Whatever It Takes

Tenure Security Strategies of Communal Land Right Holders in Zimbabwe

Bibliographic Data

ID2102883
AuthorsDavid Goodwin (0000-0002-7988-1335, University of Otago, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume83
Issue1
Pages164-187
Publication date2013-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0001972012000769
OpenAlexW2114624346
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited38

This article looks at ways in which communal area right holders in Zimbabwe attempt to add security to their land rights when faced with altered circumstances. Apart from quasi-legal means such as ad hoc diagrams, which were beyond the scope of this article, two principal strands were found by which land right security is bolstered. First, investment in interpersonal ties (both with the living and the dead), and second, ceremonies for forging and maintaining links with land. For both, it was found that traditional practices have been bent and adapted pragmatically to suit contemporary contexts. Increased mobility and remoteness from rural homes have also given rise to a degree of abstraction (for example, the symbolic use in urban settings of soil or grain brought from communal areas). Where both custom and formal law coexist pluralistically, custom has proved the more flexible of the two and, unless demonstrably better security is offered, it seems likely that custom will continue to be invoked and modified to provide security for new circumstances

Agriculture · Business · Computer security · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Land tenure · Political science · Principal (computer security · Scope (computer science · Security of tenure · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Land Rights and Reforms · Law

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