Women, agriculture and social change in Southern Rhodesia, 1898-1934: with special reference to the Goromonzi District

Abstract

Within eight years of the occupation of Southern Rhodesia, Africans in the Goromonzi District were seriously engaged in market production. Conveniently located in the environs of Salisbury and in the vicinity of several mines, peasant producers were expanding their acreage under cultivation and selling food and beer to traders, urban dwellers, and migrant workers on the mines. Through the sale of their agricultural products they were able to earn enough cash to pay their taxes and buy consumer goods without offering themselves up as wage laborers.