Browsing by Author "Madimu, Tapiwa"
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- ItemFarmers, miners and the state in colonial Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), c.1895-1961.(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Madimu, Tapiwa; Swart, Sandra S.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the long and entangled relationship of farmers, miners and the state in Southern Rhodesia from 1895 when the Mines and Minerals Act was promulgated to promote the growth of the country’s mining industry. The study ends in 1961 when an amendment to this same Act was crafted after the incorporation of considerations from the country’s farmers and miners. The country’s mining law, devised by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) to further its commercial interests, became a subject of controversy around 1907 when agriculture, which had been hitherto neglected, started developing – spurred by disillusioned fortune seekers who had turned from prospecting for gold to pursue farming. The BSAC laws favoured mining and this was challenged by the growing settler farmer community. This laid the basis for the interaction of farmers, miners and the state throughout the study period. The thesis thus explores the protean nature of state policies in dealing with the country’s farmers and miners. Mining and agriculture were the country’s leading primary industries, with mining contributing more towards the country’s revenue until 1945 when it was replaced by agriculture on the apex position. Therefore, state policies on the two sectors had a direct impact on the overall country’s economy. The thesis engages broader historiographical conversations on agriculture, mining, conservation and intra-settler relations, law and taxation in Southern Rhodesia. It fills a historiographical gap in existing studies on intra-settler studies in Southern Rhodesia by providing a broader analysis of state-farmer-miner relations incorporating economic, political and conservation concerns. It shows the various shifts in state policies from Company administration into Responsible Government and highlights how different national and international economic developments impacted on state policies and in turn on minerfarmer interactions. The study also demonstrates how the adoption of a formal conservation policy by the G. Huggins government provided a new context for the regulation of minerfarmer relations by the state. It argues that, miner-farmer relations during the period under review impacted heavily on state policy and the country’s economy.