Planning for Africa: The British Labour Party's Colonial Development Policy, 1920–1964

Abstract

The article examines the formation of the British Labour Party's colonial policy towards Africa. It traces how the early Radical Liberal critique of colonial rule gave way to the influence of Fabianism, which provided the guidelines to the Labour government's post‐war development measures. These sought to incorporate Africans into institutions which would simultaneously provide more productive labour and consolidate colonial rule. The development of the African colonies was believed to reside in restructuring the interface between the state and society. A challenge to the Party's Fabian‐inspired colonial policy emerged in the 1950s. In the midst of the ideological struggle between the party's left and right wings, arguments questioning the African colonies’ economic subordination to metropolitan interests briefly entered into policy debates.

Rethinking Rural Co‐operatives in Development: Introduction to the Policy Arena

“…For example, Rhodes () has provided a valuable overview of the role that co‐operatives played within the colonial development policies of the British Empire. Kelemen () has also explored one aspect of this in a study of the UK post‐war labour government colonial development policies. Paakesen () has discussed the joint Nordic Co‐operative Assistance Project in Tanzania set up in the 1970s and its later collusion with the Ujamaa (forced villagisation) rural development policy adopted by the Nyerere government in the 1970s.…”

Agrarian Populism in Colonial and Postcolonial Malawi

“…At the same time, historians have found it difficult to conceptualize the postwar doctrine, although both Cowen and Shenton (1996) and Keleman (2007) link it to the rise of Fabian socialism in Britain. The paradox, it seems, is that while the colonial authorities acknowledged the efficiency of peasant farming, their perception of "African social realities" (Berry 1993:47) was not fundamentally changed.…”