'Shun the white man's crop': shangwe grievances, religious leaders and cotton cultivation in north-western Zimbabwe

Some scholars have characterised colonial African history as a continuous ‘dialogue between colonial officials and the African societies they sought to dominate’.1 A major challenge the colonial system posed to itself was the control over ‘local ritual authority’.2 Colonial functionaries, in concert with Christian missionaries, sought to subjugate traditional religion and traditional religious leaders by reducing their authority and influence over their communities. This was because local religious traditions were oftentimes perceived to delay and impede both the spread of Christian values and formalisation and entrenchment of the preferred colonial economic mode of state formation. African agriculture was a major site of struggle in this process. Colonial officials perceived that traditional religion undermined ‘civilised, scientific agriculture’ while, on the contrary, the state saw a positive link between Christian teaching and African productivity and therefore growth and expansion of the colonial economy.3