highlights how rhetoric, resonated deeply with the dispos- events in Zimbabwe marked a turning sessed populations of Southern Africa. point in the process towards a more radical Many of these populations were still endur- land reform and the return to anti-imperialist ing the vagaries of colonial and apartheid discourses across the region and on inter- dispossession. They saw in Mugabe’s national forums. radical reforms a model that could be The book explores how the land-reform applied locally to reverse historical injus- agenda gradually shifted from promises of tices related to land ownership. giving ‘land to the tiller’ during the liberation The book further highlights the complex- struggle to the fundamental change towards a ity of the geopolitics of the SADC (Southern ISSN 0305-6244 print/ISSN 1740-1720 online DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2011.552767 http://www.informaworld.com 346 Book review African Development Community) region, in the region. It suggests their enduring role particular the responses to Zimbabwe’s con- in maintaining a tight grip on power, in troversial land-reform programme. While the process undermining the consolidation many countries in the region, including the of a democratic culture in the region. regional ‘powerhouse’ South Africa, stood This is a very important book that cap- by Mugabe’s anti-imperialist rhetoric, re- tures regional experiences with regards to gional responses were far from uniform. post-colonial state making and the impact Some countries while outwardly supporting of liberal constitutionalism on redistributive Zimbabwe’s fast-track model were bene- land reform. However, it seems to have been ficiaries of ‘foreign direct investment’ after rushed for publication with inadequate offering evicted Zimbabwean commercial proofreading. The book contains many basic farmers incentives to invest in their respective errors; names of individuals and events are countries. incorrectly spelt. This is reflected in many An important contribution made by this chapters. For example, on page 40, the book, which has been neglected by the lit- Rhodesian Maize Control Act of 1931 is mis- erature, is that it points out the power of takenly called the Maize Council Act. On ‘liberation narratives’ in shaping post-colo- page 44 the name of the late Zimbabwean nial state making. The book explores the nationalist Herbert Chitepo is mistakenly resurgence of these ‘narratives’ in response spelt Herbert ‘Chipote’. The name of to the crisis of neoliberalism and how these another nationalist, Ndabaningi Sithole, is have emerged as powerful tools in legiti- also mistakenly spelt ‘Ndabagning’. The mising the rule of ‘revolutionary parties’. late Zimbabwean War Veterans’ leader For example, in Zimbabwe Robert Chenjerai Hunzvi’s name is mistakenly Mugabe was able to successfully depict spelt ‘Hunzi’. Zimbabwe’s economic struc- the opposition as agents of imperialist tural adjustment programme (ESAP) is forces seeking to undermine the gains of wrongly called ESCAP. These spelling mis- the liberation struggle. He was also able takes are also reflected in the bibliography to challenge liberal constitutionalism by where names of authors are incorrect. projecting it as an imperial project whose These basic errors undermine the book’s main aim was to protect the interests of credibility as a reliable resource for scho- mainly white commercial farmers. White larly research. However, despite these short- farmers were depicted as the major benefi- comings the book brings a fresh regional ciaries of the negotiated transition to perspective on the land issue, which has majority rule at the expense of Africans. been neglected in recent literature. The book concludes by examining the challenges facing liberal constitutionalism Grasian Mkodzongi across the region. It highlights how ‘liber- University of Edinburgh, UK ation narratives’ are helping to legitimise Email: [email protected] the rule of ‘revolutionary parties’ across # 2011, Grasian Mkodzongi Review of African Political Economy Vol. 38, No. 128, June 2011, 347–349 BOOK REVIEW Zimbabwe’s land reform: myths & housing and common grazing areas; and realities, by Ian Scoones, Nelson Mar- ‘self-contained’, with individual holdings ongwe, Blasio Mavedzenge, Jacob Mahe- for crops, residence and livestock) and nehene, Felix Murimbarima and Chrispen small-scale commercial farms (A2). The Sukume, Oxford, James Currey, and bare bones of diverse emerging livelihood Harare, Weaver Press, 2010, 304 pp., trajectories were derived from the surveys, £16.99, ISBN 9781847010247 then fleshed out with some rich, illustrative vignettes from interviews with individuals This book has already attracted a lot of about the new lives they are leading. attention since its well-publicised launches This case study material is set out in Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, against a close following of the record of and has begun to fuel controversy, which developments at the national level over a was in fact one of its aims. It states its tumultuous last decade, with regard to the purpose as one of tackling head-on what political dynamics, the macro-economic are regarded as ‘myths’ found in the oft- meltdown, the land policies and legislation. repeated, sensationalised headlines in The findings about who got what – the pro- Western media accounts of the land occu- portion of small (A1) as opposed to middle pations, seizures and redistributions. It (A2) farms, the retention of one or more counters views that this ‘Fast Track Land existing large holdings by elites, and the Reform’ (FTLR) has been a disaster, spatial and socio-economic origins of the causing the total ruination of agriculture, various beneficiaries – correspond widespread food shortages, cutting off broadly to what official audits and studies investments, and seeing the land put by Zimbabwean institutions, the African solely into the hands of a few political Institute for Agrarian Studies (AIAS) and cronies, by a painstaking gathering and Ruzivo Trust say about the extent of land evaluation of detailed evidence from years transfers. But this study adds much more of fieldwork. than government reports on the human con- The first task of a review, therefore, sequences. While recognising that the cir- should be to explore the evidential base on cumstances of acquisition and distribution which the authors base their counterclaims. have a crucial impact on these conse- The base derives from a 10-year study inves- quences, they also show that even within tigating changes in livelihoods following a single province, there is no single narra- land reform in Masvingo province. Central tive of how land reform took place. The was a sample survey of 400 households involvement of veterans, local chiefs and across 16 sites, stretching across a range of other notables, national politicians, and agroecological settings from Gutu in the security personnel varied from location to north to Chikombedzi in the south. The location, as did the occurrence of violence