POLITICS AND AGRARIAN CHANGE AMONG THE PLATEAU TONGA OF NORTHERN

445 Pages·2017·23.64 MB·English

POLITICS AND AGRARIAN CHANGE AMONG THE
PLATEAU TONGA OF NORTHERN RHODESIA,
C. 193^-63
by
McSamuel Richmond Dixon-Fyle
Thesis submitted for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
of the
University of London
1976
ProQuest Number: 10731413
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
List of Maps .............................. .
Abstract .. .........................
Notes on Sources . ..........................
Preface ....................................
Chapter I THE BACKGROUND: THE PLATEAU BEFORE 1924 1
A. 19th Century Tonga Agriculture .. l4
B. Pre-Colonial Trade ........... 19
C. The Company's Administration .. 24
D. Tonga Agriculture and the Work of
the Missionaries 35
E. Land Alienation............... 40
F. The B.S.A.C. and the Settlers' Demands 49
Chapter II LAND ALIENATION AND ADMINISTRATION,
1927-37 .. .. .. .. .. .. 57
A. The Creation of Native Reserves 57
B0 From Direct to Indirect Rule .. 73
C. Administrative Problems of the 1930s. 76
Chapter III FARMING FOR CASH ................ 93
A. The Squatters ............... 112
Bo The Introduction of Maize Control 113
C. Farming Activities between 1956 and
1946 ... .0 123
Chapter IV ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSES TO THE PROBLEMS
OF TONGA AGRICULTURE ........... 133
A. The Work of the Land Survey
Commissioners .. .. .. .. 149
B. The Rise of the Improved Farmer .. 166
C. African Farmers Associations .. l8l
Chapter V THE GROWTH OF AFRICAN POLITICS .. 188
A. The Settler Factor .. .. .. 188
Bo The Hilton Young -.Commission,, ~ .. 197
C. African Welfare Associations on .. 20“
the Plateau 203
D. The Northern Rhodesia African Gon-
gress of 1937 214
E. The Bledisloe Commission and After 221
F. The Assemblies of the Forties .. 231
page
Chapter VI THE POLITICS OF FEDERATION .. .. 246
A. Major Grievances of the Plateau's
African Population ............... 260
B. Congress' programme of Non-Cooperation
on the Tonga Plateau.... 28^
C. The Capricorn Africa Society on the
Plateau .................... 295*
D. Congress and the Chiefs .. .. ^0%
E. The Federation - to the end of 1953 3/o
F. The Chiefs under Federation .. 317
Chapter VII CONGRESS AND THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE
UNDER FEDERATION ............... 31°
A. The A.N.C. and the Improved Husbandry
Scheme ........... .. .. 337
B. The Beginnings of the Anit-Iiinoculation
Campaign ..................... 3^6
C„ An Attempt to Ban the A.N.C. on the
Tonga Plateau ............... 346
D. The A.N.G. Split ofO ctober 1958.. 376
E. The 1963 Spliti n the A.N.C. .. 38.3
Conclusion .» . 388
Select Bibliography........... ....... ......... ^-03
Notes on the Principal Informants ............... 4l'l
Appendices -4^-°
List of Maps
page
1* Chieftaincies on the Tonga plateau........... 79
2. 'The Area' lV5
3. Land distribution on the Tonga plateau and
adjoining areas after 19^7 .............. 133
ABSTRACT
The Tonga Plateau was the main area of white settlement in
Northern Rhodesia and in the 1920s many Africans there were moved
into reserves on poor land which soon became overcrowded. At the
same time, official restrictions were placed on the marketing of
farm produce by the African population which supplied part of the
Copperbelt market. Such grievances, together with settler pressure
for closer union with Southern Rhodesia, prompted Africans in the
area to form some of the earliest political associations in the
territory. By the late 19^0s, there was a small group of highly
commercialised Tonga farmers. The Government tried to enlist the
support of this elite with a scheme for 'Improved Farmers', but it
was only partly successful and rules for land conservation antagonised
the great mass of small scale African farmers._ From the first, the
plateau provided substantial support for the country's first
nationalist party, the A.N.C. However, the party’s leaders regarded
the area, with its income from commercial farming, primarily as a
source of funds and its organisation on the plateau was poor and
several influential Africans declined to lend it any active assist­
ance, The Improved Farmers, for instance, preferred their non­
political Farmers Associations. This brought on them accusations
c£ collaboration with white oppression which only increased their
alienation. After the 1938 split in the A.N.C,'s leadership which
led to the formation of U.N.I.P., the A.N.C. came to be more closely
identified with the Southern Province (and its political centre-
point, the Tonga plateau), which area provided its most consistent
support. U.N.I.P.iad the disadvantage of being rooted on the
Copperbelt where few Tonga lived or worked. Besides, most of
its leaders were long-standing urban residents and the Tonga
had doubts about committing rural claims to such people. This
lack of affinity with the Copperbelt partly ensured the A.N.C.1
continued popularity on the Tonga plateau.
NOTES ON SOURCES
The following abbreviations are used in this account
Z.N.A. Zambia National Archives.
P.R.O. Public Record Office.
L.M. livingstone Museum
F.C.B. Fabian Colonial Bureau.
A.C.J, Arthur Creech Jones.
M.M.R.S. Mount Makulu Research Station.
2.M.R. Zambesi Mission Record.
PREFACE
In many ways the Tonga plateau is a crucial area for the
study of economic and political change in Zambia, formerly Northern
Rhodesia. It is therefore curious that hitherto it has received
very little attention from historians. There has of course been
some very important anthropological work^* but neither the pre­
colonial nor the colonial history of the area has been covered.
In this study, I attempt to fill in at least a part of this wide
gap in Zambian historiography with a survey of various aspects
of socio-economic and political change in the area during the
colonial period.
The Tonga plateau is an important part of the Southern
province. It occupies a prominent position within the framework
of Northern Rhodesia's history of racial conflict. It was a major
centre of European settlement during the Colonial years. The ex­
tent of white settlement in the area raises several interesting
questions. How did the settler population come by the vast tracts
of land that were reserved in the area for its occupation? What
was the reaction of the African population that was dispossessed
of land in several areas to accommodate the white immigrants?
How did the Colonial Administrations handle the problems generated
by the uprooting of several sections of the African population?
These are just a few of the questions which will receive attention
in this discussion.
X
See Bibliography for the anthropological studies carried out
by Elizabeth Colson.
The Tonga plateau also happens to be the centre of African
commercial farming activity within the territoiy. The area has
often been referred to as the granary of Northern Rhodesia. During
the period under survey, local African grain production was to ex­
pand considerably and,because the area's European farmers saw this
expansion as a threat to their operations, the Administration was
to place restrictions on African enterprise. We will be examining
the reaction of African farmers to these constraints which operated
not only between the races but also within the African farming
community after the introduction of an Improved farming scheme in
19^6. We will also see how this Government sponsored scheme pro­
moted divisions within the local African population that were to
frustrate efforts to unite the Africans of the plateau for political
action during the 19^-Os and 1950s.
Henderson has drawn attention to the need for an assessment
of the role of the Tonga farmer in the politics of the African
National Congress (A.N.C.). I will be examining the political
activities that centred around settler demands for closer politi­
cal union with Southern Rhodesia. In this connection, I will high­
light the political reaction of Africans on the plateau to the
challenge of settlerdom as seen in these demands and in the general
operation of the colour-bar. Congress' activities on the plateau
in the period before and immediately after the declaration of
1 '
See Ian Henderson, "Origins of Nationalism in East and Central
Africa: The Zambian Case", Journal of African History« XI,
1970, p.60l. In another article, Henderson called for an investi­
gation of the economics of Tonga farming. See 'Pre-Nationalist
resistance to Colonial Rule in Zambia", African Social Research,
No. 9» June, 1970, p.678.