Tanganyika groundnut scheme
The Tanganyika groundnut scheme, or East Africa groundnut scheme, was a failed attempt by the British government to cultivate tracts of its African trust territory Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) with peanuts. Launched in the aftermath of World War II by the Labour Party administration of prime minister Clement Attlee,[1] the goal was to produce urgently needed oilseeds on a projected 3 million acres (5,000 sq miles, or over 12,000 km2; an area almost as big as Yorkshire) of land, in order to increase margarine supplies in Britain and develop a neglected backwater of the British Empire. Despite an enormous effort and at a cost of £36 million (equivalent to over £1 billion in 2020 value), the project was a disastrous failure and was finally abandoned as unworkable in 1951.[2]
The scheme's proponents, including Minister of Food John Strachey, had overlooked warnings that the environment and rainfall were unsuitable, communications were inadequate, and the whole project was being pursued with excessive haste. The management, initially by the United Africa Company as Managing Agent and subsequently by the government-run Overseas Food Corporation, was appalling, and the scheme came to be popularly seen as a symbol of government incompetence and failure in late colonial Africa.[3][4] The scheme was described in 1953 as "the worst fiasco in recent British colonial history."[1]
Background
In the period after the Second World War, Britain was in significant
In 1946,
After a three-month mission, the team's report in September 1946 was optimistically favourable to the scheme and recommended the cultivation of 3.21 million acres for groundnuts by 1952. The Cabinet approved the recommendations in January 1947, and began transporting personnel and machinery to Tanganyika.[7] Officials began to recruit men for the "Groundnut Army" and 100,000 former soldiers volunteered for the 1,200 jobs.[11]
Cultivation
The advance party set up camp at
Obtaining the heavy equipment necessary to clear the land for cultivation, however proved difficult. Eventually, the project managers found some suitable
Even then, the bush proved far harder to clear than the planners had expected. Besides the natural hazards of local wildlife (on several occasions workers had to face angry
But the main casualties were the heavy machines. By the end of the summer of 1947, two-thirds of the imported tractors had been rendered unusable. Bulldozer blades that were used to extract ground roots were ruined in a couple of days. In the spirit of 'making do', the scheme bought up surplus
In September 1947, the African workers joined a nationwide strike for three days; the expatriate staff were less than delighted to have to do their own cooking. A growing number of Africans were then employed as tractor drivers and, after early errors, became skilled at the job.[citation needed]
With great difficulty, the Groundnut Army was finally able to plant the first nuts. When the rainy season arrived, some of the workshops and stores were swept away by a flash flood. After that, the hot season baked the ground clay into a hard surface that made harvesting the nuts very difficult.[12]
Takeover and railway construction
In February 1948, the United Africa Company handed over responsibility for the project to the newly formed Overseas Food Corporation (OFC). It sent a new manager, Major-General Desmond Harrison, to the site. He found the scheme in a state of chaos, and immediately tried to instil some military discipline, which did not endear him to the workers, but subsequently retreated to his tent to concentrate on copious paperwork in a vain effort to contain the spiralling costs. Late in the year he was ordered back home on sick leave.
In 1949, the Kongwa region was struck by a terrible drought, which decimated the crop. After two years, only 2,000 tons of groundnuts were harvested, less than had been imported as seed, and an attempt to grow
The scheme's managers therefore began to focus attention on the more fertile regions in the west and south of Tanganyika, but the development of both was proving painfully slow. In the south, not only was a whole new railway line needed, but a deep-water port had to be constructed from scratch at Mtwara. The Southern Province Railway was constructed first in order to transport the crops, but never had any to transport and was later dismantled.
The original target of 3 million acres was reduced to 150,000 acres (607 km2) and then to 50,000 acres (202 km2). In the end only 47,000 were ever cleared.
By late 1949, the scheme was coming in for robust criticism in Parliament and the press. The government persevered, but suffered for it at the election in 1950 and even more when they lost the 1951 United Kingdom general election. Just before that, in January 1951, they finally cancelled the project, the Treasury writing off a total of £36.5 million—equivalent in 2020 to over £1 billion. Mechanised production was stopped, and the cleared land handed over to African farmers, who did a better job growing tobacco, cashew nuts and herding cattle.[13][14]
Cultural references
The 1950 British
quietly discussing in which remote and unattractive corner of the British Empire they might best try to pick up the pieces of their respective careers, and with her mentioning having a brother who "grows groundnuts in Tanganyika."See also
References
- ^ ISBN 0836981979.
- ISBN 978-1-84701-259-3.
- ^ Alan Wood, The Groundnut Affair (1950).
- ^ Matteo Rizzo, "What was left of the groundnut scheme? Development disaster and labour market in Southern Tanganyika 1946–1952." Journal of Agrarian Change 6.2 (2006): 205-238.
- hdl:10036/17792. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
- ISBN 9780511802898.
- ^ JSTOR 43201729. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
- ISBN 9780511635526.
- ISBN 0-521-08641-8. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
- ^ Anyonge, Nathan Jumba (1966). British Groundnut Scheme in East Africa: Labour Government's Dilemma (PDF) (MA). Kansas State University. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
- ^ Westcott. Imperialism and Development. p. 81.
- ^ Westcott. Imperialism and Development. pp. 78–113.
- ^ Westcott. Imperialism and Development. pp. 114–188.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-7524-1. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
Further reading
- Nicholas Westcott (2020), Imperialism and Development: the East African Groundnut Scheme and its legacy, Woodford, Sussex: James Currey, ISBN 978-1-84701-259-3
- Kelemen, Paul (2007). "Planning for Africa: The British Labour Party's Colonial Development Policy, 1920?1964". Journal of Agrarian Change. 7 (1): 76–98. ISSN 1471-0358.
- Rizzo, Matteo (2006). "What Was Left of the Groundnut Scheme? Development Disaster and Labour Market in Southern Tanganyika 1946-1952". Journal of Agrarian Change. 6 (2): 205–238. ISSN 1471-0358.
- Wood, Alan (1950). The Groundnut Affair. London: Bodley Head. OCLC 1841364. (A critical account of this project by an Australian/British journalist who worked on the scheme.)