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Acknowledgments
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THIS BOOK GREW FROM THE APPLIED ACADEMIC SCENE OF HARARE IN the 1990S-a remarkable time and place where social scientists and policymakers collaborated, debated, and learned from one another. This ferment drew together scholars ofthe University ofZimbabwe--particularlyofthe Centre for AppliedSocial Sciences-andNGOS andgovernmentdepartments involved in conservationanddevelopment. Despitethegovernment'ssteady decayinto dictatorship, free discourseand mutual respect prevailed.lwrite of this time and place with great sadness, for the moment has definitely passed and once-open doors are firmly closed. Policymakers with power do not listen to scholars, and those few who do listen have too little power to effect change. At a more basic level, my closest friends and colleagues in Zimbabwe must now concentrate on economic survival and physical security . Paramilitary bands have assaulted a number of my dear, defenseless friends. With trepidation, I visited Vhimba-the chief Zimbabwean field site discussed herein-in late 2002. Almost as soon as Ihad driven away, the police arrested and beat one of my hosts. He associated with an American, awhite--presumablyan opponent ofthe government and possiblyanagent of the opposition. Research, advocacy, and criticism can hardly continue in thisatmosphere. Theseacknowledgments, then, commemoratefreedoms and modes ofaction made impossiblebyZimbabwe's current government. In Zimbabwe, people contributed time and energy to my work in ways that I cannot reciprocate. Smallholders in Vhimba left banana fields and beer drinks to talk to me, lead me around, and feed me. I thank, in particular , Elias Nyamunda, Elias Muhanyi, Ruben Zuze, and D. Mapuisa, and xv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS their families. EliasNyamunda passedawayin 2001. Hiscounsel andfriendship enriched this book and my life deeply, and, to me, Vhlmba cannot be the samewithouthim. Ataremove from Vhimba, Naisonand DeeChigogo and ShirleyandTed DeWolfprovided further friendship and logisticalsupport . InHarare, Iamgratefulto have beenableto shareideaswithand receive support from GusLe Breton,Gladman Kundhlande, andCephasZinhumwa (all of the Southern Alliance for Indigenous Resources) and Champion Chinhoyi (ofZimbabwe Trust). The Centre for Applied Social Sciences of the UniversityofZimbabwe provided me an intellectual home. I am grateful to Marshall Murphree, James Murombedzi, Calvin Nhira, Nontokozo Nabane, and Elias Madzudzo for their fellowship through the past decade. At a later stage, the Department of Economic History hosted me in a similarway ,thanksto PiusNyambara, EiraKramer, andJosephMtisi. Andthank you to Vupenyu Dzingirai for helping me in this work and for sharingwith me the sorrow of Zimbabwe's decline. In Gogoi, I worked closely with Chief J030 Maquinasse Gogoi, Joseph MaquinasseGogoi (his son), andheadmen Bundua, Hlengana, andMatsikiti. As chapter 6 explains, the land rights project I planned provided both the context and a form ofthanks for this collaboration. The project team-to whomIamextremelygratefulandwithoutwhom Iwould not have achieved any results in Gogoi-included Samuel Dube, Bernardo Melo Meque, Muino Amarchande Taquidir, and Melanie Hughes McDermott. The EspungaberatrioofFelixCamba, FelixFilemone, and Michel Lafon housed and transported me and made me laugh. In Chimoio, Ana Paula Reis and the staffof Servi~os Provinciais de Florestas e Fauna Bravia facilitated my work, academic as well as applied. In Maputo, I am grateful for the privilege of collaborating with Bartolomeu Soto (of the Direc~o Nacional de Florestas eFauna Bravia), Rodde V1etter (oftheWorld Bank),and (although then based in Johannesburg) Ken Wilson (ofthe Ford Foundation). In addition to allthese people and institutions that gave me their expertise and time, a number of organizations put money into my project. The Joint CommitteeonAfrican Studiesofthe SocialScience Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies (with funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation) supported my fieldwork, as did the Center for African Studies and Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Also "in the field," the World Bank (with funds from the Global Environment Facility) and the Center for Information and Education for Development (CIES) funded my research while employing me in related projects. While finishing my dissertation, I received further XVI [35.175.174.36] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 11:05 GMT) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS assistance from the MacArthur Foundation, from the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and from the Portuguese Studies Program (University of California, Berkeley). Finally, the Land Tenure Center (University of Wisconsin, Madison) with funds from the United States Agencyfor International Developmentsupportedthelast phase ofresearch and writing. The Ford Foundation has provided a grant to Weaver Press to distribute the book in Zimbabwe, for which I am grateful. The Research Council ofRutgers University also provided a helpful subvention. Parts of the book have appeared in Journal ofSouthern African Studies (chapter 4), Development and Change (sections of chapters 5 and 6), and Journal of Agrarian Change (part ofchapter 7), and...