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settlement schemes. Settlement schemes in Zambia fall into three broad categories: schemes set up to
settle European emigrants, schemes planned for Africans (Zambians), and schemes put in place to
settle refugees, particularly Angolans, Mozambicans, and Namibians, on a temporary basis. Though
references will be made to the settlement of Europeans, emphasis in this chapter is on settlement
schemes designed for Zambians, in both pre- and postcolonial times, and refugees from war-torn
neighboring countries.
II. Historical rationale for settlement schemes
A. Land alienation and reservation schemes
Settling people in designated areas has roots in Zambia's colonial past as well as in the
postindependence era. The authority to alienate land and move people was granted at the start of the
colonial era in 1894 to the British South African (BSA) Company founded by Cecil Rhodes. This
chartered company, which ruled Zambia up to 1924, was granted powers of direct administration in
areas north of the Zambezi as well as in Zimbabwe. It secured rights over the entire territory except
Barotseland (now Western province) and had the authority to alienate any land to European settlers.
Africans occupying the land were obliged to move into designated areas (Kalapula 1984, pp. 27-29).
Alongside the development of the copper mines—its prime reason for being in the region—
BSA desired to develop agriculture as an ancillary activity, to provide food for the mine workers and
their dependents. The company soon opted to exploit commercial agriculture as a prospective source
of revenue generation. The conditions were highly conducive for promoting commercial agriculture
including: the railway that ran through millions of acres of prime agricultural land, connecting Zambia
to Zimbabwe; the ready local market for food with the potential for export to European markets; the
abundance of cheap African labor; the excellent weather and good soils; and the vast land area.
The two choices available to BSA were to rely upon the African population to acquire the
knowledge and skills to produce the required agricultural products on a commercial basis, or to
encourage European farmers who already possessed the knowledge, skills, and necessary capital for
modern agricultural practices to migrate to the area. It chose the latter, and, by 1921, 714 European
immigrants were engaged in commercial farming in the area.
The policy option chosen for African agriculture was to keep the natives at their traditional
subsistence-production level. The process of alienation and reservation of land that began with the
coming of the European settlers had an underlying policy that Europeans would have the best and most
productive land reserved for their exclusive use, and that Africans would be concentrated into
restricted areas (Native Reserves) set aside for them. Land alienation and the development of the
reserves were mainly in the areas along the company-owned railway that ran through choice
agricultural lands, the Southern part of what is today the Eastern province, and the area within the
company's estates (an area south of Lake Tanganyika). Generally, lands reserved for the Africans
were made up of relatively small blocks, had soils of poor quality, and were in remote areas that were
often infested with tsetse fly, while the areas reserved for the Europeans (crown land) were the
complete opposite (see tables 1.1 and 1.2, chapter 1, above).
Africans displaced from the plateau and from mining areas in the Copperbelt and confined to
the reserves lost the population-land balance which allowed them to move onto other available land