175
in the event of overcrowding. The Africans were from a large number of ethnic groups that included
both matrilineal and patrilineal societies. In spite of differences in languages and political organizations
among groups, the production practices, technology, and division of labor were very similar, and both
men and women played a role and shared in access to land which was in abundance.
With population increase due partly to in-migration of Africans from neighboring areas, and
with mal-distribution of population in reserves from the start, the population density in the African
reserves soon exceeded the carrying capacity of the land. In some cases, local congestion was so
serious that people were no longer able to produce enough food to feed their families and had to be
assisted with food by the government.
The problem of serious congestion in Native Reserves continued up to the 1940s while
ironically, at the same time, millions of acres of uncultivated land in the crown reserves` and what
was referred to as "unsigned land" lay idle. Out of concern for the degradation of the land and forest
resources, a large part of the crown land held by the Northern Charter Land Exploration Company
in Eastern Zambia was acquired by the government in 1941. In 1942, it was declared Trust Land and
made available for native occupation. In 1942, a land commission was appointed by the government
to review the issue of agricultural land requirements of the natives. Their work resulted in the
reallocation of a further 15,000 square miles of crown land for native occupation countrywide and
160,000 Africans were transferred from overcrowded reserves to new land.
In 1924, BSA divested its control of the territory and a governor was appointed by the British
sovereign, but the concept of restricting Africans to special areas remained the same. The policy of
the new administration was that Africans were to be resettled so as to reestablish a population-land
balance on the basis of traditional land usage and the population level at the time of settlement.
Settlement of Africans was not regarded as a substitute for agricultural improvement or as a means
of promoting agricultural development, even though simple measures of agricultural control and the
beginnings of soil conservation and agricultural improvements were introduced in each of the
settlement areas as a condition of occupation.
Settlement was instead to accomplish four immediate objectives: (a) to reduce population
pressure on the land in the congested areas and to remove the danger of food shortage and, in some
cases, actual starvation; (b) to reduce the urgent agricultural problems of poor land utilization to
manageable proportions; (c) to remove the imbalance of land-starved people in the midst of plenty;
and (d) to give time for experiment and introduction of new methods of agriculture.
The first scheme that aimed at improvement in African agriculture was introduced in 1946.
This scheme was to launch progressive individuals into modern, commercial agriculture on family
holdings. A price stabilization fund was established to run the program. Its goal was to create a
nucleus of proficient farmers to inspire other Africans to improve their farming and to seek a living
from the land (Hellen 1969).
BSA had anticipated a much larger in-migration of European settlers than materialized and, as such, had set aside
massive land areas as crown reserves.