International African Institute

Agricultural Development in Tanganyika by Hans Ruthenberg; Agricultural Change inTanganyika by N. R. Fuggles-CouchmanReview by: William AllanAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr., 1966), pp. 211-212Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1158210 .

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REVIEWS OF BOOKS 211 than their share of the white man's arrogance. First and foremost-however they saw themselves-they were agents of the type of change which was required by imperialism. 'They prepared young Africans to appreciate the advantages of Western life. . . . The stations became the training grounds of indigenous leadership and, at the same time, the centers of anti-European disaffection.' This has happened elsewhere in Africa. But, in startling contrast to Scottish missionaries in Malawi, there seems to have been only a rare missionary voice to champion African interests. 'The missionaries preached brotherhood and treated Africans as inferiors.' There were no local ordinations (and then of a coloured) till 1932. Most of the men who created the Republic of Zambia broke with the Church because they 'refused to countenance the hypocrisies of their youth'. Dr. Rotberg thinks that, with the exception of the Universities Mission, the best men were sent to the more impressive cultures of Asia; and Appendix II has valuable information about missionary backgrounds. But is this enough? If there is to be any satisfactory comparison of missionary success and failure in different parts, an account is needed not only of the missionary and colonial factors but also of the traditional structures and values which they met. Of these Dr. Rotberg says far too little. He might well reply that he is an historian; and his historian's job he has done, with fascinating effect. It is to provide for Zambia what Professor Oliver did in his pioneer work for East Africa; and the only hope that it could be bettered is that it might be done again by a Zambian who will see, even more clearly than Dr. Rotberg, that African experience and European adventure give different accounts of the same events. Perhaps it has still to be asked whether the missionary impact on Zambia has been qualitatively different from that elsewhere or whether it does no more than highlight the fate of a devoted enterprise which, everywhere, has had consequences far different from intention. It is a useful commentary on this question to read, side by side, Mr. J. V. Taylor's contemporary studies of The Growth of the Church in Buganda and Christians of the Copperbelt.

F. B. WELBOURN

Agricultural Development in Tanganyika. By HANS RUTHENBERG. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, I964.

Agricultural Change in Tanganyika. By N. R. FUGGLES-COUCHMAN. Food Research Institute, Stanford University, California, I964.

THE first work is a product of the African Studies Centre of the Ifo-Institute for Economic Research, in co-operation with the Berlin Institute for Foreign Agriculture. This centre aims at the achievement of interdisciplinary co-operation in the investigation of economic development problems and methods, primarily to provide guide-lines for the Federal Republic's aid programme. Co-ordination is to be achieved by a synthesis of individual studies, rather than a 'comprehensive approach' from the start, and Ruthenberg's work is one such study.

The author describes agricultural conditions in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), evaluates the experience gained under British administration, and outlines the changes in the brief period since accession to independence. His analysis of British methods and intentions is objective and valuable. Agricultural Officers of the Colonial Administration were, he finds, ' quite successful intermediaries of technical progress '. They were also ' pragmatic techno- crats, usually with middle-class attitudes and an unmistakable tendency towards economic planning '.

The second author was for many years one of these ' quite successful intermediaries ' in Tanganyika. His work is one of the Food Research Institute's studies of agricultural achieve-

REVIEWS OF BOOKS 211 than their share of the white man's arrogance. First and foremost-however they saw themselves-they were agents of the type of change which was required by imperialism. 'They prepared young Africans to appreciate the advantages of Western life. . . . The stations became the training grounds of indigenous leadership and, at the same time, the centers of anti-European disaffection.' This has happened elsewhere in Africa. But, in startling contrast to Scottish missionaries in Malawi, there seems to have been only a rare missionary voice to champion African interests. 'The missionaries preached brotherhood and treated Africans as inferiors.' There were no local ordinations (and then of a coloured) till 1932. Most of the men who created the Republic of Zambia broke with the Church because they 'refused to countenance the hypocrisies of their youth'. Dr. Rotberg thinks that, with the exception of the Universities Mission, the best men were sent to the more impressive cultures of Asia; and Appendix II has valuable information about missionary backgrounds. But is this enough? If there is to be any satisfactory comparison of missionary success and failure in different parts, an account is needed not only of the missionary and colonial factors but also of the traditional structures and values which they met. Of these Dr. Rotberg says far too little. He might well reply that he is an historian; and his historian's job he has done, with fascinating effect. It is to provide for Zambia what Professor Oliver did in his pioneer work for East Africa; and the only hope that it could be bettered is that it might be done again by a Zambian who will see, even more clearly than Dr. Rotberg, that African experience and European adventure give different accounts of the same events. Perhaps it has still to be asked whether the missionary impact on Zambia has been qualitatively different from that elsewhere or whether it does no more than highlight the fate of a devoted enterprise which, everywhere, has had consequences far different from intention. It is a useful commentary on this question to read, side by side, Mr. J. V. Taylor's contemporary studies of The Growth of the Church in Buganda and Christians of the Copperbelt.

F. B. WELBOURN

Agricultural Development in Tanganyika. By HANS RUTHENBERG. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, I964.

Agricultural Change in Tanganyika. By N. R. FUGGLES-COUCHMAN. Food Research Institute, Stanford University, California, I964.

THE first work is a product of the African Studies Centre of the Ifo-Institute for Economic Research, in co-operation with the Berlin Institute for Foreign Agriculture. This centre aims at the achievement of interdisciplinary co-operation in the investigation of economic development problems and methods, primarily to provide guide-lines for the Federal Republic's aid programme. Co-ordination is to be achieved by a synthesis of individual studies, rather than a 'comprehensive approach' from the start, and Ruthenberg's work is one such study.

The author describes agricultural conditions in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), evaluates the experience gained under British administration, and outlines the changes in the brief period since accession to independence. His analysis of British methods and intentions is objective and valuable. Agricultural Officers of the Colonial Administration were, he finds, ' quite successful intermediaries of technical progress '. They were also ' pragmatic techno- crats, usually with middle-class attitudes and an unmistakable tendency towards economic planning '.

The second author was for many years one of these ' quite successful intermediaries ' in Tanganyika. His work is one of the Food Research Institute's studies of agricultural achieve-

This content downloaded from 185.44.77.146 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 20:17:29 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ments in countries of inter-tropical Africa during the fifteen years following the Second World War. It is largely a factual account from official sources, with disappointingly little of the author's personal experience and value judgements.

Both works cover much the same ground, but Ruthenberg's is wider in scope and analytical in approach. While not neglecting estate agriculture, which continues to play a highly important part in the country's economy, they focus on the post-war development of African production. Output increased remarkably in the period 1945-60. It is estimated that the National Product doubled and production per head increased by 50 per cent., mainly in consequence of agricultural expansion. The volume of agricultural exports trebled. African producers contributed very largely to this expansion by increasing the planted area. Fuggles-Couchman estimates this increase at 900,000 acres, or half an acre per taxpayer. About 75 per cent. of the new acreage is attributable to the great expansion of cotton in the Lake region and the increase of staple food crops grown by a larger population. The remainder may be accounted for mainly by plantings of cashew nuts and coffee, and to a much smaller extent cash crops new to the African such as flue-cured tobacco, pyrethrum, and seed beans. While plant production, mainly of a few cash crops, increased in this manner, the commercial output of livestock husbandry remained stagnant, though cattle numbers increased. Much of the new wealth was converted to other values in terms of cattle. 'The economic benefit of cotton production ', says Ruthenberg, 'is largely consumed by cattle.' At the same time, there must have been a decrease of the area available for the maintenance of animals, much of which was already seriously overstocked.

The increased crop output of traditional agriculture has not been accompanied by com- mensurate improvements of techniques, in contrast with significant technical progress and higher output per labour unit in the estate sector. Fuggles-Couchman thinks it ' safe to say that over the greater part of African agriculture there has been no increase in yields per acre, which are generally low, or in output per man, which is poor ', while Ruthenberg's ' comparison between the present situation and the situation as reflected in publications of German colonial times gives the impression of little change in methods '.

The strenuous conservation efforts of the British agricultural service, which were based on administrative ordinance, failed in the end. Their abandonment was followed by a policy of' persistent persuasion ' through an expanded agricultural service, a very cautious attempt to develop stable systems of individual farming under closely supervised schemes, and the establishment of marketing institutions. This new strategy aided the upward surge of crop production already triggered by the Korean price boom, the world economic situation, and changing attitudes towards the acquisitive economy.

Since independence, individual ownership of land has been repudiated as ' un-African'. The primary aim is still greater crop production through the 'Peoples' Plan' and a levee en masse, with each village and district setting, in theory, its own production target. Agricultural policy has become, for the time being at least, synonymous with economic policy. This appears to imply capital formation through unpaid labour, now glorified as ' self help', and the extensive use of land.

The effects on the delicate balance of the agrarian structures and on the ultimate fertility and productivity of the land are calculable, given an adequate knowledge of soils, climates, and systems. Neither author ventures far into these deep waters, though both are aware of the dangers. Ruthenberg seems to regard these dangers with a complacency few agricultur- ists are likely to share, but many will agree with his thesis that ' the most important form of agricultural development aid is the furtherance of urbanization and industrialization '. The proposition that permanent agricultural expansion can be achieved ' on the cheap 'is much more doubtful. On the subject of development aid he has much to say that is original and highly pertinent. WILLIAM ALLAN

REVIEWS OF BOOKS 212

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