Diamond Mining, Land Grabbing, and Displacement in Marange (Bocha) Communal Area, Zimbabwe, 2009–2015
Publisher: South African Historical Journal
Author(s): Mathew Ruguwa
Date: 2026
Topics: Extractive Resources, Governance, Humanitarian Assistance
Countries: Zimbabwe
This article examines the socio-economic and environmental conditions under which alluvial diamonds were extracted, consumed, and traded in Marange (Bocha) communal area, Zimbabwe, along with the coping strategies developed by the households affected by mining activities to manage their vulnerabilities in the face of violent state policing. Guided by a combination of oral interviews, first-hand observations, journalistic reports, and a wide range of secondary sources, the article argues that postcolonial regimes may, under some rhetorical banner of anti- or decolonialism, be just as bad or worse than the regimes they superseded. The Marange case demonstrates neocolonial forms of control under the guise of resource nationalism and sustainable growth. The study findings show that land-grabbing deals initiated by the government of Zimbabwe, foreign individuals, and corporations to exploit diamond resources provoked multiple contestations and conflicts between the local Marange people and various actors including diamond firms and the state. However, the Marange people were not passive victims of dispossession and forced displacement. At Agricultural Rural Development Authority Transau, the relocation area, they created diverse coping strategies to eke out a living. These included gardening activities, artisanal mining, firewood selling, and illegally extending land for crop cultivation.