Colonial Agriculture for Africans: Emory Alvord’s Policy in Zimbabwe

The massive starvation that African nations experience from time to time occurs, as evidenced by this study, because of agricultural and educational policies formulated and implemented by the colonial governments during the nineteenth and half of the twentieth century. A study of any aspect of any colonial period reveals some disturbing realities that can be comprehended only in retrospect. The policy, contrary to the colonial government’s, that Emory D. Alvord formulated and pursued regarding the agricultural development for Africans in colonial Zimbabwe from 1926 to 1950 is examined. The authors discuss the political environment that influenced his effort and the problems that he encountered.