Rural Society and Cotton in Colonial Zaire

Notes

Notes Citations of archival materials use the following abbreviations for the archives: A.A., Brussels Agri A.I., Brussels AIMO, Brussels A.R.H.Z., Kisangani A.R.S., Lubumbashi ARSOM D.P. F.P. IRCB Archives Africaines du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres Agriculture Affaire Indigene Affaire Indigene et Main-d'Oeuvre Archives Regionales du Haut-Zaire, Kisangani Archives Regionales du Shaba, Lubumbashi Academie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer Divers problemes Force Publique Institut Royal Colonial BeIge Introduction 1. H. Bernstein, ''l\frican Peasantries: A Theoretical Framework," Journal of Peasant Studies 6 (1979): 420-43. 2. S. Amin, Le developpement inegal(Paris: Editions de minuit, 1973); W. Rodney , How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (London: Bogle-I'Ouverture Publications , 1972); C. Leys, Underdevelopment in Kenya (London: Heinemann, 1975). 3. N. Palmer and N. Parsons, eds., The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (London: Heinemann, 1977); B. Freund, The Making of Contemporary Africa (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984). 4. J. S. Hogendorn, "The Vent-for-Surplus Model and African Cash Agriculture to 1914," Savanna 5 (1976): 5. While proponents of vent-for-surplus, development theory, and the African initiative school argue that peasants accepted cash crop production because it benefIted them, underdevelopment theorists and Marxists disagree. They correctly demonstrate that cash crop production brought oppression and exploitation and point out a variety of mechanisms whereby wealth was transferred from the periphery to the core of the capitalist economy. The market, as an exogenous force, had a bearing on crop choice, but 143 144 Notes to Pages 4-8 endogenous forces determined the actual implementation and the organization of labor. See A. Isaacman, "Peasants and Rural Social Protest in Africa," African Studies Review 33, no. 2 (September 1990): 16, and "Peasants, Social Protest and Africanists," Journal of Social History 22 (1989):763, n5. 5. L. Vail and L. White, "'Tawani, Machambero!: Forced Cotton and Rice Growing in the Zambezi," Journal of African History 19, no. 29 (1979)9: 239-63; A. Isaacman et al., "Cotton Is the Mother of Poverty: Peasant Resistance to Forced Cotton Production in Mozambique, 1938-1961," International Journal of African Historical Studies 13 (1980): 580-615; A. Isaacman, "Chiefs, Rural Differentiation and Peasant Protest: The Mozambican Forced Cotton Regime, 19381961 ," African Economic History 14 (1985):15-57. 6. M. Klein, Peasants in Africa (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983); J. Suret-Canal, French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 1900-1945, trans. Till Gotteiner (London and New York: [1964] C. Hurst, 1971); U. Sturzinger, "The Introduction of Cotton Cultivation in Chad: The Role of the Administrator, 1920-1936," African Economic History 19 (1983): 213-24; E. De Dampire, "Coton noir, cafe blanc," Cahier d'itudes africaines 2 (1960):128-47; E. Mandala, Work and Control in a Peasant Economy (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); see also E. Mandala , "Commodity Production, Subsistence and the State in Colonial Africa: Peasant Cotton Agriculture in the Lower Tchiri (Shiri) Valley of Malawi, 1907-1935" (ms). 7. Isaacman, "Peasants and Rural Social Protest," 17. 8. F. Mulambu, "Introduction a l'etude du role des paysans dans les changements politiques," Cahiers iconomiques et sociaux 8 (1970): 435-50; Sikitele Gize, "Les racines de la revolte pende de 1931," Etudes d'histoire africaine 3 (1973): 99-153; M. Lovens, "La revolte de Masisi-Lubutu (Congo beIge Janvier -Mai, 1944)" Cahiers du CEDAF, nos. 3-4 (1975): 4-136. 9. B. Rau, From Feast to Famine (London: Zed Books, 1991),2. 10. Isaacman, "Chiefs, Rural Differentiation and Peasant Protest," 29; E. Mandala , "Capitalism, Ecology and Society: The Lower Tchire (Shire) Valley of Malawi, 1860-1960" (unpublished Ph. D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1983); V. Joan, "Colonial Chiefs and the Making of Class: A Case Study from Teso, Eastern Uganda," Africa 47, no. 2 (1977): 149; R. Howard, "Formation and StratifIcation of the Peasantry in Colonial Ghana," Journal of Peasant Studies 8, no. 1 (1980): 72. 11. R. Anstey, King Leopold's Legacy (London, New York, Ibadan: Oxford University Press, 1966), 56; G. Van der Kerken, Les sociitis bantoues du Congo beIge (Brussels: Etablissements Emile Bruyant, 1920), 246; fIles of the Department of the Interior in A.R.H.Z., Kisangani include many cases of chiefs convicted for misappropriation of funds from peasants. Of the many reasons advanced to explain the situation, the insuffIciency of resources of the chiefs fIgured prominently. See P. Geschiere, "Chiefs and Colonial Rule in Cameroon: Inventing Chieftaincy, French and British Style," Africa 63, no. 2 (1993):151-75. 12. P. Abrams, Historical Sociology...