ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the spatial dimension of the land expropriation process. It explains how land redistribution among veterans was sustained by an ideological reinterpretation of the Zimbabwean nation's space, which presented veterans as gallant and heroic "protectors" of land against colonialism, therefore transforming them into strident supporters of Robert Mugabe. The role and influence of veterans in post-war societies differ across time and space. The idea of Zimbabwean war veterans as violent individuals may sometimes be conditioned by the colonial picture of freedom fighters as "bloodthirsty anti-Christian Marxists". The veterans viewed the expropriations as a process that turned every part of the occupied former white farms into new liberated zones. The decolonization argument, as articulated by Mugabe, found credence in Zimbabwe's colonial past. Zimbabwe's post-war decolonization project created hierarchies that operate outside the democratic constitution of Zimbabwe, which was the source of profound social and political disruption.
