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Without adequate protection and consideration from the state, women were left out of Zimbabwe's Fast Land Reform Programme at the turn of the century. Leaving them to fight for land in a murky, convoluted system will not address women's rights to it. Giving specific ethical and legal attention to women's rights and needs is the only way to guard against land and other resources begin co-opted by the privileged and those with the requisite social, financial and political capital.
Some commentators have argued that Zimbabwean women were better off identifying with Zimbabwean men as as blacks in taking land from the former white farmers than to concentrate on their needs as women during the FTLRP. The primary battle was to take the land from the white farmer, after which a secondary battle by women to take land from men would ensue. Twenty years after the commencement of the FTLRP, the question remains whether the secondary battle by black women to take over land from black men has started and whether there are any chances that such a battle will ever be fought and won.
About the author
Makanatsa Makonese is the Deputy Chief of Party for the American Bar Association-Advancing Rights in Southern Africa Programme based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has also worked with United Nations entities in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Uganda in developing national frameworks for the promotion and protection of women and girls' rights and the promotion of gender equality.
