A study of agricultural change in the Ntabazinduna Reserve with particular reference to the colonial period 1923-1939

This thesis delves into the agricultural past of the Ntabazinduna Reserve which is part of the Bubi District in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The main purpose of this case study is to investigate whether or not there was a significant agricultural change in this Reserve, particularly in the colonial period 1923-1939. The Ntabazinduna area was sparsely populated before 1918. After the First World War the African population and number of livestock increased rapidly in the Reserve because of new immigrants from the Insiza District and natural accession. Then, the African cultivators were often faced with serious problems of congestion, poor harvests and overstocking. Oral and written sources do not suggest that there was tension between the new immigrants and the local population. In response to a general realisation that the Reserves generally were deteriorating alarmingly, the Colonial State intervened in the African agrarian sector between 1920 and 1939. The White Settler Government's chief agents of change in this area were Alvord, the Agriculturalist for Natives, the NC of the Bubi District and a trained African Agricultural Demonstrator. These men went out to the Reserve where they carried out agricultural experiments in the inter-war period. It was hoped that after they had delivered lectures and conducted these experiments, then the African cultivators would abandon their old ways of farming and adopt new, scientific agricultural methods which were introduced into the Reserve by the Colonial State's agents of change. As African cultivators used these new agricultural techniques, it was assumed that they would probably be in a better position to grow enough food for local consumption. In that way some of the above economic problems could be solved. This dissertation attempts to measure the responses of the African cultivators to the agricultural experiments conducted by Alvord and the demonstrators in the Ntabazinduna Reserve. In addition, this case-study will make use of new oral evidence collected by certain individuals and submitted to the National Archives of Zimbabwe. This new material will be checked against published and unpublished sources or vice versa. Oral evidence which I collected from some elderly people of the Ntabazinduna Reserve between 1983 and 1988 will also be used to throw light on the subject of agricultural change.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Historical Studies

Year dc:date.issued

1990

Author dc:creator

• Masuku, Fuller

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bundy, Colin

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21994

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21994