‘Experts’, Settlers and Africans: The Production of Local Agricultural and Veterinary Knowledge in Southern Rhodesia (1897–1914)

ABSTRACT

Historiography dealing with the development of colonial science in Africa and the production of ‘local knowledge’ has gradually become more complex and nuanced. Interactions as well as conflicts between local and imperial knowledge are highlighted, together with the partial incorporation of African knowledge into scientists’ ideas, and the contradictions within scientific institutions. The aim of this paper is to analyse how agricultural and veterinary scientific discourses and policies were constructed in Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe) before the First World War, which ideas and practices became accepted as scientifically sound, and who was expected to master this expertise. Evidence shows how the links and collaboration between international, imperial, and Rhodesian institutions and individuals were far from unproblematic; how the relationship between scientists and the growing number of European farmers was often conflictive; and how scientists’ views of African knowledge and practices were ambiguous and contradictory. In line with other British colonies, Rhodesian agricultural and veterinary science and policies went through a process of gradual ‘localisation’ in this period. Rhodesia, however, presented some peculiarities: due to its short history and small European population, it was more a ‘Southern African’ localisation rather than Rhodesian. Collaboration and knowledge exchange between white settlers and officials were very limited. And, even if officials’ views and interventions were not uniformly negative and oppressive towards Africans, the incorporation of African practices and knowledge into colonial science were still far away.

KEYWORDS:

• Southern Rhodesia
• Zimbabwe
• agricultural history
• veterinary history
• colonial science

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Brockway, Science and Colonial Expansion; Leach and Mearns, “Environmental Change and Policy”; Hodge, “Science, Development and Empire.” A very useful overview of the evolution of colonial science scholarship can be found in Hodge, “Science and Empire.”

2 Woolmer and Scoones, “The Science of ‘Civilized’ Agriculture,” 578–79.

3 Scoones, “Range Management Science,” 46; Mwatwara and Swart, “‘Better Breeds?’,” 336–37.

4 Grove, Green Imperialism; Beinart and Hughes, Environment and Empire; Chambers and Gillespie, “Locality in the History of Science”; Mavhunga and Spierenburg, “A Finger on the Pulse of the Fly,” 134–36, 140–41; Beinart and Brown, African Local Knowledge; Beinart, Brown and Gilfoyle, “Experts and Expertise”; Dubow, Science and Society; Anker, Imperial Ecology; Hodge, “Science and Empire.”

5 Chambers and Gillespie, “Locality in the History of Science,” 221–23.

6 Hodge, “Science and Empire,” 3.

7 For descriptions of African veterinary knowledge in Rhodesia see Mwatwara and Swart, “If Our Cattle Die” and “‘Better Breeds?’,” and in South Africa Beinart and Brown, African Local Knowledge.

8 Mwatwara and Swart, “If Our Cattle Die,” 127–28.

9 The BSAC was a private chartered company which administered Rhodesia on behalf of the Crown from 1889 to 1923.

10 Phimister, An Economic and Social History, 58–59. Madimu et al.’s recent paper reminds us that mining remained the principal interest of the BSAC, but they do not dispute that Company’s attention to agriculture increased during the first years of the XX century. Madimu et al., “Farmer-Miner Contestations”.

11 Baxter, ed. Guide to the Public, 151.

12 For a brief biographical profile of Orpen see Cranefield, Science and Empire, 16–17 and Rotberg, The Founder, 102–103.

13 National Archives of Zimbabwe (hereafter NAZ) L 1/1/1, Orpen to Chief Secretary, 28 May 1902.

14 Southern Rhodesia. Debates of the Legislative Council. First Session. Second Council, 1902, 137.

15 On the Department’s establishment see Weinmann, Agriculture Research and Development, 1, and Rooney, “European Agriculture,” 49.

16 Machingaidze, “The Development of Settler Capitalist Agriculture,” 412–14; Weinmann, Agriculture Research, 17–18.

17 Brown and Gilfoyle, “Introduction,” 4.

18 For the establishment of the Veterinary Department and the first appointments see Cranefield, Science and Empire, 17–18, 20–21; Rooney, “European Agriculture,” 153–54; Official Yearbook, 159; The BSAC Directors’ Report and Accounts, 1897–1898, 18; and Baxter, Guide to the Public Archives, 151.

19 Official Yearbook, 160; Van Onselen, “Reactions to Rinderpest,” 483; The BSAC Directors’ Report and Accounts, 1897–1898, 18; Government Notice n.67, 12 April 1898; NAZ A 3/25/2 Vol.2. Minute by Milton, 15 August 1898.

20 Official Yearbook, 162; Debates of the Legislative Council. Secomd Session. First Council. 1900, 43, 52; Machingaidze, “The Development of Settler Capitalist Agriculture,” 310.

21 Official Yearbook, 163–64; The BSAC Directors’ Report and Accounts, 1897–98, 18.

22 NAZ A 3/25/3 Vol.2, Gray to Hutcheon, 7 March 1899, and Hutcheon to Gray 2 April 1899. Emphasis added.

23 NAZ A 3/25/2 Vol.1. Assistant Cattle Controler, Taberer, to Lee, 2 March 1898; Lee to Taberer, 3 March 1898.

24 NAZ A 3/25/2 Vol.1. Minute by Milton, 7 March 1898.

25 The best, and more thorough, study of African Coast Fever is Cranefield, Science and Empire. I have closely followed it for the scientific description of the disease and the research leading to its diagnose. See specially pages 13–14, 25–26 and 258.

26 Cranefield, Science and Empire, 22–25, 31–35, 46–49.

27 NAZ L 1/1/1, Orpen to Chief Secretary, 28 May 1902.

28 For conflicts between farmers and veterinarians at the Cape in the late nineteenth century see Beinart and Brown, African Local Knowledge, 71–73, 115; and Nell, “You Cannot Make the People Scientific.”

29 NAZ L 1/1/1, Orpen to Chief Secretary, 28 May 1902.

30 NAZ A 11/2/2/14, Telegram from the Chairman of the joint meeting of Commerce and Mines Chambers and the RLOFA, 7 July 1902.

31 Cranefield, Science and Empire, 43–44, 52–59.

32 ibid., 142–54, 170–71.

33 For the conflictive search of the researcher to be invited see ibid., 59–63, 65–86. For Koch’s role on the development of the rinderpest vaccine see Gilfoyle, “Veterinary Research,” 139–46.

34 Cranefield, Science and Empire, 87–109.

35 Third Report on African Coast Fever, by Professor Koch. Dated 25 September 1903, 7.

36 Cranefield, Science and Empire, 109–16.

37 Rooney, “European Agriculture,” 57–58.

38 Official Yearbook, 111; Baxter, Guide to the Public Archives, 151.

39 For Townsend’s earlier career see Rooney, “European Agriculture,” 157–58.

40 NAZ A 11/2/2/3 Vol.1. Stevens, Cape Town Office, to Milton, enclosing a text written by Rhodes, 13 March 1901.

41 Weinmann, Agriculture Research, 1–2.

42 For Odlum’s role at the mission see Zvogbo, A History of Christian Missions, 73.

43 “Editorial,”1906, 111.

44 Report of the Agricultural Department, for the year ended 31st March, 1903, 1–2.

45 Report of the Department of Agriculture for the Year ended 31st March, 1906, 1.

46 Report of the Secretary for Agriculture, for the Year ended 31st December, 1908, 14.

47 Nell, “‘For the Public Benefit’,” 101–109.

48 NAZ, Historical Manuscripts, BE 11/7/1, “Reminiscenses,” 63–64, 99. This autobiography of Ernest Bevan has no date, but several references throughout the text allow you to guess that it was written around 1954.

49 Report of the Secretary for Agriculture for the Year ended 31st December, 1908, 2–3.

50 Debates of the Legislative Council. First Session. Fourth Council, 1908, 170.

51 For South African settlers’ doubts over the origin of tick-related diseases see Beinart and Brown, African Local Knowledge, 71–73.

52 ‘Veterinary Report for the Year ending 31st March, 1903’, Apèndix II in the Report of the Agricultural Department for the Year ended 31st March, 1903, 36.

53 ‘Suspension of Movement of Cattle’, 13–18. Emphasis added.

54 ‘The Farmers’ Conference’, viii–xiii.

55 For the campaigns against locusts see Rooney, “European Agriculture,” 83–84 and Weinmann, Agriculture Research, 122–23.

56 ‘Report of the Assistant to the Secretary for Agriculture’ in the Report of the Department of Agriculture, for the Year ended 31st March, 1905, 30.

57 NAZ G 1/3/1/2, Townsend to Acting Treasurer, 3 August 1906; minute from R.A. Harbord to Townsend, 4 August 1906; and minute by Milton, 5 August 1906.

58 NAZ G 1/3/1/2, Townsend to Chief Native Commissioners in Matabeleland and Mashonaland, 20 August 1906; responses from Taberer, 22 August 1906 and Taylor, 23 August 1906.

59 A description of the spraying techniques can be found in ‘Locust Plagues in South Africa’, 54–68.

60 ‘Report on Destruction of Locusts’, signed by Wilfred Honey, in the Report of the Secretary for Agriculture for the Year ended 31st December, 1907, 24–26.

61 Cranefield, Science and Empire, 225–30. Sinclair also stated that in 1901 and 1902 African herds were affected by far fewer ACF outbreaks than Europeans’. See J.M. Sinclair, ‘History of African Coast Fever’, appendix in the Report of Committee of Enquiry on African Coast Fever (Government Printer, Salisbury, 1910), 16.

62 Report of the Department of Agriculture, for the Year ended 31st March, 1905, 3.

63 ‘Report of the Chief Veterinary Surgeon’ in the Report of the Department of Agriculture, for the Year ended 31st March, 1905, 19–20.

64 Fourth Report on African Coast Fever, by Professor Koch. 1904, 3–4.

65 Report of the Department of Agriculture, for the Year ended 31st March 1905, 3.

66 Debates of the Legislative Council. Third Session. Second Council. 1904, 5, 10, 16–17.

67 The BSAC Directors’ Report and Accounts. 1903, 41–42.

68 Bevan, “Reminiscenses,” 16–120.

69 Anderson, “Kenya’s Cattle Trade,” 263–64.

70 NAZ G 1/5/2/4 Gray to CNC, 9 November 1898, CNC to Gray, 16 November 1898.

71 General Instructions Issued to Officers Charged with the Administration of Laws for the Suppression of Contagious and Infectious Diseases of Animals in Rhodesia (Argus Printing and Publishing Company, Salisbury 1901).

72 Cranefield, Science and Empire, 234–37.

73 NAZ A 11/2/4/1, Telegram from London Office to Milton, 20 February 1908; Milton to Newton, 24 February 1908; and telegram from Jameson to the Board, 28 February 1908.

74 NAZ A 11/2/4/1, Milton to Secretary to the London Office, 16 April 1908.

75 Wallace, “Rhodesia and Its Agricultural Possibilities,” 392.

76 NAZ A 11/2/4/1 Cable from London Office to Milton, 20 November 1908; and Nobbs to Milton from Nairobi, 2 November 1908.

77 Rosenthal, Southern African Dictionary, 271; Grove, “Scottish Missionaries,” 163–87; Beinart, The Rise of Conservation, 99–116.

78 For Nobbs’ report over Knysna see Brown, “The Conservation and Utilisation,” 443.

79 NAZ A 11/2/4/1 ‘Minute on the Condition and Requirements of the Department of Agriculture, Rhodesia, January, 1909’.

80 NAZ G 1/6/4/1, Nobbs to Treasurer, 7 October 1912.

81 Nobbs’ meeting with Milton is described in Nobbs’ papers: NAZ A 11/2/4/1, ‘On the Department of Agriculture, 1909. Interview with H.H., Sunday 15th and 16th February’.

82 A list of the main appointments can be found in Weinmann, Agriculture Research, 2–3. Holborrow and Thompson’s appointments appear in ‘Editorial’, February 1912, 308.

83 Mundy, Sub-Tropical Agriculture, 172.

84 ‘Editorial’, August 1909, 628–29.

85 ‘Editorial’, February 1910, 1.025–26.

86 ‘Editorial’, August 1910, 1.473.

87 ‘Editorial’, April 1912, 484–85.

88 Dubow, “A commonwealth of science,” 76–77.

89 For a thorough description of the Experimental Stations’ work see Weinmann, Agriculture Research, 6–7, 50, 62–67, 75–79, 88, 91.

90 Report of the Director of Agriculture, for the Year Ended 31st December, 1909, 14.

91 For the herbarium see Weinmann, Agriculture Research, 102–103, 127; for the RAJ see Report of the Director of Agriculture, for the Year Ended 31st December, 1909, 23–24.

92 For the distribution of seeds see NAZ A 11/2/4/1, ‘Minute on the Condition and Requirements of the Department of Agriculture, Rhodesia, January, 1909’, and ‘Report of the Government Agriculturist and Botanist’ in the Report of the Director of Agriculture for the Year 1913, 32–33.

93 Machingaidze, “The Development of Settler Capitalist Agriculture,” 438–43.

94 Debates of the Legislative Council. Second Session. Fourth Council. 1909, 57.

95 Memorandum by Mr.H.Wilson Fox upon Land Settlement in Rhodesia, 21st June. 1913, 28.

96 Debates of the Legislative Council. First Session. Sixth Council. 1914, 347–49.

97 ‘Editorial’, February 1914, 345–46.

98 ‘Editorial’, April 1914, 505.

99 Debates of the Legislative Council. First Session. Sixth Council. 1914, 346–51, 356–58.

100 For the Ordinance’s clauses see Minutes of the Legislative Council. First Session. Sixth Council. 15th-17th April, 4th-26th May, 8th-10th June, and 5th-22nd October, 1914, 53; Nobbs, “Collection of Agricultural Statistics,” 980–87; Weinmann, Agriculture Research, 139.

101 NAZ G 1/1/1/1, ‘Memorandum on the Organization of the Department of Agriculture and the Veterinary Department’, written by Nobbs and dated 23 September 1916, 31.

102 NAZ T 2/3/11 Newton to Milton, 7 February 1913.

103 NAZ G 1/6/4/3 ‘Report on the Organization of Departments of Agriculture in Australia’, presented to the Treasurer on 6 March 1913, 7–8, 31–32.

104 NAZ G 1/6/4/4, Mundy to Nobbs, 14 December 1913, enclosing several reports on his visit to North America; ‘Report of the Government Agriculturist and Botanist’, in Report of the Director of Agriculture for the Year 1913, 26.

105 Bevan, “Reminiscenses,” 168–69; Report of the Director of Agriculture for the Year 1914, 12; Report of the Director of Agriculture for the Year 1913, 11–12, ‘Report of the Chief Veterinary Surgeon for the Year ended 31st December, 1909’ in Report of the Director of Agriculture, for the Year Ended 31st December, 1909, 30–31.

106 Report of the Director of Agriculture, for the Year Ended 31st December, 1909, 7–8.

107 The BSAC Directors’ Report and Accounts for the Year ended 31st March, 1910, 7, and Report of the Director of Agriculture, for the Year Ended 31st December, 1910, 25–26.

108 NAZ G 1/8/1/5, Copy of the Minutes of the meeting of the Marandellas Farmers’ Association, 25 April 1909.

109 NAZ G 1/8/1/5, Looseley, Secretary of the Rhodesian Agricultural Union to Nobbs, 27 April 1909.

110 Debates of the Legislative Council. Third Session. Fourth Council. 1910, 98–99.

111 NAZ G 1/8/1/5, Nobbs to Newton, 28 April 1909 and Newton to Nobbs, 29 April 1909.

112 NAZ V 1/2/6/2, cutting from the Rhodesia Herald dated 18 January 1910; Sinclair to Nobbs, 18 January 1910.

113 NAZ T 2/29/6/1, Looseley to Newton, 30 March 1910; Attorney General to Newton, 8 April 191; and Nobbs to Newton, 15 April 1910.

114 Debates of the Legislative Council. Third Session. Fourth Council. 1910, 111.

115 Debates of the Legislative Council. Third Session. Fourth Council. 1910, 109

116 NAZ T 2/29/6/1, cutting from Rhodesia Herald dated 8 April 1910.

117 NAZ V 3/3/1/1, Copy of ‘Report on ACF at Marandellas’, paper read by Mr.J.H.Finch, before the Farmers’ Congress, Bulawayo, June 1910.

118 Report of Committee of Enquiry on African Coast Fever (Salisbury, Government Printer, 1910). For a summary of its conclusions see also Cranefield, Science and Empire, 210–13.

119 NAZ G 1/8/1/3, Sinclair to Nobbs, 9 August 1910 and ‘Report on the ACF Committtee Report’, written by Nobbs and sent to Newton enclosed in a letter dated 10 September 1910.

120 NAZ G 1/8/1/3, ‘Notes on the Consideration of the ACF Committee’s Report by the Treasurer, the Secretary to the Law Department, the Chief Veterinary Surgeon and the Director of Agriculture’, no date; and ‘Regulations regarding the Movement of Cattle and the Prevention and Suppression of Disease (Draft)’. Regulations were approved by the Administrator on 14 December 1910.

121 ‘Report by the Chief Veterinary Surgeon’ in the Report of the Director of Agriculture, for the Year Ended 31st December, 1911, 21.

122 ‘Report of the Chief Veterinary Surgeon’ in the Report of the Director of Agriculture, for the Year Ended 31st December, 1910, 35.

123 ‘Report of the Chief Veterinary Surgeon’ in the Report of the Director of Agriculture for the Year 1913, 22; ‘Editorial’, October 1914, 973–74.

124 Cranefield, Science and Empire, 197, 218–21; Lawrence and Norval, “A History of Ticks,” 28–40.

125 Woolmer, From Wilderness Vision to Farm Invasions, 82–84.

126 Mwatwara and Swart, “‘Better Breeds?’,” 336–37.

127 Report of the Director of Agriculture, for the Year Ended 31st December, 1909, 2.

128 Report of the Director of Agriculture for the Year 1912, 1; Nobbs, “Lesssons of Drought,” 33–40.

129 Mwatwara and Swart, “If Our Cattle Die,” 128–29.

130 NAZ G 1/8/1/5, J.Meikle to Looseley, 26 April 1909; C.S.Heron, Rusapi (Makoni) Farmers’ Association, to Looseley, 27 April 1909; Looseley to Nobbs, 29 April 1909.

131 NAZ G 1/8/1/9, Sinclair to Nobbs, 26 May 1909.

132 Mwatwara and Swart, “‘Better Breeds?’,” 337–41.

133 Brown, “Tropical Medicine,” 523–25; Beinart, Rise of Conservation, 182–85.

134 Dubow, “A Commonwealth of Science,” 84–85.

135 Brown, “Tropical Medicine,” 527–28.

136 Hodge, “Science and Empire,” 16–18.

137 For the Trypanosomiasis Expedition see Gargallo, “A Question of Game or Cattle?,” 743–44.

138 Mwatwara and Swart, “If Our Cattle Die,” 135.

139 NAZ G 1/1/1/1, ‘Memorandum on the Organization of the Department of Agriculture and the Veterinary Department’, datedl 23 September 1916, 30.

140 Gilfoyle, “Veterinary Research,” 147–52; Beinart and Brown, African Local Knowledge, 115.

141 Swart, “The Ant of the White Soul,” 225–26.

142 NAZ G 1/9/1, Report by Odlum addressed to Townsend on the Settlement Scheme, no date (probably December 1904), unpaginated.

143 For the general attitude towards Afrikaners see Lowry, “White Woman’s Country,” 259–81; Bevan, “Reminiscenses,” 78–79, 95.

144 Beinart, “The Rise of Conservation.”

145 Brown, “Tropical Medicine,” 525; Beinart and Hughes, Environment and Empire, 129.

146 Beinart and Hughes, Environment and Empire, 119–29; Grove, Green Imperialiism.

147 Beinart, Rise of Conservation, 16–17, 28–63; Woolmer, From Wilderness Vision, 46–48, 66–67; Beinart and McGregor, “Introduction,” 3; Tilley, “African Environments,” 109–10, 116–21; Beinart and Brown, African Local Knowledge, 12–14; Mavhunga and Spierenburg, “A Finger on the Pulse of the Fly,” 134–36.

148 Mwatwara and Swart, “If Our Cattle Die,” 133.

149 For discussions among officials over deforestation and its causes see Gargallo, “¿De quién es el bosque?,” 9–20.

150 Chambers and Gillespie, “Locality in the History of Science,” 228–31.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Portuguese Fundaçao para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Bolsa SFRH/BPD/68733/2010) and by the Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya (DOGC 3278/2000).