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1 Introduction
Background
In setting the foundations of the present book, the introduction chapter locates economic dualism from colonial Rhodesia in both its historic and geographical location terms at the end of the nineteenth century, as having formed the foundation and cradle of its distorted economic structure and underdevelopment, which has continued to be so well into the twenty-first century. The chapter also spells out the origin and central task of the study of dualistic development in the Zimbabwean economy.
With a land area of approximately 390,000 square kilometres,1 Zimbabwe is bordered by Mozambique to the east, South Africa to the south, Botswana and Namibia (the Caprivi Strip) to the west and Zambia to the north and north-west. Zimbabweâs distinctive physical characteristic is the high plateau, the âhigh-veldâ that runs from the south-west to the north-east through the centre of the country; it is about 650 kilometres long and 80 kilometres wide and lies mostly on an altitude of between 1,200 and 1,500 metres above sea level. Areas on both sides of the plateau lying at an altitude between 600 and 1,200 metres are called the, âmiddleâveldâ, and the lowest part at an altitude below 600 metres, the âlow-veldâ, which consists of the Zambezi Valley, the Limpopo Valley and the Sabi Basin.
The climate corresponds to the altitude pattern with temperate climate in the high plateau and middle-veld and more extreme temperature variations in the low-veld. The countryâs natural regions strongly influence the pattern of agricultural cropping. As will be seen, land distribution under the colonial rule also followed the landscape and the climatic variations as well as the natural resource endowment patterns. Thus, the majority of the African settlements were moved from the high- and middle-veld areas to the generally arid low-veld, where both agricultural cropping and livestock farming are hazardous for lack of rainfall and vegetation. On the other hand, the plateau became the centre of European settlement because of its good climate, rainfall, vegetation and proximity to most of the commercial mineral deposits.
While the white settler politically induced land distribution remained a sore point to the indigenous people whose only hope was the expected independence which ushered majority rule. The countryâs climatic condition and attractiveness has remained a permanent feature. According to an International Quality of Life Index, published in January 2011 ranking 192 countries, Zimbabwe ties with the Mediterranean island of Malta for having the best climate on Earth.2 Zimbabwe scored 100 per cent on climate, 75 per cent on leisure and culture and 67 per cent on cost of living.3 The crime rate in Zimbabwe was ranked as very low. The country, however, did not do as well on the economy, politics and infrastructure.
Summary
While uneven distribution of wealth has been characteristic of most post-colonial economies, the situation in Southern Africa with particular focus on Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia took its own special dimension and characteristics. This book constitutes a continuation and update of my earlier book Dualism in the Rhodesian Colonial Economy (1981). The motivation behind the book is to address the structural problem of the distribution of income of the masses in the rural segment of underdeveloped economies, especially as a result of land alienation in the Southern African economies, with special focus on the Zimbabwean settler colonial economy, then known as Rhodesia. The central task of the book is to demonstrate from both theory and empirical evidence that the dualistic economic development was the result of consistent efforts of the colonial governmentsâ economic policies and monopoly power possessed by large-scale operators and employers of labour in the modern sector. The racially determined ownership of land was entrenched in the early twentieth century by legislation which included the Land Native Act of 1913 in South Africa, the Land Settlement Proclamation of 1920 in Namibia, the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 and the Land Tenure Act of 1969 in Zimbabwe. As will be shown in detail in the case of Zimbabwe, the aim was to hold back any prospects of development in the indigenous African economy in order to extract cheap labour from these communities.
As the capitalist mode of production to dominate the economy, positive steps were taken to both reduce the competitiveness of African agriculture and to establish a permanent labour supply from the impoverished indigenous population. A similar and even more robust economic dualism divide took place in the South African case. Thabo Mbeki contends that, on one hand, there was the first economy, the modern economy, producing the bulk of the countryâs wealth and this first economy was integrated within the global economy. On the other hand, the second economy (also known as the marginalised economy) characterised by under-development, contributed little to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The latter economy, contained a big percentage of our population, incorporating the poorest of the countryâs rural and urban population, structurally disconnected from both the first and global economy, and was incapable of self-generated growth and development.4
The current book while re-stating the key positions taken in my earlier publication,5 discusses and adds new trends that have taken place since the publication of the earlier volume. The views being developed in this volume will continue to directly affect the politics and development genre of many countries in the African region, at least until the key issues raised in the book have been addressed. The focus is built on the theoretical and empirical foundations of economic dualism in the literature. This is in order to find solutions towards structural transformation, an inclusive social order and sustainable development.
It will be argued in the rest of the book that, the Zimbabwean experience of continuation with the colonial economic dualism is a typical and even âclassicâ example of the African post-colonial stateâs ânormalising the abnormalâ. In the Zimbabwean case, the post-independent state has continued with dualistic structures of the economy as a new normal, while loudly blaming colonialism and imperialism for having planted and perpetrated this form of underdevelopment. This social formation, typically of Zimbabwe and South Africa has historically been characterised by an articulation of modes of production â the pre-capitalist and capitalist modes of production. But it is widely agreed that this situation, has to change, however formidable the historical and continued structural disconnection between the modes of production, which best analyses the processes of economic development in these economies.
What this book hopes to do differently, is to show how economic dualism can be eradicated through structural transformation of the colonial entrenched pre-capitalist âtraditionalâ agricultural sector and creation of conditions for the reallocation of labour across sectors. The book also addresses the wide spread of economic dualism that has in the post-independence period penetrated the economy through the growth of the informal sector.
The key motivation of the book is to change the mind-set of societyâs tolerance of underdevelopment, and urge the present generation of political leadership, academia and other societal actors to unleash and unshackle the existing economy by liberal economic reforms. Accompanied by structural transformation of the economy, this is expected to lower existing trade barriers and tax rates, and break the post-independent established and enhanced state monopolies. In this way, these economies can be structurally transformed towards industrialisation, competitiveness, and hence open them to regional economic integration and fair trade with the rest of the world.
The foundations of the present study
Economic dualism manifests itself in many ways and is an inherent part of the subject matter of underdevelopment. Economic dualism is still with us and has continued to be so until well into the twenty-first century. The subject of economic dualism has been dealt with at length and in various forms in the literature of development economics. It is essential to note that revisiting the subject is not only justifiable but it is essential for our understanding of the binding relations behind the phenomenon of underdevelopment. The term underdevelopment in the relevant literature refers to the generally less favourable indices that characterise the lower level of productive forces of the countries of the Third World â the present day underdeveloped countries. By todayâs designations some of the countries are in the category of Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The latter term is connected with the theory according to which these countries have fallen behind in the process of their historical development or âhave lost time and tempo, and consequently are now at an earlier, lower stage of general process of growthâ.6
According to the United Nations the worldâs most impoverished and vulnerable countries, the LDCs group of countries have been classified as âleast developedâ in terms of their low gross national income (GNI), their weak human assets and their high degree of economic vulnerability.
My original and central task of the study was to demonstrate that the dualistic economic development in Zimbabwe was the result of consistent efforts of the colonial governmentâs economic policies and monopoly power possessed by large-scale operators and employers of labour in the modern sector. These forces tended to hold back any prospects of development in the traditional agrarian economy. Policies of land alienation, discrimination and low wage levels in the wage employment sector, unequal provision of capital inputs between the African peasant farmers and the large-scale white farmers as well as discriminatory marketing arrangements in the produce market formed a system of causation that constitutes the interrelationships of dualism. The essential feature of economic dualism in the Zimbabwe is that causation runs from imperfections in the land market to the other factor markets. This results in a downward causation of interlocking components starting from population pressure on the designated African farming lands, land degradation and soil erosion, low productivity, and ending in low and falling incomes per capita both in the rural African areas and in the modern sector. Riddell also emphasised that
the effect of measures taken to restrict the competitiveness of African agriculture together with an increasing population farming a fixed area of land had been that the majority cannot provide enough for the needs of their families and so they are forced to work outside the Reserves.7
Teboho P. Bojabotseha recently highlighted that the idea that South African society is characterised by dual socio-economic structures is once more gaining ascendancy.8 Its key advocates include the former President of the Republic of South Africa â Thabo Mbeki â and the majority of members of the ANC-dominated judiciary, legislative and executive assemblies.9 Like in the case of Zimbabwe, the dualist interpretation in the context of development is presented as a âcorrectâ way of understanding reality in South Africa and problems that beset it. In these circumstances, in general there is an irresistible temptation to adopt dualist propositions as they appear to be self-evidently true.
Recent advances in empirical knowledge of underdeveloped economies show convincing evidence that the distribution of income of the rural masses in such economies as well as their absolute standard of living are highly dependent on the degree of concentration of landed wealth. There is also evidence that rapid growth in such enclave economies does not guarantee that those in the bottom deciles of socio-economic strata can improve their relative, or even ...
