ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the challenges experienced and the understanding of issues by locals and by politicians. It provides an understanding of diverse perspectives on black-on-black land invasions, deferred state intervention to resolve them and their impact on livelihoods. It pays attention to how socio-economic and political realities shape the matters and how they subsequently affect relations within and between the Mushandike Smallholder Irrigation Scheme's farming population, land-seekers and other stakeholders. The chapter identifies and analyses how contestation for access and ownership of resources becomes framed, negotiated and resolved at the local level. It also identifies and examines the socio-spatial environment that triggers contestations and how certain interests gain dominance. The chapter also analyses how local communities as agents participate in processes of inclusion and exclusion and discusses the role of the state and political parties in exacerbating or resolving contestations at the local level.
