Land Inequality and Income Distribution in Rhodesia

Abstract

There have been a number of attempts by social scientists to discuss the economic significance of the land issue on the politics of Southern Rhodesia. The Land Apportionment Act of 1930, the cornerstone of segregationist policy, has been discussed at length in many treatises on Rhodesia, the most notable being those of Malcolm Rifkind (1968), Robin Palmer (1968), and Lewis Gann (1963). The important Land Husbandry Act of 1951 has been analyzed by Kingsley Garbett (1963), Ken Brown (1959), and J.F. Holleman (1969). Little has, however, been written on the changing distribution of land resources between Black and White, except for an analysis by Roder (1964) which covers aspects of the period up to the early 1960s. This paper will attempt to illustrate how the process of capital accumulation and discrimination against Blacks in capital markets, through land policy, has worked to impair Black economic advancement. This will be done by demonstrating how the broad trends in racial land distribution in the 1946-69 period have fostered African underdevelopment. The importance of the racial division of land assets on the distribution of income will also be highlighted.