Living on the fringes of a protected area: Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) and the indigenous communities of South East Zimbabwe 1934-2008

Abstract

This study examines the responses of communities of south-eastern Zimbabwe to their eviction from the Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) and their forced settlement in the peripheral areas of the park. The thesis establishes that prior to their eviction, the people had created a utilitarian relationship with their fauna and flora which allowed responsible reaping of the forest s products. It reveals that the introduction of a people-out conservation mantra forced the affected communities to become poachers, to emigrate from south-eastern Zimbabwe in large numbers to South Africa for greener pastures and, to fervently join militant politics of the 1960s and 1970s. These forms of protests put them at loggerheads with the colonial government. The study reveals that the independence government s position on the inviolability of the country s parks put the people and state on yet another level of confrontation as the communities had anticipated the restitution of their ancestral lands. The new government s attempt to buy their favours by engaging them in a joint wildlife management project called CAMPFIRE only slightly relieved the pain. The land reform programme of the early 2000s, again, enabled them to recover a small part of their old Gonarezhou homeland. The local people opposed the government s later attempt to create a transfrontier park with Mozambique and South Africa, arguing that it would further dislocate their lives. It is, therefore, the contention of this study that the establishment of the GNP created perpetual contestation by indigenous communities during the colonial and post-colonial periods.