Zimbabwean farmers in Nigeria: exceptional farmers or spectacular support?

Since 2004, white commercial farmers displaced under Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform programme have established new successful farms near the central Nigerian town of Shonga. This article explores the basis of that success. It addresses three key questions: (1) What has actually happened near Shonga since 2004? (2) What or who is driving the process of agrarian transformation? And (3) What are the long-term consequences for the peasantry since Nigerian agriculture is still largely peasant-based? It argues that contrary to popular myths of ‘enterprising’ white Zimbabwean farmers, the process is driven by a complex group of actors, including the national and regional states. Comparative evidence from similar transplantations of Zimbabwean farmers suggests that active state support is central to the success of Shonga. With respect to the relationship between the commercial farms and the peasantry, it is argued that all the synergies included in the project design to promote a symbiotic development have failed to materialize. As a result, the peasantry faces a process of ‘development by dispossession’.