Hunting for development in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe

The aim of the study that is the result of a full year of fieldwork in the area, is to examine the special circumstances for local exploitation of natural resources and the local survival strategies facing the developmental program and to represent the views of the local populace regarding the theory and practice of the program. The main thesis of Per Zachrisson is that the results of the program are largely tied to people’s historically constructed and culturally mediated conceptions of land, game, and development combined with their utilitarian view of wildlife compared with other natural resources. The dissertation problematizes fieldwork among poor and marginalized people and examines the factors underlying this marginalization. The voices of the indigenous population reflect the social, political, and economic situation in this remote borderland in Zimbabwe, neighboring on Botswana, and South Africa.

Western ideas about the “African wilds” and its wildlife confront the local people’s thoughts and strategies for survival in the arid countryside and provide a backdrop against which CAMPFIRE’s notions about exploiting natural resources are put into practice to preserve wildlife and to “develop” the people. Using nine “instructive events” in the area as points of departure, the dissertation analyzes the contexts for the developmental program and its results.

Powerlessness is an obstacle to development. The study concludes with a discussion of power and control over the exploitation of local natural resources. The question of international claims on the use of African wildlife and what this “globalization” of indigenous natural resources might entail for the local population in Gwanda District is addressed. The study emphasizes that local ownership and use of natural resources in this part of Africa are not only a matter of equality and democracy but also involve shaking off a colonial heritage of dominating Western interests and views regarding how best to make use of Africa’s indigenous resources.

Title of dissertation: Hunting for Development. People, Land and Wildlife in Southern Zimbabwe Author of dissertation: Per Zachrisson,

Name of external examiner: Professor William Arens, New York Time and place of public defense: Saturday, November 27, 2004, at 10:15 a.m., Hall 120, Department of Social Anthropology, Brogatan 4, Göteborg