ABSTRACT
The chapter starts with a less known revelation that, at the beginning of colonial rule in the 1890s, African peasant farmers were able to produce for surplus and trade a variety of produce (grain, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and groundnuts) to the incoming white settlers. This was, however, nipped in the bud as their land areas were alienated to the white settler farmers. Further, discriminatory practices in the agricultural and credit markets were reinforced by the colonial government’s establishment of statutory marketing agencies. This led to the much higher volume of credit funds in the white farming sector than in the African communal farming areas. Discrimination in the produce and credit markets was reinforced in the further separation of white and black areas as the provision of infrastructural resources (railways, roads and dams, etc.) was biased in favour of white areas, which further widened the productivity gap between the two racial groups.
