Settlement schemes and labour migration in Chipata District of Eastern Province of Zambia, 1951-1976
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Date
2011-10-07
Authors
Nkhata, Simon Mcheleka Chuluchaminga.
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Abstract
This study examines both the Northern Rhodesian colonial and the Zambian governments' policies and practices on
settlement schemes in Chipata District (formerly known as Fort Jameson) of Eastern Province of Zambia. It looks at the way the economic policies for settlement schemes were formulated and implemented and their subsequent performance between 1951
and 1976.One of the features which emerges from the thesis is that the introduction of peasant farming and the expansion of the
agricultural improvement and markets in Eastern Province in general, and Chipata District in particular, by the Northern
Rhodesian colonial government steadily linked the peripheral economies to the regional and global ones. The introduction
of inducements including technical assistance subsequently led to a process of social differentiation among the peasant
farmers: as expected, some became richer than others. This was true for settlement scheme farmers as well as those outside
of them.The penetration of international capital into the rural economies of colonial Zambia in general, and in Chipata District
in particular, initially had a negative effect in that it led to land alienation through the creation of reserves by the
British South Africa Company (BSAC). The introduction of taxation in 1900 pushed Eastern Province males into migrant
wage labour in the Southern Africa regional economic system.The change in the agricultural policies in the 1930s
and 1940s which culminated in the creation of settlement schemes in 1951 in Chipata District and adopted by the Zambian
government after independence did not generally make the schemes into 'centres of attraction' to pull the urban dwellers
back into the countryside into agricultural production. This was due to a number of factors which included poor pricing,
and adverse marketing and investment policies. The urban areas continued to attract rural population due to higher wages and better social services.
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Keywords
Migrant labour. , Migration, Internal. , Land settlement.