Natural resource-based conflicts in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This book examines a number of case studies which highlight the complex, variegated and fluctuating character of local conflicts in rural Zimbabwe relating to natural resources. These studies focus on struggles around access to, and control over, land, water and minerals in particular, and they cover diverse communities and agrarian sites in different regions of the country, including both communal and resettlement areas. The conflicts incorporate multiple agents, including central and local state entities, companies, traditional authorities, local elites, small-scale farmers and small-scale miners, with multiple fault-lines arising locally along for instance gender and ethnicity. This opening chapter contextualises these case studies by first briefly outlining key themes within the broader literature on natural resource conflicts in Africa, and then reviewing the literature on natural resource conflicts in Zimbabwe specifically. It ends by providing a summary of each of the ensuing 15 chapters and arguing for the necessity and significance of local studies. In this regard, broad and sweeping claims about the causes, character and consequences of natural resource conflicts are deeply problematic, and hence this chapter argues for the necessity of unpacking and examining the contingencies and dynamics of these conflicts as they unfold in their own unique way at local levels.