ABSTRACT
The chapter on the origins of dualism in Zimbabwe starts with country’s invasion and disruption of the traditional pre-colonial economy, as the root cause of economic dualism in the economy. When the colonialists failed to find the territory’s overestimated gold deposits, they turned to the division of the land into European areas and African reserves. This was eventually entrenched by the enactment of the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 which became the legal and institutional basis of the dualistic structure of the economy. Economic dualism was also achieved through discrimination in the provision of infrastructure and services, factor markets, leading to low productivity, and low African wages. White farmers were given exclusive rights to the best farmland, together with various forms of support and assistance, while the majority African producers were confined to areas much less suitable for agriculture. The areas in which Africans were required to remain, initially known as Native Reserves, were subsequently referred to as Tribal Trust Lands (during the 1960s and 1970s) and communal lands after independence in 1980.
