The State and its Failure to Transform African Crop Production in Botswana, 1930–1939

Abstract

This paper discusses attempts by the colonial officials to transform African crop production in Botswana in the 1930s. From the early 1930s, the British colonial officials made some modest and largely insignificant attempts to improve crop production in Botswana. The key issues addressed here are the nature and extent of the initiatives undertaken, such as agricultural shows, co-operator farmer experimental plots and the diffusion of technology. The successes and failures of the programmes and whether these initiatives constituted a departure from earlier policy which many scholars and researchers have dubbed the ‘general neglect’ of the territory are examined. The paper also argues that the major shortcomings were insufficient funding, lack of concerted efforts, the selective nature of the programmes and incomprehensive and unsustainable crop production schemes that would have made a major impact. The article also makes an overview of the role of the chiefs in agricultural programmes and argues that it was the pastoral sector (cattle) rather than crop production which largely accounted for social differentiation in Botswana. The article also reveals the regional imbalances that characterised colonial interventions in the crop production sector.

Keywords:

• agricultural demonstrator
• colonial government
• Department of Agriculture
• reserves
• experimentation
• crop production
• technology
• farmers
• schemes
• development

Notes

¹See among others, J. Halpern, South Africa's Hostages, Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland (London: Penguin, 1965), 81–86; C. Colclough and S. McCarthy, The Political Economy of Botswana: A Study of Growth and Distribution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 12–13; J. Parson, Botswana: Liberal Democracy and the Labour Reserve in Southern Africa (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984), 19.

²N. Parsons, ‘The Evolution of Modern Botswana: Historical Revisions’, in L. Picard, ed., The Evolution of Modern Botswana: Politics and Rural Development in Southern Africa (London: Rex Collins; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985), 29–30.

³See, among others Colclough and McCarthy, The Political Economy, 27–31; Parson, Botswana: Liberal Democracy, 21–23; L. Picard, The Politics of Development in Botswana: A Model for Success? (Boulder & London: Lynne Reinner, 1989), 96–99.

⁴Halpern, South Africa's Hostages, 108.

¹⁰Peters, Dividing Commons, 67.

⁵Q. Hermans, ‘A Review of Botswana's Financial History, 1900–1973’, Botswana Notes and Records, 6 (1974), 91.

⁶P. Steenkamp Jr, ‘Cinderella of the Empire? Development Policy in Bechuanaland in the 1930s’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 17, 2 (1991), 295–296.

⁷P. Steenkamp Jr, ‘Cinderella of the Empire? Development Policy in Bechuanaland in the 1930s’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 17, 2 (1991), 295–296.

⁸P. Peters, Dividing Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1994), 56, 218.

⁹See P. Peters, ‘Struggles over Water, Struggles over Meaning: Cattle, Water and the State in Botswana’, Africa, 54, 3 (1984), 33–38. Peters clearly demonstrates how dikgosi craftily used the traditional concept of collective ownership with a different meaning for syndicates, and convinced the colonial authorities that collective or ‘tribal’ ownership of boreholes was counter-productive because no one bore the responsibility for the plant. See also P. Peters, ‘Cattlemen, Borehole Syndicates and Privitasation in Kgatleng District of Botswana’ (PhD thesis, Boston University, 1983), 257.

¹¹Peters, Dividing Commons, 39.

¹²Peters, ‘Cattlemen, Borehole Syndicates’, 265.

¹³M. Yudelman, ‘Imperialism and the Transfer of Agricultural Techniques’, in P. Duignan and L.H. Gann, eds, Colonialism in Africa vol. 4 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 347, 349.

¹⁴M. Hubbard, ‘Botswana and the International Beef Trade, c. 1900–1985’ (PhD thesis, University of Sussex, 1979), 79–80.

¹⁷A. Pim, Report on the Economic and Financial Position of the Bechuanaland Protectorate (London: HMSO, 1933), 33.

¹⁵Hubbard, ‘Botswana and the International’, 306.

¹⁶Steenkamp, ‘Cinderella of the Empire’, 297.

¹⁸A. Kuper, Kalahari Village Politics: An African Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 51.

¹⁹M. Crowder and N. Parsons, eds, Sir Charles Rey – Monarch of All I Survey: Bechuanaland Diaries, 1929–1937 (Gaborone: Botswana Society, 1988), vii, xx.

²⁰Peters, ‘Cattlemen, Borehole Syndicates’, 58.

²¹Steenkamp, ‘Cinderella of the Empire’, 297; Also see E. Roe, Development of Livestock, Agriculture and Water Supplies in Eastern Botswana before Independence: A Short History and Policy Analysis (Gaborone: Ministry of Agriculture, 1965), 33.

²²Steenkamp ‘Cinderella of the Empire’, 302.

²³Steenkamp ‘Cinderella of the Empire’, 300.

²⁴Steenkamp ‘Cinderella of the Empire’, 300–301.

²⁵See D. Wylie, A Little God: The Twilight of a Patriarchy in a Southern African Kingdom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 7–10; R. Silitshena, ‘Chiefly Authority and the Organisation of Space in Botswana: Towards an Explanation of Nucleated Settlements among the Tswana’, Botswana Notes and Records, 11 (1979), 59–62.

²⁶Peters, Dividing Commons, 44.

²⁷C.F. Rey, ‘Bechuanaland Protectorate’, The Star, 1 February 1932, cuttings in Botswana National Archives, (hereafter BNA S. Secretariat files), 98/6.

²⁸M. Klein, Peasants in Africa: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (London: Sage, 1980), 17.

²⁹BNA, S. 195/1, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1937.

³⁰ BNA, S. 195/1, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1937.

³¹BNA, S. 195/2, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1938.

³²BNA, S. 192/2, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1938.

³³BNA, S. 195/2, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1938.

³⁴Interviews conducted by the author with T. Kewagamang 85 years and Kamogelo Mafoko 87 years at Kanye, 31 March 2012 and Leru Mogapi 82 years and Batho Mothudi 79 years, at Serowe 24 March 2012. These informants emphasised that agricultural officials listened to and relied on dikgosi in their work because the latter knew the people better.

³⁹BNB 1346, Department of Agriculture, Annual Report 1939.

³⁵BNA S. 195/1 Department of Agriculture, Annual Report 1937.

³⁶BNA, Botswana National Bibliography (hereafter BNB) 32 Bechuanaland Protectorate, Colonial Annual Report (London: HMSO, 1934), 8.

³⁷BNA, S.263/6, Bechuanaland Protectorate Annual Report 1939.

³⁸BNB 1346, Department of Agriculture, Annual Report 1939.

⁴⁰BNB 33, Bechuanaland Protectorate, Colonial Annual Report (London: HMSO, 1935), 10.

⁴¹BNA, S. 195/1, Department of Agriculture Annual Report, 1937.

⁴²Interviews with Karabo Kgotlaetsho, 84 years at Kanye, 31 March 2012; Larona Mapitse, 80, at Mahalapye, 24 March 2012 and Thabang Rapula, 78, at Molepolole, 27 April 2012; Also BNA S. 379/1, Water Development in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1935–1937 – District Commissioner Kanye to Government Engineer (n.d.).

⁴³Interviews with Karabo Kgotlaetsho, 84 years at Kanye, 31 March 2012; Larona Mapitse, 80, at Mahalapye, 24 March 2012 and Thabang Rapula, 78, at Molepolole, 27 April 2012; Also BNA S. 379/1, Water Development in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1935–1937 – District Commissioner Kanye to Government Engineer (n.d.).

⁴⁴P. Kinlund, Does Land Degradation Matter? Perspectives on Environmental Change in North-eastern Botswana (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1996), 82; I. Schapera, ‘Land Problems in the Tati District’, Botswana Notes and Records, 13 (1971), 230–235.

⁴⁷BNB 1346, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1939.

⁴⁵BNA, S. 195/2, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1938.

⁴⁶BNA, S. 195/1, Department of Agriculture, Annual Report 1937.

⁴⁸Interviews conducted by the author with Rrametse Motsumi, 79, at Ramotswa 14 April 2012; Boitumelo Kgetse, 84, at Molepolole, 13 April 2012.

⁴⁹Colclough and McCarthy, The Political Economy, 22. See also I. Schapera, Married Life in an African Tribe (Hamondsworth: Penguin, 1940), 118.

⁵⁰BNA S. 195/2, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1938.

⁵¹BNA, S.195/1, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1937.

⁵²BNA, S.195/2, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1938.

⁵³BNB 36, Colonial Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of the Bechuanaland Protectorate 1938 (London: HMSO, 1939).

⁵⁴See R. Molefi, A Medical History of Botswana, 1885–1966 (Gaborone: Botswana Society, 1996), 26.

⁵⁵BNA, S. 358/3, Crop Experimentation Demonstration Plots, Bangwato and Bakgatla Reserves, 1937.

⁵⁶BNA, S. 298/4/1, District Commissioner Gaborone to Government Secretary, 5 October 1939.

⁵⁷BNA, S. 358/3, Crop Experimentation Demonstration Plots, Bangwato and Bakgatla Reserves, 1937.

⁵⁸BNA, S. 358/3, Crop Experimentation Demonstration Plots, Bangwato and Bakgatla Reserves, 1937.

⁵⁹Peters, Dividing the Commons, 70–73.

⁶⁰Interviews conducted by the author with Kgang Modise, 77, at Serowe, 24 March 2012, and Seme Morula, 84, at Moshupa, 31 March 2012.

⁶¹BNA, S.358/3, Chief Agricultural Officer (CAO) to Government Secretary (GS), 26 January 1939.

⁶²BNA, S.358/3, Crop Experimentation Demonstration Plots Bamangwato and Bakgatla Reserves, 1937.

⁶³Interview with Kgang Modise at Serowe, 24 March 2012.

⁶⁴BNA, S.124/2/1, Veterinary and Agricultural Department Policy and Programmes of Work, 1939–1945, 1.

⁶⁶BNB 1346, Department of Agriculture, Annual Report 1939.

⁶⁵BNB 1346, Department of Agriculture, Annual Report 1939.

⁶⁷Peters, Dividing Commons, 255–256.

⁶⁸The Cattle Improvement Centres, agricultural shows, pasture and fodder experiments and the reclamation of land all took place in these areas. No significant programme was reported to be in progress in the Tati African Reserve, Kgalagadi and the Ghanzi areas.

⁶⁹BNA, S.263/6, Bechuanaland Protectorate Colonial Annual Report 1939.

⁷³Morton, ‘The Social and Economic’, 183.

⁷⁰B. Morton, ‘A Social and Economic History of a Southern African Native Reserve, Ngamiland 1890–1996’ (PhD thesis, Indiana University, 1986), 108.

⁷¹BNB 32, Bechuanaland ProtectorateColonial Annual Report 1934.

⁷²BNA, 263/6, Bechuanaland Protectorate Colonial Annual Report 1939.

⁷⁴ Morton, ‘The Social and Economic’, 108.

⁷⁵BNA, S.195/2, Department of Agriculture Annual Report 1938.

⁷⁶Kuper, Kalahari Village Politics, 51.

⁷⁷See L. Picard, ‘From Bechuanaland to Botswana: An Overview’, in L. Picard, ed. The Evolution, 5–6. Picard argues that although the eight are described as major tribes, there are a minority in almost all the regions of Botswana with the exception of the South East; see also Kuper, Kalahari Village Politics.

⁷⁸M. Todaro, Economics for a Developing World (London: Longman, 1977), 242.

⁷⁹ M. Todaro, Economics for a Developing World (London: Longman, 1977), 242.

⁸⁰See R. Palmer, ‘Agricultural History of Rhodesia’, in R. Palmer and N. Parsons, eds, The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 231–242.

⁸¹BNA, RC, 14/4, Official Papers 1935–1935, C.F. Rey Vol. II, Position and Prospects for the Territory, 91.

⁸²BNA, District Commissioner's Report, Francistown (DCF) 7/14, Land Tenure in the Tati District 1930–1945 (Professor Schapera's Report and Recommendations).

⁸³S. Chipungu, The State, Technology and Peasant Differentiation in Zambia: A Case of the Southern Province, 1930–1986 (Lusaka: Historical Association of Zambia, 1988), 47. On the fitful nature of colonial intervention in the colonies, see M. Havinden and D. Meredith, Colonialism and Development: Britain and its Tropical Colonies, 1850–1960 (London, New York: Routledge, 1993), 165–173.

⁸⁴S. Chipungu, The State, Technology and Peasant Differentiation in Zambia: A Case of the Southern Province, 1930–1986 (Lusaka: Historical Association of Zambia, 1988), 47. On the fitful nature of colonial intervention in the colonies, see M. Havinden and D. Meredith, Colonialism and Development: Britain and its Tropical Colonies, 1850–1960 (London, New York: Routledge, 1993), 49.

⁸⁶Parsons and Crowder, Sir Charles Rey, 203.

⁸⁵BNA S. 446/1/2, Ploughing Mechanical, 1936

⁸⁷These figures were computed from Public Records Office (London) (PRO) CO., DO26/12-14, Statistics Blue Books for the years 1936–1939.

⁸⁸Peters, ‘Cattlemen, Borehole Syndicates’, 220.

⁸⁹Q. Hermans, ‘A Review of Botswana's Financial History’, Botswana Notes and Records, Vol. 6. Gaborone, 1974, 93.

⁹⁰C. Molebatsi, ‘Agricultural Transformation and the Rise of the kulak Farmers in Kweneng’ (BA dissertation, University of Botswana, 1981), 13.

⁹¹I. Schapera, Migrant Labour and Tribal Life: A Study of Conditions in the Bechuanaland Protectorate (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), 3. For the small number of demonstrators, see BNA S. 263/6, Bechuanaland Protectorate Annual Report, 1939.

⁹²C. Bundy, The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry (London: Heinemann, 1979), 70–92, 93–101; Chipungu, The State, Technology, 29–66.

⁹³PRO, CO., DO 26/22 Statistics Blue Book 1946/47.

⁹⁴Molebatsi, ‘Agricultural Transformation’, 9.

⁹⁵Peters, ‘Cattlemen, Borehole Syndicates’, 125–127; O. Gulbrandsen, Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (Bergen: Norse, 1996), 214–217.

⁹⁶Peters, ‘Cattlemen, Borehole Syndicates’, 125–127; O. Gulbrandsen, Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (Bergen: Norse, 1996), 125.

⁹⁷Interview conducted by the author with Rabasha Baruti, 78, 9 November 2008, Garabone.

⁹⁸Bundy, The Rise and Fall, 95–101.

⁹⁹Bundy, The Rise and Fall, 70–72, 91–92.

¹⁰⁰M. Silberfein, ‘The African Cultivator. A Geographic Overview’, in Claude Welch Jr, and A.K. Smith, eds, Peasants in Africa (Massachusetts: Crossroads, 1978), 21.

¹⁰¹P. Molutsi, ‘The Roots of Agrarian Underdevelopment in Kgatleng, 1930–1970’ (BA dissertation, University of Botswana, 1980), 14; For the emergence of such farmers in other reserves, see, C. Molebatsi, ‘Agricultural Transformation’, 2–15; B. Mokopakgosi, ‘The Impact of the Second World War on Bakwena, 1939–1954’ (BA dissertation, University of Botswana, 1980), 10; H. Bhila, ‘The Impact of the Second World War on the Development of Peasant Agriculture in Botswana, 1939–1956’, Botswana Notes and Records, 6 (1984), 68.

¹⁰²Molutsi, ‘The Roots of Agrarian Underdevelopment’, 14. The use of the term ‘kulak’ does not appear to have been used in the context in which it was originally used in Russia. Theodor Shanin notes that this term was used by peasants as a term of abuse to describe those who prospered through ‘shoddy deals’ and other unscrupulous means. Thus, some peasants could be well off without being ‘kulaks’. ‘Kulaks’ were also detrimental to the advance of capitalist farming. See T. Shanin, Russia As A Developing Society (London: Macmillan, 1984), 156–158.

¹⁰³This was noted later with the case of warlands and the lack of cash crop production in Ngamiland. Officials blamed failures of crop production on peasant superstition, indolence and apathy. Thus colonial officials in Botswana held the usual biased and ill-conceived views often found amongst development planners. They blame failures of development programmes on what they call peasant ‘conservatism and traditionalism’, resistance to innovation and laziness. See G. Williams, ‘Taking the Part of Peasants: Rural Development in Nigeria and Tanzania’, in I. Wallerstein and P. Gutkind, eds, The Political Economy of Contemporary Africa (London and New Delhi: Sage, 1985), 163.