Resorting to Illegality: The Illicit Shangwe Cannabis Trade as an Anti-cotton Response to Agrarian Policy in Colonial Zimbabwe, c. 1962-1979

This chapter examines the nexus between colonial agrarian policies and African responses with particular reference to Shangwe anticotton production in colonial Zimbabwe. Colonial states in Africa often tried to alter local agrarian ethos by introducing new commercial crops and production cultures, while local farmers strived to maintain their autonomy and indigenous crops and forms of production. African farmers generally felt disempowered, impoverished and suffocated by colonial regimes and their agricultural policies. These policies were, in the majority of cases, topdown in approach and backed by state instruments of force such as the police to ensure their uptake.