Forced Migration, Resistance and Adaptation: The Madheruka Cotton Production and Differentiation in Pre-Irrigation Era Sanyati, Zimbabwe, 1950–1967

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is a large volume of African scholarship that contextualises migration in terms of internally-and-externally-motivated movement of people. However, scholarship that considers internal-migration and forced-evictions from their land by the colonial-settler-state in Zimbabwe and the impact of such evictions on the people of Sanyati is limited. This article examines the impact of state-induced-migration of African-peasants from the Rhodesdale-Ranch to the Sanyati-hinterland and the deployment of agricultural-demonstrators by the state to ‘improve’ agriculture following the enactment of the Native Land Husbandry Act (NLHA). The forced-removal, which disregarded nationality and peasant-farmers’ rights-to-land, was followed by unique forms of controlling and managing movement as legitimised by the state. Moreover, this article delineates African-agency and adaptation as the evictees negotiated survival in a new environment where arable-land was not only scarce, but – prior to human-and-state-intervention – was deemed unsuitable for human-habitation due to its peculiar vulnerabilities and challenges. In exploring these issues, the paper examines the role of the state in African-agricultural-systems, its impact on peasant-production-systems and patterns in Sanyati and African responses and initiatives. Using diverse sources, the article demonstrates that the forced-migration of Africans from Rhodesdale to Sanyati significantly compromised their livelihoods. It also argues that African responses and productive-capacities were varied, leading to rural-differentiation among the peasants.