The effects of development projects on “marginal” communities: the case of Murowa diamond mine, 1997 - 2016

Abstract

Relocations and resettlements are largely caused by development induced projects such as mines and dams. These projects lead to substantial movement of people from their traditional lands, twisting or changing their history. Many researchers like Colson claimed that these massive resettlements lead to the destitution and impoverishment of the affected people for the next 40 years as they will be trying to improve their lost tradition, social way of life and their inheritance as a whole. Murowa diamond mine is a mine located in Zvishavane. The mine started operating in 2004. During the displacement of the Murowa community, people were given compensation depending on the property one owns. However one should not dismiss the fact that socially the Murowa people were not considered.it proved that the government was most concerned about ‘development’ not the worries of the people. My argument is that the government disadvantaged the Mazvihwa community. So it should revise its policies and make sure that after being displaced one should be left advantaged be it socially, politically or economically. The essential argument of the paper figures around the effects of the diamond mine to the community and how were they handled. In trying to figure out the situation and also coming up with the findings this paper used oral interviews and it also used a qualitative approach. In the final analysis the paper concluded that the displacement in Murowa did more harm than good considering the fact that the Murowa community group was deprived of their rights