Zimbabwe's ‘new’ smallholders: who got land and where did they come from?

In March 2000, land occupations in Zimbabwe intensified, forcing the government to implement the Fast Track Land Reform Programme, which significantly altered the agrarian structure of the country. Ever since, there have been widespread misconceptions about the nature and character of the land occupations and the identities of new land beneficiaries. Using survey data and in-depth interviews from 166 newly resettled households, this article shows the majority were ‘ordinary’ poor and near-landless people from communal and other rural areas. While there is some significant variation within and between new communities, they are far from what we might call ‘elites’.