Peasants, businessmen, and moral economy in the Chiweshe reserve, colonial Zimbabwe, 1930–1968

Abstract

In this paper we investigate how families in the Chiweshe Reserve expanded and transformed their discourse on ‘moral economy’ to try to accommodate the material changes — such as ox‐drawn ploughs and luxuries like bread and sugar — that came with colonialism. Through their discourse they worked at understanding the ‘proper’ relationships between rich and poor, among families, and within villages; the ‘moral economy’ was not an iron‐clad law. We trace changes and disruptions in this discourse by exploring the decline of communal work‐parties (nhimbe or hoka in ChiZesuru); the rise of local African businessmen; and the replacement of ‘traditional’ places for discourse like chiefs’ courts and work parties, by a colonial creation, the Chiweshe Reserve Council. By 1968, the discourse had become so disrupted that Chiweshe families could no longer agree upon how to apply ideas about neighbourly obligation to themselves. Their discourse on moral economy was driving them apart, rather than bringing them together.