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Abstract
Throughout the pre-independence era, commercial tobacco growing remained an exclusively white enterprise in Zimbabwe. The situation did not substantially change with the advent of majority rule in 1980. Commercial agriculture in general, and tobacco growing in particular, continued to be dominated by a few large-scale white farmers. However, the situation was to change drastically following the adoption by the Robert Mugabe regime of the fast-track land reform programme (FTLRP) in 2000. This resulted in nearly all white farmers losing their farms, leading to a near collapse of the tobacco farming industry in Zimbabwe. The country’s tobacco farming industry has now been resuscitated, in part due to the successes of contract farming operations, both small-scale and commercial. The collapse of white farming in Zimbabwe following the FTLRP resulted in the movement of white farmers and their families into other areas of the tobacco industry. This article seeks to explore what happened to white tobacco farmers after the FTLRP. Many ex-farmers and their children are now working in the subsidiaries of the large leaf buying companies, on tobacco auction floors, and in small-scale contract farming operations. This article explores the history of the white farming community in Zimbabwe as a background to understand the new roles and positions that former farmers occupy as part of the new boom in tobacco production in Zimbabwe, and southern Africa in general.
Notes
1 A. Selby, ‘Commercial Farmers and the State: Interest Group Politics and Land Reform in Zimbabwe’ (Phd thesis, University of Oxford, 2006), p. 316.
2 The first president of the Rhodesia Front, Winston Field, was a renowned tobacco grower and former president of the Rhodesia Tobacco Association (RTA); John Caldicott, another former RTA president, was appointed Federal Minister of Agriculture in 1953–58, before his later reassignment to the Ministry of Economic Affairs; John Graylin, another tobacco grower and former chairman of the Tobacco Export Promotion Corporation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (TEPCORN) also became a Minister of Agriculture; Evan Campbell, former RTA president, and the founding TEPCORN chairman, was appointed Rhodesia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1964. This is not to mention ‘Boss’ Liliford, another renowned grower who was instrumental in funding the formation of the Rhodesia Front in 1962. Pat Bashford was a wealthy tobacco farmer from Karoi and leader of an opposition party called the Centre Party during the 1970s. Strath Brown, another prominent tobacco grower, was a Rhodesia Party candidate in the 1970s.
3 One of these was H.W. Freeman, the Tobacco Corporation chairman, who on account of the colour of his hair was affectionately known as ‘Ginger’ Freeman.
4 For an appreciation of white farmers’ general ‘apoliticism’ after independence, see R. Pilossof, The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: Farmers Voices’ from Zimbabwe (Harare, Weaver Press, 2012).
5 Interview conducted by Sibanengi Ncube with Andrew Matibiri, Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) CEO, 15 June 2019, Harare. Matibiri was giving his experience of the transition from large-scale white tobacco farming to the current scenario of contract farming following the FTLRP.
6 For studies of those who left Zimbabwe for other African destinations see A. Hammar, J. McGregor and L. Landau, ‘Introduction. Displacing Zimbabwe: Crisis and Construction in Southern Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 36, 2 (2010), pp. 263–83; A. Hammar, ‘Ambivalent Mobilities: Zimbabwean Commercial Farmers in Mozambique’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 36, 2 (2010), pp. 395–416; A.R. Mustapha, ‘Zimbabwean Farmers in Nigeria: Exceptional Farmers or Spectacular Support?’, African Affairs, 110, 441 (2011), pp. 535–61.
7 The farmers asked that their full names not be disclosed.
8 Established in 1936 as the Tobacco Marketing Board (TMB), the TIMB is a statutory body responsible for regulating the growing and marketing of tobacco in Zimbabwe. Before the change from TMB to TIMB after independence, the Board comprised representatives seconded by tobacco growers under the Rhodesia Tobacco Association and merchants under the Tobacco Trade chairperson. The chairman was a senior government official, in most cases the secretary for the ministry responsible for agriculture. Currently, the Board members are appointed by the Minister of Agriculture. For aspects of the history of TIMB see T. Mbanga, Tobacco: A Century of Gold (Harare, ZIL Publications, 1991); S. Ncube, ‘Colonial Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry: Global, Regional and Local Relations’ (PhD thesis, University of the Free State, 2018).
9 The ZTA, formerly RTA, was formed in 1928 by tobacco growers to advance their mutual interests. It grew to become one of the strongest associations in the country, stronger than the mother body the Rhodesia National Farmers’ Union (RNFU), now the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU). The association drew its strength from its solid financial position, being financed through deductions from its members. It was mandatory for all tobacco growers to be members of the RTA. The situation has now changed. With most of the large-scale white tobacco growers driven out of farming due to land reform, the association has lost most of its membership. See also S. Ncube, ‘Colonial Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry’.
10 W. Twiston Davies described the Agreement as ‘the keystone of… expansion in the Rhodesian tobacco growing industry’. See W.T. Davies, Fifty Years of Progress: An Account of the African Organisation of the Imperial Tobacco Company, 1907–1927 (London: The Imperial Tobacco Company [of Great Britain and Ireland] Limited, 1958), p. 34. See also S.C. Rubert, A Most Promising Weed: A History of Tobacco Farming and Labour in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1890–1945 (Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1998); H. Weinmann, Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Rhodesia, 1924–1950 (Salisbury: University of Rhodesia, 1975); H. Dunlop, The Development of European Agriculture in Rhodesia, 1945–1965 (Salisbury: University of Rhodesia, 1971); M.D. Hooper, ‘The Political Economy of the Rhodesian Tobacco Industry, 1945–1965’ (Master of Letters thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1988); F. Clements and E. Harben, Leaf of Gold: The Story of Rhodesian Tobacco (London: Methuen, 1962); Mbanga, Tobacco; Ncube, ‘Colonial Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry’.
11 See Mbanga, Tobacco, pp. 26–7. She provides a comprehensive ‘Statistical Summary of Flue-cured Tobacco Auction Sales, 1936-1990’ under the following headings: Year, Number of Growers, Area under Tobacco, Mass Produced, Value, Average Price per kg, Yield per Acre, and so forth; and Dunlop, The Development of European Agriculture provides also detailed statistics in a Statistical Appendix covering 11 pages from p. 61. The more recent statistics can be obtained from the TIMB website ( https://www.timb.co.zw/downloads).
12 See Ncube, ‘Colonial Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry’.
13 See Mbanga, Century of Gold, pp. 26–7; Dunlop, The Development of European Agriculture, pp. 61–72.
14 See D.L. Losman, ‘International Economic Sanctions: The Boycotts of Cuba, Israel, and Rhodesia’ (PhD thesis, University of Florida, 1969), p. 321.
15 Ibid.
16 Selby, ‘Commercial Farmers and the State’, p. 67.
17 Rhodesia Herald, 21 May 1977.
18 Rhodesia Herald, 22 June 1977.
19 S. Moyo, ‘Three Decades of Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe’, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 38, 3 (2011), pp. 493–531.
20 Selby, ‘Commercial Farmers and the State’, p. 138.
21 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD/COM/63, ‘Economic Role of Tobacco Production and Exports in Countries Depending on Tobacco as a Major Source of Income’, study by the UNCTAD secretariat, 8 May 1995.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Selby, ‘Commercial Farmers’, p. 189–98.
25 Quoted in Selby, ‘Commercial Farmers’, p. 192.
26 Food and Agriculture Organisation, Issues in the Global Tobacco Economy (Rome: FAO, 2003), retrieved 2 November 2021 from: https://www.fao.org/3/y4997e/y4997e0k.htm#bm20.
27 B. Chulu, ‘Record Tobacco Sales Mask Declining Crop Productivity’, The Independent, 27 July 2018, retrieved 2 November 2021 from: https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2018/07/27/record-tobacco-sales-mask-declining-crop-productivity/.
28 Moyo, ‘Three Decades of Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe’, pp. 493–531.
29 For an overview of this extensive literature see L. Cliffe, J. Alexander, B. Cousins and R. Gaidzanwa, ‘An Overview of Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Editorial Introduction’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 38, 5 (2011), pp. 907–38.
30 Moyo, ‘Three Decades of Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe’; I. Scoones, N. Marongwe, B. Mavedzenge, F. Murimbarimba, J. Mahenehene and C. Sukume, Zimbabwe’s Land Reform: Myths and Realities (London, James Currey, 2010).
31 African Development Bank, Zimbabwe Monthly Economic Review (Harare: AfDB, 2012).
32 W. Chambati, ‘Agrarian Labour Relations in Zimbabwe After Over a Decade of Land and Agrarian Reform’ (Working Paper 056, Future Agricultures, 2013).
33 TIMB, Annual Statistical Report 2009 (Harare: TIMB, 2010).
34 Chambati, ‘Agrarian Labour Relations in Zimbabwe’.
35 Chulu, ‘Record Tobacco Sales’.
36 Ibid.
37 General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe, If Something is Wrong: The Invisible Suffering of Farmworkers Due to ‘Land Reform’ (Harare, Weaver Press, 2010); L. Sachikonye, The Situation of Commercial Farm Workers After Land Reform in Zimbabwe (London, CIIR, 2003). For more on the history of farm workers and the realities they faced, see B. Rutherford, Working on the Margins: Black Workers, White Farmers in Postcolonial Zimbabwe (Harare, Weaver Press, 2001).
38 Scoones et al., Zimbabwe’s Land Reform.
39 For more on the farmers who left Zimbabwe for other African countries, see Hammar, ‘Ambivalent Mobilities’; Mustapha, ‘Zimbabwean Farmers in Nigeria’.
40 George Pio was the RTA president in the 1970s. W hen white farmers faced the risk of losing their farms, he suggested that they would be welcomed with open arms in other producing countries. See The Rhodesian Tobacco Journal, July 1975, p. 12.
41 Dennis Norman was the president of the Rhodesian National Farmers’ Union in the late 1970s. For these views, see The Rhodesian Tobacco Journal, June 1977, p. 19.
42 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Doug, 8 July 2019, Harare.
43 Interviews conducted by Rory Pilossof with Mark, 8 July 2018, Harare; with Ben Purcell-Gilpin, CFU CEO, 25 July 2019, Harare.
44 H.R. Strack, Sanctions: The Case of Rhodesia (New York, Syracuse University Press, 1978), p. 94.
45 Interview conducted by Sibanengi Ncube with Andrew Matibiri, TIMB CEO, 15 June 2019, Harare.
46 Ibid.
47 Interview conducted by Sibanengi Ncube with Sheunesu Moyo, TIMB PR manager, 14 June 2019, Harare.
48 Ibid.
49 NAZ, Box RH27/2/1-RH27/3/2, File RH27/2/1, 1935-1951, Parker Letter to Morten, 20 June 1950.
50 Rhodesian Tobacco Journal, 2 and 8 August 1950, p. 44.
51 Ibid.
52 NAZ, File RH 27/3/3, RTA Internal Memorandum, 1950.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid.
55 For instance, the RTA spent RH$377,000 on training African farm managers. See The Rhodesian Tobacco Journal, July 1975, pp. 11–12. It also funded a non-racial intensive one-year Tobacco Culture Diploma. The RNFU organised a multi-racial seminar on the future of agriculture where black agricultural leaders attended and presented papers.
56 Interview conducted by Sibanengi Ncube with Andrew Matibiri, 15 June 2019, Harare.
57 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Ben Purcell-Gilpen, 25 July 2019, Harare.
58 Interview conducted by Sibanengi Ncube with Sheunesu Moyo, 14 June 2019, Harare; interview with Andrew Matibiri, 15 June 2019, Harare. See ‘Control would-be growers, combat low-grade problem’, Tobacco, 2, 10 (1951), p. 53; and ‘Tobacco of high quality essential in colony’, Rhodesia Herald, 29 June 1954.
59 Interview with Sheunesu Moyo, 14 June 2019, Harare; interview with Andrew Matibiri, 15 June 2019, Harare.
60 A. Goger, P. Bamber and G. Gereffi, The Tobacco Global Value Chain in Low-Income Countries (Durham: Duke University, 2014), p. 9.
61 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Nic, 4 June 2019, Harare.
62 O. Smith, ‘Mapped: The Countries that Smoke the Most’, The Telegraph, 31 May 2018, retrieved 20 July 2019 from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/world-according-to-tobacco-consumption/. See also ‘The World’s Biggest Tobacco Markets’, The Atlas, retrieved 21 July 2019 from: https://www.theatlas.com/charts/SJLegpKeM. For trade data on the largest importers of tobacco see the Atlas of Economic Complexity, retrieved 28 July 2019 from: http://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/explore/stack/?country=43&partner=undefined&product=123&productClass=HS&startYear=undefined&target=Product&tradeDirection=import&year=2017.
63 In the 1990s, Zimbabwe exported most of its crop to Europe; now over 50 per cent of its crop goes to China. For visualisation of this trade data and the changes over the last 20 years see the Atlas for Economic Complexity, retrieved 28 July 2019 from: http://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/explore/stack/?country=248&partner=undefined&product=123&productClass=HS&startYear=undefined&target=Product&year=2017.
64 Pilossof, Unbearable Whiteness of Being, pp. 30–3.
65 Questions of skill, expertise and knowledge have long been touchy subjects within the white farming community. Selby has shown how many farmers in the areas he studied struggled to make their farms financially viable and lacked the skills necessary to farm well. One of the most revealing and extensive investigations into farmer knowledge came in 1982. That year, The Farmer magazine carried an article titled ‘How Much Does the Average Farmer Know?’ The article stated that there was an assumption that (white) commercial farmers were ‘amongst the most knowledgeable in the world’ and sought to test how true this was. The magazine sent commercial tobacco, maize, beef and dairy farmers questionnaires on their crop and general farming practices. While the article acknowledged numerous limitations with the exercise, it did reveal that the farmers scored very poorly on the maize, beef, dairy and general questions. Only the tobacco farmers displayed comprehensive knowledge of their crop. This article and the responses recorded reveal the lack of specialist expertise and knowledge. D.S. MyClymont, ‘How Much Does the Average Farmer Know?’, The Farmer, 12 April 1982, pp. 23, 25 and 27; Selby, ‘Commercial Farmers’, pp. 180–213; Pilossof, The Unbearable Whiteness of Being, p. 109.
66 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Nic, 4 June 2019, Harare.
67 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Mark, 8 July, 2019, Harare.
68 Mbanga, A Century of Gold, p. 7.
69 Clements and Harben, Leaf of Gold.
70 A. England and T. Hawkins, ‘Zimbabwe Tobacco Farms Yield Success’, Financial Times, 22 September 2011, retrieved 2 November 2021 from: https://www.ft.com/content/8dbf7bb6-cdad-11e0-bb4f-00144feabdc0.
71 See Pilossof, The Unbearable Whiteness of Being. Also see ‘White Farmers Begin Returning Home’, The New Humanitarian, 16 July 2007, retrieved 1 August 2021 from: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/fr/node/237618; N. Nene, ‘I Want to Help New Owners of Farm Zimbabwe Government Took from Me’, IOL, 14 September 2020, retrieved 1 August 2021 from: https://www.iol.co.za/sunday-tribune/news/i-want-to-help-new-owners-of-farm-zimbabwe-government-took-from-me-b8ae9d11-a9f6-43e7-8674-e1285820d1a4.
72 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Mark, 8 July 2019, Harare.
73 Interview conducted by Sibanengi Ncube with Rodney, ZTA House, Harare, 19 June 2019.
74 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Dave, 8 July 2019, Harare.
75 Pilossof, The Unbearable Whiteness of Being, p. 157.
76 The Irish Times, ‘Up in Smoke’, The Irish Times, 11 April 1998, retrieved 1 August 2021 from: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/up-in-smoke-1.141386.
77 Ibid.
78 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Mark, 8 July 2019, Harare.
79 Hammar, ‘Ambivalent Mobilities’, p. 403.
80 Pilossof, The Unbearable Whiteness of Being, p. 157.
81 In her book, Tengwe Garden Club, Anne Rothrock Beattie mentions the gatherings at ‘the Club’ and how these were important occasions for the farming community. For mentions of the club in the books, see: J. Barker, Paradise Plundered: The Story of a Zimbabwean Farmer (Harare, 2007), p. 143 and p. 154; A.R. Beattie, Tengwe Garden Club (USA, 2008), pp. 38–39; E. Harrison, Jambanja (Harare, 2006), p. 110. Also see C. Buckle, African Tears: The Zimbabwe Land Invasions (Johannesburg, 2001); C. Buckle, Beyond Tears: Zimbabwe’s Tragedy (Johannesburg, 2002).
82 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Ben Purcell-Gilpin, 25 July 2019, Harare.
83 S. Christie, ‘Welcome to Zimbabwe’s New, Old Country Clubs’, Mail and Guardian, 3 May 2013, retrieved 20 July 2019 from: https://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-03-00-welcome-to-zimbabwes-new-old-country-clubs.
84 I. Scoones, ‘Zimbabwe’s Country Clubs: The Changing Social Life of Zimbabwe’s Farming Areas’, Zimbabweland, 24 February 2014, retrieved on 23 July 2019 from: https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/zimbabwes-country-clubs-the-changing-social-life-of-zimbabwes-farming-areas/.
85 Interviews conducted by Rory Pilossof with John, 8 July 2019, Harare; with Dave, 8 July 2019, Harare.
86 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Mark, 8 July 2019, Harare.
87 Hammar, ‘Ambivalent Mobilities’.
88 ‘White Farmers Begin Returning Home’, The New Humanitarian, 16 July 2007, retrieved 1 August 2021 from: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/fr/node/237618.
89 K. Sieff, ‘Zimbabwe’s White Farmers Find Their Services in Demand Again’, The Guardian, 25 September 2015, retrieved on 1 August 2021 from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/25/zimbabwe-land-reforms-mugabe-white-farmers.
90 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Ben Purcell-Gilpin, 25 July 2019, Harare. Also see Sieff, ‘Zimbabwe’s White Farmers Find Their Services in Demand Again’. These arrangements have been controversial with government and the various ministries responsible for agriculture, who have at various points both supported and denied such partnerships.
91 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Ben Purcell-Gilpin, 25 July 2019, Harare.
92 Ibid.
93 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Nic, 4 June 2019, Harare; interview with Doug, 8 July 2019, Harare.
94 Interview conducted by Rory Pilossof with Ben Purcell-Gilpin, 25 July 2019, Harare; Scoones, ‘Zimbabwe’s Country Clubs’.
95 Nene, ‘I Want to Help New Owners of Farm Zimbabwe Government Took from Me’.
96 S. Ncube, ‘“We Must Adapt to Survive”: International Sanctions, Settler Politics, and White Tobacco Farmers’ Struggles for Economic Survival in Rhodesia, 1966–1979’, African Economic History, 48, 2 (2020), 67–91.
97 C. van Onselen, The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper 1894–1985 (New York, Hill and Wang, 1996), p. 281.
98 One of this article’s authors, who worked with the Commercial Farmers’ Union and Justice for Agriculture (an NGO campaigning for white farmers affected by land reform to be compensated) in the 2000s, found these paternal relationships and structures of operation to be evident in the working culture of both of those organisations. Not only were the black staff poorly provided for, but he often overheard the use of racist language. See also Pilossof, The Unbearable Whiteness of Being, p. 199; footnote 97, p. 213.
99 ‘White Farmers Begin Returning Home’, The New Humanitarian.