Land Reform in Zimbabwe

Land reform in Zimbabwe officially began in 1979 with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement, an effort to more equitably distribute land between the historically disenfranchised blacks and the minority-whites who ruled Zimbabwe from 1890 to 1979. The government's land distribution is perhaps the most crucial and most bitterly contested political issue surrounding Zimbabwe. It can be divided into two periods: from 1979 to 2000, where a principle of willing buyer, willing seller was applied with economic help from Great Britain and secondly, beginning in 2000, the fast-track land reform program. Mugabe's targets have included black political opponents as well as white farmers.

Read more about Land Reform In Zimbabwe:  Background, Lancaster House Agreement, 1980s, Economic Consequences

Famous quotes containing the words land and/or reform:

    The Indian attitude toward the land was expressed by a Crow named Curly: “The soil you see is not ordinary soil—it is the dust of the blood, the flesh, and the bones of our ancestors. You will have to dig down to find Nature’s earth, for the upper portion is Crow, my blood and my dead. I do not want to give it up.”
    —For the State of Montana, U.S. public relief program. Montana: A State Guide Book (The WPA Guide to Montana)

    No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimetre nearer.
    George Orwell (1903–1950)