LEGACY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND INDIGENOUS AFRICAN LEGAL CONSTRUCTS OF LAND TENURE IN CONTEMPORARY ZIMBABWE

Abstract

The study focuses on the undeniable significance of the European legal traditions, brought to former Southern Rhodesia/Rhodesia by European settlers, for the legal status of land tenure in the country, the legacy of which traditions still deeply impacts the situation in present-day Zimbabwe. There are two main aspects of this influence: the aftermath of imposed land division and the prevalence of Western legal traditions in contemporary law. Numerous laws enacted unilaterally by white Rhodesians, most notably the 1930 Land Apportionment Act and the 1951 Native Land Husbandry Act, impacted the land tenure in the region. The indigenous African population was undoubtedly discriminated against by these legal actions: numerous acres of the land were taken by European conquerors and those left were of much lesser value in terms of farming and pasture. After the end of minority rule in Rhodesia in 1980, when Robert Mugabe rose to power, new land policies were imposed and numerous land allocations were awarded to the supporters of his regime in the name of removing racial injustices. The consequence was disastrous: the policy led to the demise of once world-famous agriculture and Zimbabwe became ceaselessly endangered by famine. Furthermore, laws concerning the land tenure and husbandry were (and still are) based on European legal constructs, alien to the native population of Zimbabwe. Indigenous traditions were subsequently ousted by the European law and are significantly absent in Zimbabwe today. Nowadays, after the fall of Mugabe in 2017, the country finds itself in the defining point of its history. The question persists: Can Zimbabweans derive useful values from their past in order to shape a new land policy in their homeland that would be just for all its citizenry?