Belonging and Rural Livelihoods: Women’s Access to Land and non-permanent Mobility at Merrivale farm, Mwenezi District, Zimbabwe

August 2014
Patience Mutopo (Erdkunde, 68, 3, August 2014, 197-207)

Asks how have rural women become important actors in accessing land and shaping non-permanent mobile livelihoods in the context of the fast track land reform programme. Data is based on an ethnographic study at Merrivale farm, Tavaka village, from 2009-12. Shows that women have become major actors in land acquisition and non-permanent mobile livelihoods. Mobility is central in the evolving conflicts in the new resettlement areas. The concept of home becomes central in resolving conflicts and affects how conflict mechanisms are reached both at Merrivale and in South Africa.