Sectors of Colonial Economy

Types of agriculture introduced in Africa during colonial economy

1. Peasant economy/agriculture e.g. in Uganda
2. Settlers' agriculture in Kenya and Zimbabwe
3. Plantation agriculture

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These are small-scale agriculture productions whereby a farmer produces both food crops and cash crops.

Colonialists introduced peasant agriculture during colonial rule for the following aims and reasons:

1. Earning cash by selling cash crops.
2. Producing food crops for their survival during colonial rule.
3. To ensure that peasants were on cash crop production.
4. Readiness of the people. Many people were not ready to produce cash crops.
5. Poor technology. Most of the peasants were using poor technology in farming i.e. hand hoes, axes, panga etc.

Due to the above difficulties, colonialists applied the following measures in order to introduce peasant cash crops production:

1. Missionaries' persuasion. Missionaries persuaded Africans who converted to Christianity to grow cash crops.
2. The use of force. Those Africans who rejected to grow cash crops were forced to grow cash crops through orders from the colonialists.
3. The chiefs and African headmen received orders from colonialists to force their fellow Africans to grow cash crops.
4. Through seeds distribution and cash crops planting supervision.
5. Establishment of large farms in villages, which grew cash crops whereby people were forced to work there.
6. Restructuring of colonies.
7. Encouraged the use of poor (crude) technologies in production i.e. the use of hand hoes, panga, axes etc.

Characteristics of Peasant Agriculture

1. Family was the unit of production. The members of the family served as sources of labor in production in peasant economy.
2. Peasant based on a small unit of land. Peasant was characterized by practice of agriculture on a small piece of land, which was populated.
3. Peasant based on inter-cropping. Peasant practiced more than one type of crop in a single area for food and cash crops.
4. Peasant used poor technology. The use of poor technology in production such as hand hoes, axes and pangas were much applied in the peasant economy.
5. Peasant used on a dense population made it hard for land alienation to be practiced. If land alienation was used, many people would be affected and there would be chaos in the area.

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Uganda was among the first colonies where peasant economy was introduced by colonialists. The reason why people of Uganda were preserved to continue to practice small-scale agriculture was because Uganda was a centralized state having good traditional systems under feudal relations before colonial rule. Due to that, Britain did not want to disturb that system so as to avoid resistance.

Factors and Reasons Why Peasant Agriculture Economy was Introduced in Uganda and Not Other Areas

1. Dense population. It was difficult for the British to alienate and get huge land from the natives.
2. Problem or shortage of labor supply. Labor supply in Uganda was a problem since traditionally family was a basic unit of production hence colonialists introduced peasants.
3. Unfavorable climatic conditions to the Europeans. Europeans could not be able to stay in Uganda since climatic conditions of Uganda, which was characterized by heavy rainfall, coldness and hotness, were not suitable or favorable for them.
4. The nature of crops. Peasant economy was introduced in Uganda because the types of crops such as coffee, which were grown in Uganda, needed great care and great supervision.
5. Good centralized feudal political system.
6. Readiness of the people.
7. The influence from colonial government.
8. Peasant economy was cheap and easy to control.
9. The infrastructure and the territorial problems in some areas of Uganda and Tanganyika.

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This involved production by foreigners. These foreigners usually presented the interests of the metropolis (i.e. their main interests were mining and agriculture in the colonized countries). The promotion of agricultural production was to go hand in hand with settlements in Africa, especially in those areas that were fertile. Settlers settled in big numbers in central Africa (Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe), South Africa, parts of French Equatorial Africa, French West Africa, and in East Africa (Kenya).

Features of Settler Agriculture

1. Land alienation: With differently issued land ordinances. In 1900 the land occupation ordinance was enacted in Zambia. The ordinance required that Europeans who had been allocated land must occupy and use that land or otherwise they would pay taxes for leaving such land redundant.
2. Forced labor: The French, German and Portuguese followed a similar policy of forced labor and unpaid labor.
3. Forced labor was required to reduce costs that were necessary in public services. In Zimbabwe in 1897, the Nature Regulation Act was passed, forcing African chiefs to produce laborers at low cost.
4. Taxation: The hut tax was introduced in Malawi in early 1890, in Zimbabwe in 1898, and in Zambia in 1900. In Kenya the Hut Tax was introduced in 1980, and poll tax in 1910. The intention of the tax was to cover administrative expansion ways by which Africans would be forced to work in European farms in order to raise money to pay their taxes.
5. Migrant laborers were transported from faraway places to work in settler plantations.
6. The development of infrastructures to serve the settlers.

Why Settler Agriculture Dominated in Kenya than in Uganda or Tanganyika?

1. Climatic condition: Climatic condition in Kenya made Europeans to be attracted especially in Kenya highlands. Also, this area was very fertile.
2. Kenya was made a 'crown land' means for Europeans settlements. As a result, Africans had no right to own land.
3. Low population in Kikuyu highland. This made land alienation possible hence no strong resistance.
4. Africans were prohibited to grow cash crops. This also made British settlers to be attracted in Kenya, as there was no competition from Africans.
5. Construction of Uganda railway, which facilitated the transportation of raw materials from interior to Mombasa.
6. Settlers were favored in Kenya. This is because settlers came in colonies under the influence of colonial state, so the colonial state did everything to favor them hence settlers had critical influence on colonial government.

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This commodity production entailed massive exploitation of land and intensive exploitation of African labor. The owners of the plantations were usually capitalists in Europe employing managers to supervise production i.e. sisal and coffee Estates in Tanganyika.

Why Plantation Agriculture was Established in Tanganyika

1. Due to change of colonial masters. In the beginning, Tanganyika was under Germany but after the 1st World War Tanganyika became under the British.
2. The interests of the British colonial governors in Tanganyika. For example, Sir Byatt 1919-1924 from Somalia and Donald Cameron from Nigeria; these were committed to peasant or plantation agriculture rather than settler economy.
3. Tanganyika had large areas where settler agriculture was not suitable to manage, but they settled only on highlands around Kilimanjaro, Usambara and Southwestern highlands of Iringa and Tukuyu.
4. There was no settler policy in Tanganyika. As in Kenya, policy was committed to African production.
5. There was no good and efficient transport and communication; it was not very much provided in this particular sphere of influence.

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Mining was another area of colonial economic activity. Among their demands was obtaining minerals in Africa such as gold. Examples of areas where mining economy was taking place were:

South Africa

• Kimberly — diamond discovered in 1867
• Witwatersrand — gold discovered in 1886

East Africa

• Mwadui — diamond
• Geita and Musoma — gold
• Copper at Kimbe in Uganda

Central Africa

• Southern Rhodesia — gold and coal
• Belgium, Congo — copper, tin, zinc and lead
• Zambia — copper and lead
• Angola — diamond and oil

West Africa

• Northern Nigeria — coal mines at the tin mines in Jos plateaus
• Ghana — gold mines