Feeding and Fleecing the Native: How the Nyasaland Transport System Distorted a New Food Market, 189061920s. pp.505 - 523.

Abstract

Failed states in Africa are not a uniquely poscolonial phenomenon: The colonial government in Nyasaland started and ended as a failed state. Although effective in garding Britain's global interest against her imperial rivals, the Nyasaland government could not be relied ypons as a trustworthy ally of any social class within the country. The government failed to provide essential services, particularly roads, wqith dire consequences for both the peasant economy and european enterprises. Without a reliable roads network, transport companies came to depend on the vagaries of the weather and the availability of villagers to carry goods on their heads. Transporters competed with planters and other Europran enterprises for cheap labour, instituting a costly freight regime that discouraged planters from raising bulky, low-value food crops. Thus, to feed their workers, all European enterprises - farmers, missionaries, traders, transport companies and the government - turned to peasant-...