Paper short abstract:

This paper utilizes empirical data gathered as part of a doctoral thesis focusing on land reform and rural livelihoods to highlight the reconfiguration of rural authority during the implementation of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP).

Paper long abstract:

This paper utilizes empirical data gathered as part of a doctoral thesis focusing on land reform and rural livelihoods to highlight the reconfiguration of rural authority during the implementation of Zimbabwe's Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP). In the aftermath of land reform, conflicts over control of local spaces and landscapes have emerged, these conflicts have reshaped the local state and amplified discourses of local ownership of natural resources . The paper explores how discourses of autochthony, indigenization, national liberation and state bureaucracy are deployed by various actors as a way of claiming authority over land and what lies beneath it. The paper is largely based on qualitative data gathered in the Mhondoro Ngezi District in Mashonaland Province of Zimbabwe.