ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how land alienation from indigenous people was accomplished, the geographical patterns of land division established, and the outcomes of the process for indigenous rural livelihoods. As most of sub-Saharan Africa was incorporated into formal colonial rule towards the end of the 19th century, the fate of indigenous farmers and their access to their essential means of production, land, was influenced by the interaction of a set of factors. Alienating African-occupied land was thus achieved with little difficulty for the first 100 years of white settlerdom. White settlement on a permanent basis dated back to 1652 and the establishment of the Dutch East India Company’s victualling post at what was to become Cape Town for its ships on their way to India and South-East Asia. For South-West Africa, German colonisation provided no such protection and an underlying philosophy of German control there was to transfer land from the indigenous people to German ownership.
