The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. > • Land Policy In Southern Africa During the Nineteenth Century A. J. Christopher Department of Oeograpliy, University of Port Elizabeth. 0 *• The formulation and implementation of land ation, there remained the question of how should policy in the nineteenth century were vital parts of it be distributed in the best interests of the state. the colonization movement which affected large Two basic approaches to this problem could be areas of the world; but there has been only an seen in Victorian times. The first regarded land occasional historical interest in the agricultural as being of intrinsic value and therefore a price attractions of the lands receiving the migrants. could be placed upon any parcel of land; land, in The importance of land policies in the receiving fact, was a reserve of revenue which could be call- countries was well recognized at the time of settle- ed upon by the state to meet other expenditure, ment, however, and this aspect of colonization has often that of financing immigration. The second been the focus of increasing attention in recent regarded land as only of value once improvement years. had been effected, and therefore land could be In the last sixty years of the nineteenth century given to the settler on the understanding that he there was a considerable demand for settlers in improved it and therefore increased the total the various 'New Lands' of the world. To a large capital value of the rural areas of the country in extent the governments of the countries and colon- question. The two approaches had their own ies involved competed with one another for suit- origins in earlier times but were elaborated and able colonists. Assisted passages were offered, and refined to suit changing circumstances and pro- rural land policies were formulated which, it was vide for the occupation of new lands on an •• » hoped, would attract settlers. Agencies in the unprecedented scale. major European centres were established to publi- The countries involved in attracting settlers cise the attractions of the colony or state con- were primarily the United States of America, the cerned, and a flood of propaganda was issued. British colonies in Australia, North America and, The Victorian era witnessed a great drive to to a lesser extent, South Africa. The South extend European settlement and make use of land American states were also engaged in attracting which was lying idle. Settlement promotion was settlers but tended to obtain them from different undertaken in the utmost optimism that a better geographical areas from those supplying the way of life lay ahead for the colonist and that English-speaking world.1 The United States of the opening up of 'New Worlds' would make the America, in particular, provided a mode! for land existing one a better place to live in. regulations which, because of the success of the settlement of North America, was frequently There was no fixed agreement upon how this 2 should be effected. If land was the key to coloniz- copied. The fact that there was comDetition for settlers meant that there was a keen interest in the United States were seen as a place where * •*' development of other states and that frequent immigrants could be settled, making the country adjustments to land regulation were made. It is internally strong. Thus in 1841 Congress allowed noticeable that as time passed, land regulations the sale of alternate sections within each township became more generous for the prospective settler. at a fixed price of $1,25 an acre, as a means of In southern Africa there were two influences attracting further immigration. upon land policy, the British Imperial system and The United States government ignored a num- the Cape Dutch system. The two had varying ber of problems in framing land laws, and conse- effects upon settlement, and were applied to dif- quently they appear extremely simple compared ferent areas for very different periods of time. with some of those framed elsewhere. The first The British Imperial system affected Natal for problem arose from the lack of provision of land most of the second half of the nineteenth century, for pastoral farming. All land was supposed to be and the Cape of Good Hope only for a short farmed for growing crops. The extensive runs of period. In the remainder of southern Africa the the pastoralist had no place in American policy.* Cape Dutch system, sometimes modified by ideas Consequently one of the major problems of from the United States, was dominant. It is pro- southern Africa was ignored. The second problem posed to examine the two systems and show their was the refusal, at first, to recognize that different relevance to the settlement of southern Africa and environments required different regulations. The to determine why southern Africa was unsuccess- westward extension of settlement in the United ful as a reception area for agricultural colonists. States involved the farming of increasingly arid lands, but the problems were only encountered BRITISH IMPERIAL SYSTEM in the 1870s and 1880s.5 The British Imperial system of land settlement owed much to the operation of the Congressional The United States government thus provided an system of land division and sale; and an examin- attractive land policy against which the British ation of this system is essential to an understand- government had to compete, if it was to settle its ing of the British system. The United States of own colonies. British land policy as formulated in America formulated its Jand policy in the period 1832 copied many of the features of the American immediately after the American War of Independ- system, but it needed to be more favourable. The ence.3 In 1785 Congress adopted a Land Ordinance loss of emigrants to the United States was a which was to apply to the federal public domain. serious problem as throughout the nineteenth The Ordinance provided for the survey of the land century over 60 per cent of all emigrants from and its disposal by public auction at a minimum the United Kingdom went to the United States. price of U.S.S1 per acre ($2,50 per ha). The The reforms in British policy effected in 1832 system was improved by the passage of the Land were to have a profound influence upon southern Act of 1796, which became the model for much Africa. The Colonial Reformers attempted to legislation in other parts of the world. mould the American system to British needs and The United States government envisaged a close introduce a system common to the entire British : settlement of the public domain by an agricultural Empire but it seems doubtful whether prospective community, on lots of 80-160 acres in extent. The conditions outside Australia were seriously con- lots were systematically arranged into sections sidered in the formulation of the new policy. The and townships. The system of regular survey and basic thinking behind the change in policy was the auction was extended westwards from Ohio as the desire to establish across the globe a series of lands were opened up. Undoubtedly, the scheme colonies socially simfflar to England. The best attracted many settlers who were able to buy features of the English rural community were to land at reasonable prices at the auctions. The be transplanted to new environments and the evils government looked upon the disposal of the associated with industrialisation were to be left public domain, at first, as a means of raising behind. In so doing, it was hoped that there would revenue, and the minimum price was varied be an increase in health and prosperity, not only according to the economic conditions in the for the new communities, but also for England, where contemporaries were faced with what country until 1819 when it was fixed at $1,25 an 6 acre (S3,12 per ha). However, attitudes changed appeared to be over-population. as the volume of immigrants increased in the The whole policy of emigration was seen to be 1830s. The extensive tracts of land in the western bound up with the price of land in the colonies. t The Colonial Reformers believed that to develop ally evolved. The first land grants were made in a successful colony of settlement, there must be a 1654 to Com.pa.ny servants to grow vegetables • balance between the supply of land, labour and near Cape Town. The settlement's main function capital. The lack of one or the superabundance was seen as a supply base to provide passing ships • of another led to disaster. There had been many with fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. The land precedents for believing this. The failure of the grants were, therefore, small at first while the scheme at the Cape of Good Hope in 1820 and Company adhered to this plan, but increased A that of the Swan River Colony (Western rapidly as the settlers moved into areas remote Australia) in 1829 pointed to the good manage- from Cape Town. Cattle farms in particular • ment of land policy as being the key to the prob- needed extensive areas. A group of colonists later lem of establishing soundly based colonies.7 Land, arrived from Europe and established a colony for • it was thought, had to be used to attract settlers. settlement, which provided the Company with its The basic thinking behind the scheme propounded exports.