The fast track land reform of Zimbabwe read through the lens of Ubuntu

ABSTRACT

The Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) of Zimbabwe (2000–2002) has been studied from economic perspectives that emphasise inequalities between landowners and the black majority. Other studies have focused on the violence engendered in the process of reclaiming land. Critical questions have not been raised about the sense of justice, and sensitivity to human lives lost, during the process of land takeovers. Hardened ideological positions of both white landowners and the nationalists over land can be considered to have led to extra-judicial killings, corruption, and loss of livelihoods for land owners and their farm labourers. This article applies the concept of Ubuntu to measure what was lost in terms of humaneness, prospects for true reconciliation, and compensatory and distributive justice from a process that emphasised violence over dialogue. Secondary, internet sources and limited interviews were used to gauge people’s perceptions of the manner of the FTLRP due to land restorative processes that to violate the very idea of dialogue to resolve conflicts encouraged in the philosophy of Ubuntu. The article provides recommendations of what could have been done to preserve the essential elements of Ubuntuism that put value on the otherness of the other persons in any situation.

KEYWORDS:

• Ubuntu
• Fast-Track Land Reform Programme
• corruption
• conflict
• violence
• livelihoods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vongai Z. Nyawo

Prof V. Z. Nyawo is Director of Research and Postgraduate Studies at Great Zimbabwe University. She worked as a professor in the Department of History at the Midlands State University from 2010 to 2020. She holds a PhD in issues of land reform in independent Zimbabwe and South Africa. Her research areas include land reform, gender, reconciliation, governance, food security, climate change, sustainable development, community engagement, and African literature. She is well published in these areas and has attended and presented at many conferences around the world.