Publisher's Synopsis
Throughout southern Africa, the rapid growth of commercial agriculture owed more to state intervention than to market forces. For South Africa, in particular, this expansion led to distortion in the labour market, in produce markets, and ultimately in the economy overall. The costs were high: socially, environmentally, and economically. Trapped in this system, black farm workers paid a high price. This book centres these key aspects of southern Africa's agrarian experience in the larger picture.