Property Rights and Labour Relations : Explaining the Relative Success of Native Purchase Area Farmers in Southern Rhodesia, 1930–1965
(2023) In Journal of Southern African Studies 49(5-6). p.889-906- Abstract
- In the 1930s the colonial authorities in Zimbabwe set aside geographical areas where Africans were allowed to purchase land. Despite having private property rights to land, a rare occurrence among Africans in colonial times, the performance of this group of farmers has rarely been investigated. In this article, we show that the average group of ‘native purchase’ farming households performed far better than the average African farmer in the native reserves. We do more, by offering one of the first explanations behind the ‘success’ of this group of farmers. We argue that the explanation for this is not that private property rights were more secure than other forms of land rights as argued in mainstream economics. The farmers who owned land... (More)
- In the 1930s the colonial authorities in Zimbabwe set aside geographical areas where Africans were allowed to purchase land. Despite having private property rights to land, a rare occurrence among Africans in colonial times, the performance of this group of farmers has rarely been investigated. In this article, we show that the average group of ‘native purchase’ farming households performed far better than the average African farmer in the native reserves. We do more, by offering one of the first explanations behind the ‘success’ of this group of farmers. We argue that the explanation for this is not that private property rights were more secure than other forms of land rights as argued in mainstream economics. The farmers who owned land performed better than those who did not because private property rights changed social relations in a wider sense of the term. Private property rights enabled the emergence of various forms of non-family labour relations including sharecropping and wage labour that the landowner could exploit to increase production. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/b5061752-9844-4be6-bb9e-2c4843ed4484
- author
- Green, Erik LU and Nyandoro, Mark
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Southern African Studies
- volume
- 49
- issue
- 5-6
- pages
- 889 - 906
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85189947953
- ISSN
- 0305-7070
- DOI
- 10.1080/03057070.2023.2325326
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b5061752-9844-4be6-bb9e-2c4843ed4484
- date added to LUP
- 2023-09-14 08:04:16
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 15:02:02
@article{b5061752-9844-4be6-bb9e-2c4843ed4484,
abstract = {{In the 1930s the colonial authorities in Zimbabwe set aside geographical areas where Africans were allowed to purchase land. Despite having private property rights to land, a rare occurrence among Africans in colonial times, the performance of this group of farmers has rarely been investigated. In this article, we show that the average group of ‘native purchase’ farming households performed far better than the average African farmer in the native reserves. We do more, by offering one of the first explanations behind the ‘success’ of this group of farmers. We argue that the explanation for this is not that private property rights were more secure than other forms of land rights as argued in mainstream economics. The farmers who owned land performed better than those who did not because private property rights changed social relations in a wider sense of the term. Private property rights enabled the emergence of various forms of non-family labour relations including sharecropping and wage labour that the landowner could exploit to increase production.}},
author = {{Green, Erik and Nyandoro, Mark}},
issn = {{0305-7070}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{5-6}},
pages = {{889--906}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Journal of Southern African Studies}},
title = {{Property Rights and Labour Relations : Explaining the Relative Success of Native Purchase Area Farmers in Southern Rhodesia, 1930–1965}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2325326}},
doi = {{10.1080/03057070.2023.2325326}},
volume = {{49}},
year = {{2023}},
}