"My bones shall rise again" : war veterans, spirits and land reform in Zimbabwe

Zimbabawe's land reform programme has attracted the attention of many commentators and has elicited a multiplicity of interpretations. By and large, however, this exercise has been politicized, that is, those who have criticized or justified the programme have done so on political or economic grounds. The relationship between land and indigenous religion has not been sufficiently examined. The present paper explores this relationship through an analysis of the reburial of fallen heroes, spearheaded by Zimbabwean war veterans. It argues that the reburial activities reflect Zimbabwe's incorporation of religion into political discourse and that the Shona people understand this link in terms of their traditional cosmology. As ritual practice, reburials are effective tools for shaping the politics of restitution, nationbuilding and moral accountability. [Book abstract]

A3