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Rural rehabilitation in the Basotho labour reserve

Literature › Works

J.S. Crush; O. Namasasu (1985). Rural rehabilitation in the Basotho labour reserve. Applied Geography 5. Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd.
Type journal article
Scope Wider apartheid literature
Method mixed
Period studied 1870–1984
Regions Lesotho, South Africa, Southern Africa
Themes mining migrant labour, agriculture land, bantustans removals influx, inequality poverty unemployment, resistance social movements, business and state, comparative theory
Citation key crush1985

Argument

The paper treats Lesotho as an effective labour reserve for the South African mining economy, comparable to the internal bantustan reserves, and not as an isolated national economy. Reserves first subsidised wages and then decayed, and states and capital responded with rural 'rehabilitation' programmes intended to keep the reserves able to reproduce labour. The authors argue that such programmes are imposed from above, fail, and become focal points of peasant apathy or resistance. They illustrate this with colonial and post-colonial forestry in Lesotho, especially the Woodlot Project (1973, part-funded by Anglo American). A household survey in four villages shows low participation, high tree mortality and little village control.

Evidence and method

Secondary literature on the migrant labour system and reserves (Clarke, Legassick, Bundy, Murray, Beinart), Lesotho government and ILO reports, colonial annual reports, and tabulated census and survey data (Monyake, Wykstra, Gay, Eckert and Mohapi). The authors' own 1980 survey of four lowland Lesotho villages covers tree planting, fuel use and attitudes to woodlots.

Place in the debates

Findings

  • Household production in the reserves subsidised mine wages, which were set for a single temporary labourer. (p. 3)

    The industry was able to pay wages appropriate for a single temporary labourer since household production in the reserves provided an important wage subsidy.

  • Lesotho supplied a very large share of South African mine labour in the mid-1970s. (p. 6)

    Lesotho was supplying over 20 per cent of the total mine labour force in South Africa in the mid 1970s.

  • Migrant labour was near-universal among Basotho households. (p. 6)

    In 1978. 60 per cent of Basotho households had at least one migrant worker

  • Remittances dominate rural household income in Lesotho. (p. 6)

    The contribution of migrant remittances to rural household income in Lesotho is of the order of 70-80 per cent

  • Despite 1970s mine wage rises, poverty remained widespread. (p. 6)

    50 per cent of families failed to achieve this level, and 20-30 per cent of families lived in abject poverty.

  • Agricultural decline and land pressure had set in by 1970: holdings fragmented and shrank. (p. 5)

    the average size of farm holdings had decreased from 6.2 acres (1950) to 4.9 acres (1970).

  • Colonial coercive tree-planting recorded huge planting but very high failure. (p. 8)

    with 40-60 million trees planted between 1936 and 1966, the failure rate was extremely high, running to 1 million trees in some years.

  • Mass participation in Tree Planting Day did not translate into sustained planting. (p. 9)

    although 66 per cent of surveyed households had participated in the 1980 Tree Planting Day activities in four sample villages, a mere 27 per cent planted trees over the course of the ensuing year.

  • Anglo American's funding of woodlots is explained by its concern with labour reproduction. (p. 9)

    Anglo-American is clearly concerned about the longer-term implications for labour reproduction of continued rural disintegration.

  • Fuel gathering imposes a heavy burden on women's labour that is diverted from subsistence farming. (p. 11)

    at least 250 woman-hours of work are necessary to meet the annual fuel needs of a lowland household.

  • Woodlot requests from chiefs lacked village awareness and support, evidence of top-down policy. (p. 12)

    only 43 per cent of villagers were aware that their chiefs had made such a request.

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source Kind Period How used
Colonial Annual Report 1950 and 1957 (Basutoland) commission or official report 1950, 1957 Quoted to show colonial forestry aims and the slow progress in coercing chiefs and people to plant trees.
Heywood (1908), Report on forestry in Basutoland; Brown (1947); Miller (1943); Henry (1964); Poynton (1966) forestry reports commission or official report 1908-1966 Used to document colonial feasibility studies, tree-planting aims and proposals for village woodlots.
Monyake (1971/1974), Lesotho: land, population and food secondary literature compilation 1960-1976 Supplies the data on landlessness (Table 1) and population density per km2 of arable land (Table 2).
Wykstra (1978), Farm labour in Lesotho: scarcity or surplus (LASA Discussion Paper 5) secondary literature compilation 1950-1976 Source of Table 3 on crop production, area planted, yields and mining employment.
Government of Lesotho, Third Five Year Development Plan 1980-1985 commission or official report 1978-1980 Supplies the livestock unit conversion factors, the share of mine labour and male labour force, and the share of households with migrants.
Gay (1981) rural survey, Sources of allocations of household funds in rural Lesotho household or labour survey microdata c. 1978-1981 Table 4 gives the sources of rural household income, showing the dominance of migrant remittances.
Eckert and Mohapi (1980), LASA Discussion Paper 9 secondary literature compilation 1980 Source of Table 5 on distribution of rural income sources by income strata.
ILO (1979), Options for a dependent economy commission or official report 1979 Provides poverty estimates against a basic needs income and a quote on farmers' unwillingness to preserve conservation structures.
Turner (1978), Sesotho agriculture (PhD dissertation) secondary literature compilation 1935-1952 Used for soil conservation programmes of 1935-52 and their failure to secure local participation.
Powell and Wellings (1983), The Lesotho Woodlot Project; Richardson (1983) secondary literature compilation 1936-1983 Source for trees planted and survival rates, woodlot aims, number and location of woodlots, and projected fuelwood prices.
Authors' 1980 survey of four Basotho villages author survey or fieldwork 1980-1981 Establishes household participation in Tree Planting Day, fuel use, fuel gathering time and attitudes toward woodlots.
Gay (1978) domestic fuel sources survey and Best (1978) three-village energy study author survey or fieldwork c. 1975-1978 Provide seasonal dung use and woman-hours of fuel collection for comparison with the authors' survey.
LASA (1978), Lesotho's agriculture: a review of existing information secondary literature compilation 1971 Gives peach tree numbers and production value compared to maize.

New data

A survey by the authors of households in four lowland Basotho villages (1980) on Tree Planting Day participation, fuel use, fuel collection time, and attitudes to woodlots; sample size not reported.

Inference

Quantification: Descriptive tables.

Conceptual argument from labour reserve theory applied to Lesotho, with a historical narrative of colonial and post-colonial forestry intervention. Descriptive secondary statistics and a small village survey serve as illustration, in a case study of the Woodlot Project.

Key claims

Claim Basis Strength
Lesotho's agrarian base has deteriorated, with growing landlessness, rising population density and falling crop output, leaving it dependent on migrant wages. (p. 5) Tables 1-3 from Monyake (1971/74) and Wykstra (1978), plus GOL (1980) figures on migrant households. Partial data
Migrant remittances account for most rural household income, and many households remain on or below the poverty line despite 1970s mine wage rises. (p. 6) Gay (1981) survey (Table 4), Eckert and Mohapi (1980) (Table 5), and the ILO (1979) poverty estimates. Partial data
Colonial forestry and rehabilitation programmes were coercive, imposed from above, and largely failed, with high tree mortality and little surviving planted area. (p. 8) Colonial Annual Reports, Powell and Wellings (1983), and Turner (1978). Partial data
Post-colonial conservation forestry and tree-planting campaigns have elicited little lasting peasant participation and have been used as a political tool. (p. 9) The authors' 1980 four-village survey, with the ILO (1979) quote. Partial data
The Woodlot Project is imposed from above, with limited villager knowledge of or support for chiefs' requests, and peasants view woodlots as the government's plantation. (p. 12) The authors' 1980 survey of four villages. Partial data
Fuel collection imposes a heavy burden of women's labour and cash outlay, which woodlots are intended to reduce. (p. 11) The authors' survey, Gay (1978), Best (1978), and woodlot officials' estimates. Partial data
Anglo-American's funding of the Woodlot Project reflects its concern for labour reproduction in the reserves. (p. 9) Inference from the corporation's role as a major employer of Basotho labour; no company records cited. Asserted

The author's caveats

The authors note that Gay's survey was conducted in winter, when dung use rises and fuel collection time falls, so annual averages are likely higher. They also say the statistics are surface reflections of a crisis.

Gaps in the evidence

The argument that rehabilitation policy is driven by labour reserve imperatives rests on theory and secondary sources, with no archival evidence on state or Anglo-American motives. The four-village survey has no reported sample size or method, and resistance is inferred from attitudes rather than recorded acts. Colonial administrative files, Anglo-American and Woodlot Project records, and a larger representative survey would test it better; most existed at the time.

Replicability: Data poorly documented.