Crises over land ownership throughout postcolonial Africa have generated international debates and divided world opinion. The case of Zimbabwe has pushed this debate to a new level. “Zimbabwe has demonstrated that disputes over land can turn violent …,” says International Crisis Group in its publication Blood and Soil. While such crises exist all over postcolonial Africa, they are more entrenched in former settler colonies. “Land has been a conflict issue in Zimbabwe, and has the potential to be one in South Africa,” says the ICG.
Land in Pre-colonial Africa
The importance of land in pre-colonial is explained not by its economic value, but more by its “spiritual” importance. Elizabeth Colson argues that Africans conceive of land as a sacred object “which existed independently of men.” She identifies two striking aspects of the African land. These include the physical or material earth and the spiritual (invisible, cultural, traditional and ritualistic) aspects of the land.
It was land that defined the religious outlook of pre-colonial Africa, and religion was at the centre of Africa’s cultural life. “Religion in African societies,” says Joseph Mbitti, “is written not on paper but in the people’s hearts, minds and oral history, rituals and religious personages like priests, rain makers, officiating elders and even kings.”
In Mbitti’s words, religion exerted “the greatest influence upon the thinking and living of the people concerned.” As religion defined the cultural outlook, so did the culture shape the peoples relationship with the land. Land was venerated in pre-colonial Africa to the extent that it was placed under the care of the gods. Each deity took care of different aspects of the land such as planting, harvesting and even childbirth because it provided labor that exploited the land.
Labor in Pre-colonial Africa
It was in the economic life of pre-colonial Africa that the land-labor combination was very crucial. The size of the family determined its labor force. This explains the polygamous nature of the pre-colonial African family because the predominantly agricultural economies required many hands. Africans therefore placed great importance on childbirth and therefore performed many traditional rites to ensure the fertility of the land and the people. Wealth was measured by the size of one’s family.
Like land, labor was communal property. Through work groups, labor was provided along age and gender lines. Where necessary as Walter Rodney points out, young men of different age groups were assigned to different tasks. These involved communal hunting, tilling of the land, fishing, planting and harvesting. The proceeds were also shared among the people.
Such intimate relations between the people of pre-colonial Africa and their land ensured social harmony because it was based on rigid social values such as respect for elders and protection for vulnerable age groups such as women, children and the old. It ensured that land belonged to all and access to it was free. This kept Africa free of hunger and malnutrition before the coming of Europeans.
Early European Pressures on African Communalism
Africa was still at its “communal” stage of development when it established contacts with Europe in the 15th century. This contact developed into trade relations that took on a different form when Africans became the stock in this trade. The Slave Trade as this obnoxious commerce was called destroyed the link that existed between African labor and the land. African labor was diverted to the Americas for work in capitalist plantations and mines.
The slave trade drastically disrupted African agriculture by exporting African labor. Slave raiding also created an environment of fear and insecurity which was not conducive for agricultural production. The damage was made worse when colonialism was established and African lands were seized for European plantations. Monoculture replaced the food crop economies and the result was hunger and malnutrition that has gripped Africa till this day.
The plight of modern Africa is at the root of negritude Literature and Africa’s revolutionary history. Many (African) writers trace this mishap from the period of the slave trade through colonialism to neo-colonialism. These writers have contrasted the pride of pre-colonial Africa with its present frustrations. For further reading on this, see the following;
Colson, Elizabeth. “The impact of the Colonial period on the definition of Land Rights” in Victor Tuner (ed.), Colonialism in Africa 1870-1980. vol.111. Profiles of Change. African Society and Colonial Rule, 1971.
International Crisis Group. Blood and Soil, 2004.
Mbitti, Joseph. African Religions and Philosophy, 1990.
See also
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart, 1985
Wa Thiongo, Ngugi. I Will marry When I want, 1982.
Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, 1981.
Oyono, Ferdinand. The Old man and the Medal, 1967.
