From Enslavement to Environmentalism

"Presents an exciting and well-researched overall appraisal of the history, culture, politics, and economics of the boundary region between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This is a regional and interdisciplinary work that deserves attention from scholars of southern Africa and anyone interested in ideas around development, environment, and power in the postcolonial African state."

"From Enslavement to Environmentalism is a theoretically, historically, and ethnographically rigorous book that will challenge academics and practitioners to rethink, requestion, and reevaluate current social processes and our well-intended roles in them. This is an exceptional and timely work, distinguished by Hughes's characteristic balance of insight, genuine, provocation, and concern."

"From Enslavement to Environmentalism is an important contribution to the fields of political ecology, environmental anthropology, and Southern African studies. Hughes has combined archival research and ethnographic fieldwork to produce a historically situated account of contemporary struggles over land and development while raising fundamental questions about the nature of environment and development projects in Southern Africa."

"McDermott Hughes. . . offers a rich anthropological interpretation of cultures of ownership and failures of liberalism . . . . Hughes has written a fine study of settlement and land politics in the southern regions of Africa. It is an important and interesting book, well worth the read."

"An excellent study . . .presents policymakers, activists, and scholars alike with an important and provocative argument that deserves to be heard."

"A fascinating study of the history and current state of the politics of land and people on both sides of the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border. This is a valuable work in terms of its specific coverage of the Ndau-speaking people."

"This is an important book. Its contributions are multiple. The historical analysis of political development in these two regions of Mozambique and Zimbabwe is provocative, and suggests a novel way of viewing the dynamics of colonialism . . . . An important addition to the scant historiography of the region."

"From Enslavement to Environmentalism stands out in the debate on politics around community-based conservation in Africa and is very strong empirically."

"Smart and original, this book will provoke interest and controversy among both advocates and critics of neoliberal development policy in Africa. Its strength lies precisely in its bold conceptual framework and polemical style."

"From Enslavement to Environmentalism will make a considerable contribution to the understanding of how and why both states and NGOs intervene in questions of conservation, land use, and tenure rights, and with what effects. The theoretical and empirical contribution is valuable and groundbreaking. Hughes offers a fresh, grounded, and provocative take on questions central to political ecology in southern Africa. ."