Cultivations on the frontiers of modernity : power, welfare and belonging on commercial farms before and after "fast-track land reform" in Zimbabwe

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dc.contributor.advisorRoss, Fiona Cen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorHartnack, Andrew Michael Carlen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-03T14:04:24Z
dc.date.available2015-12-03T14:04:24Z
dc.date.issued2015en_ZA
dc.description.abstractForms of power on commercial farms and power relations between white farm owners and black farmworkers in Zimbabwe have been explored by scholars such as Clarke (1977), Loewenson (1992), Amanor-Wilks (1995), Tandon (2001) and especially Rutherford (2001a). While most focus on the capitalist exploitation of farmworkers and forms of structural violence, Rutherford has gone beyond political-economy to understand power relations on farms in terms of the histories and complex forms of identity formation among both white farmers and black workers in pre- and post-independence Zimbabwe. However, the subtle and often obscured role of the "farmer's wife" in farm power relations, determined by the dynamics of a system Rutherford (2001a) has called "domestic government", has not been examined much in the literature. In this thesis I address this omission through an examination of the role of welfare initiatives and related activities intimately linked to domesticity and white "farmer's wives" within Rhodesian/Zimbabwean white settler society. I show that this "maternalistic" role was not only important in the colonial civilising and modernising endeavours of white farmers as they "cultivated" African fields, African workers and their own identities, but also became an important foundation on which post-independence welfare endeavours (linked to a new kind of civilising mission: that of neoliberal "civil society") were built. I then trace the impacts of the radical agrarian shifts introduced in 2000 with the "Fast-track Land Reform Programme" (FTLRP) on such interventions and on their beneficiaries, black farmworkers, as well as on the emergent power relations which farmworkers and dwellers now negotiate. Based on nine months of fieldwork, and on archival and library research, this multi-sited study takes a historical-ethnographic approach which pays attention to the longue durée and the entanglement of political-economic and gendered socio-cultural factors shaping power regimes and relations in rural Zimbabwe. The dissertation weaves together several strands of argument relating to the changing dynamics of power, welfare, modernity and belonging and how these changes are affecting white farmers and their wives, NGOs and (former) farmworkers and dwellers in contemporary Zimbabwe. It contributes to a fuller, more nuanced and gendered understanding of the (dynamic) nature of labour relations and the role of welfare and "improvement" endeavours on (former) commercial farms over the course of more than a century.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationHartnack, A. M. C. (2015). <i>Cultivations on the frontiers of modernity : power, welfare and belonging on commercial farms before and after "fast-track land reform" in Zimbabwe</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15524en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationHartnack, Andrew Michael Carl. <i>"Cultivations on the frontiers of modernity : power, welfare and belonging on commercial farms before and after "fast-track land reform" in Zimbabwe."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15524en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationHartnack, A. 2015. Cultivations on the frontiers of modernity : power, welfare and belonging on commercial farms before and after "fast-track land reform" in Zimbabwe. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Hartnack, Andrew Michael Carl AB - Forms of power on commercial farms and power relations between white farm owners and black farmworkers in Zimbabwe have been explored by scholars such as Clarke (1977), Loewenson (1992), Amanor-Wilks (1995), Tandon (2001) and especially Rutherford (2001a). While most focus on the capitalist exploitation of farmworkers and forms of structural violence, Rutherford has gone beyond political-economy to understand power relations on farms in terms of the histories and complex forms of identity formation among both white farmers and black workers in pre- and post-independence Zimbabwe. However, the subtle and often obscured role of the "farmer's wife" in farm power relations, determined by the dynamics of a system Rutherford (2001a) has called "domestic government", has not been examined much in the literature. In this thesis I address this omission through an examination of the role of welfare initiatives and related activities intimately linked to domesticity and white "farmer's wives" within Rhodesian/Zimbabwean white settler society. I show that this "maternalistic" role was not only important in the colonial civilising and modernising endeavours of white farmers as they "cultivated" African fields, African workers and their own identities, but also became an important foundation on which post-independence welfare endeavours (linked to a new kind of civilising mission: that of neoliberal "civil society") were built. I then trace the impacts of the radical agrarian shifts introduced in 2000 with the "Fast-track Land Reform Programme" (FTLRP) on such interventions and on their beneficiaries, black farmworkers, as well as on the emergent power relations which farmworkers and dwellers now negotiate. Based on nine months of fieldwork, and on archival and library research, this multi-sited study takes a historical-ethnographic approach which pays attention to the longue durée and the entanglement of political-economic and gendered socio-cultural factors shaping power regimes and relations in rural Zimbabwe. The dissertation weaves together several strands of argument relating to the changing dynamics of power, welfare, modernity and belonging and how these changes are affecting white farmers and their wives, NGOs and (former) farmworkers and dwellers in contemporary Zimbabwe. It contributes to a fuller, more nuanced and gendered understanding of the (dynamic) nature of labour relations and the role of welfare and "improvement" endeavours on (former) commercial farms over the course of more than a century. DA - 2015 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 T1 - Cultivations on the frontiers of modernity : power, welfare and belonging on commercial farms before and after "fast-track land reform" in Zimbabwe TI - Cultivations on the frontiers of modernity : power, welfare and belonging on commercial farms before and after "fast-track land reform" in Zimbabwe UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15524 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/15524
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationHartnack AMC. Cultivations on the frontiers of modernity : power, welfare and belonging on commercial farms before and after "fast-track land reform" in Zimbabwe. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Social Anthropology, 2015 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15524en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentSocial Anthropologyen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherSocial Anthropologyen_ZA
dc.titleCultivations on the frontiers of modernity : power, welfare and belonging on commercial farms before and after "fast-track land reform" in Zimbabween_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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