Labour Appropriation in Buhera District, South-Eastern Zimbabwe 1890-1930: the Accidental Proletarianization of an African Peasantry by a Foreign Capitalist Oligarchic Enterprise.

Abstract

This presentation seeks to argue that before colonial rule, the African peasant populationin Buhera District [formerly called Charter District] was producing only at subsistencelevel: they did not seek employment outside their villages because they pursued acommunal system of production which was both economically self-sufficient and self-sustaining. Colonial records show that this African peasant population of Charter stood atthirty-two thousand people even as early as 1880s. [N9/1/5, NC Charter to CNCSalisbury, 31 March 1899]. The argument of this research is that such a large humanpopulation would need a consistent and reliable supply of staple grain and other traditionalfoods for its daily needs. Therefore pre-colonial Charter peasantry communities pursued asuccessful communal mode of production which largely depended on the availability ofabundant, fertile and well-watered agricultural land: accompanied by huge supply of willingorganized labour which was largely provided by men, women and children. Our argumentstems from the fact that during this pre-colonial era, land was neither bought nor sold butbelonged to the whole community under the collective management and administration ofchiefs and their subordinates who distributed land to all able-bodied adult males in thecommunity who needed such land.This research will largely be based on primary evidence, that is, oral traditions andcolonial documents but secondary published and unpublished supplementary sourceswill also be consulted in our endeavour to shade light on the area under research