From colonial tea to postcolonial rubber plantations: tracking the Plantationocene in Lugela district, Mozambique

ABSTRACT

This research conducted between June 2016 and April 2018 employs ethnographic research, archival sources, and observations to reveal the emergence of the Plantationocene in Mozambique's Lugela district. It explores how historical exploitation and governance of land and people by colonial companies, specifically Société du Madal, have influenced the current plantation regime. By focusing on a MHL rubber plantation in the postcolonial era, the article exposes how the plantation revitalizes colonial methods of racist capital accumulation. The study highlights the detrimental effects of large-scale plantations on rural communities, including marginalization, dispossession, displacement, and the objectification of people and landscapes as mere commodities for capital accumulation. Additionally, it emphasizes how these projects impose new labour relations, racialized identities, and geographies, perpetuating the remnants of colonialism while endorsing a neoliberal framework that further deepens existing inequalities.

KEYWORDS:

• Plantationocene
• dispossessions
• tea plantations
• rubber plantations
• Mozambique
• coloniality
• extractivism
• modernisation

Acknowledgements

This research results from my PhD studies which were funded by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) and Council for the Development of Social Sciences Research in Africa (CODESRIA). The fieldwork was funded by the National Geographic Society (NGS), grant number HJ-050ER-17. Part of the writing process happened under the INTPART postdoctoral visit at the University of Oslo, Oslo School of Environmental Humanities. I would also like to thank the two anonymous peer-reviewers who provided invaluable comments to earlier versions of this text.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Geographic Society Education Foundation: [grant no (#HJ-040ER-17)]; National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS)-Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA): [grant no (#APS16/1048).]; INTPART project Strengthening Environmental Anthropology Research and Education Through Interdisciplinary Methods and Collaborations.: [grant no 2022].

Notes on contributors

Anselmo Matusse

Anselmo Matusse is an anthropologist, National Geographic Explorer, and Researcher at Bloco 4 Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English Language Teaching and Anthropology from Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique, and a master’s in environmental science from TEMA at Linköping University, Sweden. He holds another master’s degree in Digital Humanities from Linnaeus University, Sweden. He is finishing his third master’s in Higher Education Teaching and Researching at Malmö University, Sweden. He holds a PhD in Anthropology within the Environmental Humanities South (EHS) research cluster at the University of Cape Town. Through the ontologies of Mount Mabo communities, Anselmo’s PhD thesis sought to reinvigorate ways of thinking and practising science, development, and conservation towards socio-natural well-being in Mozambique. His research interests include development, nature conservation, arts, peacebuilding, and digitalisation.