Displacement, memories and struggle: the case of Mapari Ranch in Zimbabwe

To some, places like Mapari in the Save Valley Conservancy (SVC) are the essence of Africa, a wilderness. However, their former inhabitants, who lost land to colonialism tell a different story, silenced for long. In 1920, the Bridges family established Devuli cattle ranch, destroying wildlife and the environment. Africans, including the Masikati people, became tenants and subjects of slavery and violence. Around 1967 Devuli evicted all Africans and later its subdivisions combined into the SVC for wildlife-based tourism. Today, some Masikati people live at Mapari’s boundary. This chapter spells out how living memories of settling on the land are tied to places and spiritual landmarks in the ranch, and until today, underpin claims to use and enter the lands. Place frames are constructed around these sites of memory which legitimise and activate border struggles, (criminalised) hunting, and other rights by various actors; place frames which their eviction after conservation seem to undermine.

ISBN:978 1 78990 818 3

Publication year:2020

Accessibility:Open