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

Abstract

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.