Mass Production or Production by the Masses? Tractors, Cooperatives, and the Politics of Rural Development in Post-Independence Zambia

Abstract

The fall of colonial regimes across Africa was accompanied by the rise in expectations for rapid and inclusive rural economic progress. In Zambia, the cooperative production unit was one of two key initiatives at the centre of the United National Independence Party's ambitious development efforts. The other was the tractor. By following these two interlinked initiatives in the years immediately following independence, this article contributes to the under-explored history of early postcolonial development. It argues that both the power of expert groups and the level of continuity between late colonial and postcolonial development was not always as great as has recently been suggested. Cooperative mechanization policies emerged from a confluence of competing claims over knowledge, power and resources. However, as is demonstrated, they also reflected more fundamental tensions in the development endeavour between the prioritization of economically efficient mass production, and inclusive development for the masses.

Development Shadows: The Afterlife of Collapsed Development Projects in the Zambian Copperbelt

“…Thousands seized the opportunity, and by 1968 there were 609 registered farming cooperatives -with a total membership of 11,500 farmers. Sev-eral scholars have critiqued the hasty rolling out of this programme and the massive waste that it engendered (Scott 1978;Bowman 2011;Macola 2010;Siddle 1970). Most of those who established cooperatives were drawn to the government subsidies and loans being offered, and very few had an actual commitment to socialism or knowledge of running a cooperative (Lombard 1971: 18;Quick 1978: 50-51).…”

Managing the Political Economy of Pro-Poor Agricultural Spending

“…An example is Zambia, where smallholder supportive policy took the form of cooperative mechanization for maize. But the tractors promoted were not the suitable technology given farmers' small land sizes, and the resultant levels of maize output were disappointing, leading to an abandonment of policies to support smallholder production (Bowman 2011).…”

Slow Abolition within the Colonial Mind: British and French Debates about “Vagrancy”, “African Laziness”, and Forced Labour in West Central and South Central Africa, 1945–1965

“…Indications of these phenomena are clear for Ghana, where the Nkrumah government operated consistently through labour brigades. 89 For other cases, such as Zambia, 90 research has still advanced very little, although it is at least to be expected that in rural areas some continuities may be identified. For instance, where ''native chiefs'' defended a part of their authority, they also had the possibility of organizing such labour services as ''traditional communal labour''.…”