Colonial Zimbabwe's tobacco industry: global, regional and local relations, 1947-1979

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Date
2018-11
Authors
Ncube, Sibanengi
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University of the Free State
Abstract
English: The tobacco industry’s centrality to colonial Zimbabwe’s economic and social history is beyond contestation. Scholars converge in acknowledging that tobacco’s profitability was the colony’s key driver of socio-economic and political activities in the post-Second World War era. In addition to financing considerable capital developments, tobacco profits also generated foreign exchange necessary for the development of the colony’s secondary industries. More so, the success of settler tobacco growers triggered increased European immigration into the colony. In turn, this caused increased displacement of Africans from ‘white’ and Crown lands, increased state intervention in African production methods and caused the expansion of the domestic market which stimulated the colony’s fledgling manufacturing sector. Tobacco became the heartbeat of colonial Zimbabwe’s socio-economic and political life. Against this background, this thesis examines colonial Zimbabwe’s tobacco industry from 1947 to 1979, focusing on the shifting interplay of global, regional and local factors shaping the industry. By so doing, the study illuminates the extent to which the development of the local tobacco industry was influenced by the different contexts within which it operated, transcending the parochial emphasis on internal dynamics prevalent in existing literature on the subject. There are two contrasting tendencies dominating settler agriculture literature: an over-emphasis on the role of the state on one hand, and the over-glorification of market forces, and the celebration of the ingenuity of the white settler farmer, on the other. While the two approaches offer different analytic frameworks in the study of settler agriculture, they converge in their similar emphasis on internal dynamics. By contrast, this thesis adopts an analytical integration of local dynamics and post-Second World War imperial-colonial relations which illuminates and explains the shifts in the industry’s fortunes during the period under review. By focusing on the local tobacco industry, and using predominantly archival sources from Zimbabwe and South Africa, this thesis makes a contribution to Zimbabwe’s economic history from the end of the Second World War to the end of settler colonial rule in 1979.
Afrikaans: Die tabak bedryf se sentraliteit in koloniale Zimbabwiese ekonomiese en sosiale geskiedenis is onbetwisbaar. Akademici stem ooreen dat tabak se winsgewendheid die kolonie se hoof dryfkrag van sosio-ekonomiese en politieke aktiwiteite in die post-Tweede Wêreld Oorlog-era was. Benewens die finansiering van aansienlike kapitaalontwikkelings, het tabakwinste ook buitelandse handel gegenereer wat nodig was vir die ontwikkeling van die kolonie sekondêre nywerhede. Hierby het die sukses van setlaar tabak produsente die Europese immigrasie in the kolonie veroorsaak. Op sy beurt het dit veroorsaak dat groter Afrikane van 'wit' en kroonlande gekom het, staatsinmenging in Afrika-produksiemetodes verhoog het en die uitbreiding van die binnelandse mark tot gevolg gehad het wat die kolonie se voortdurende vervaardigingsektor gestimuleer het. Tabak het die hartklop van koloniale Zimbabwe se sosio-ekonomiese en politieke lewe geraak. Teen hierdie agtergrond ondersoek hierdie tesis koloniale Zimbabwe se tabak bedryf van 1047 tot 1979 met die fokus op die verskuiwende wisselwerking van globale, streek en plaaslike faktore wat die bedryf gevorm het. Deur dit te doen verlig hierdie study die mate waartoe die ontwikkeling van die plaaslike tabak bedryf beïnvloed was deur die verskeie kontekste waarbinne dit gefunksioneer het. Hiermee gaan hierdie studie dan verder as die huidige literatuur oor die onderwerp wat `n eng fokus op die interne dinamika het. Daar bestaan twee kontrakterende neigings wat die setlaar-landbou literatuur domineer: `n oorbeklemtoning op die rol van die staat aan die kant, en `n oor-verheerliking van markkragte, tesame met die viering van die vindingrykheid van die wit setlaar-boere aan die ander. Terwyl hierdie twee benaderings verskillende analitiese raamwerke in die studie van setlaar-landbou verskaf, oorvleuel hulle in soortgelyke klem op die interne dinamika. Hierin teen aanvaar hierdie tesis `n analitiese integrasie van plaaslike dinamika en post-Tweede Wêreld Oorlog imperiale- koloniale verhoudings wat verskuiwings in die bedryf se fortuine tydens hierdie periode verlig en verduidelik. Deur te fokus op die plaaslike tabak bedryf, en om oorwegend argivale bronne van Zimbabwe en Suid-Afrika te gebruik, maak hierdie tesis `n bydrae tot Zimbabwe se ekonomiese geskiedenis van die einde van die Tweede Wêreld Oorlog tot die einde van setlaar- koloniale bewind in 1979.
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Keywords
Thesis (Ph.D. (Centre for Africa Studies))--University of the Free State, 2018, Colonial Zimbabwe, Tobacco industry, Second World War, Imperial-settler colonial relations, UDI, Liberation war, Sanctions
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