SURVEY AND REGISTRATION OF AFRICAN LAND UNITS IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA
| Published date | 01 October 1955 |
| Date | 01 October 1955 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1955.tb00108.x |
| Author | J. E. S. Bradford |
LAW
ENFORCEMENT
IN
SUKUMALAND
165
is, therefore, aclear connection between
their
social permanence as agri-
culturalists
and
the
continuity of
the
punitive action in which
the
parish is
engaged.
Seizure of
the
offender's
property
in a society of this
nature
would have
precipitated more trouble
than
it settled.
Apart
from
the
dangers of violence
in any society,
the
community would have to
had
lose its
anonymity
and
future
troubles would have become centred on those carrying
out
the
community's
Judgement.
The community takes action against anything which is a danger to
its
own
corporate unity. All
the
offences which have been illustrated
are
potential
threats
to
the
community as a whole
and
the
strength
of
their
punishment is in
relation to this alone
and
not
to
any
preconceived or imposed system of morals
or
laws;
naturally
preventing rain is more dangerous
than
dirtying drinking
water
and
calls forth
the
most vigorous of all sanctions.
The maintenance of law
and
order is dependent on relatively
impartial
public opinion
and
the
necessity of
unanimity
underlies
the
impartiality
of
any
communal judgement, since thereby
the
community acts for itself as a whole
and
not in defence of any sectional interests. The individual, in
the
considera-
tion of
private
delicts, acts for himself in defence of his own interests for which
the
community allows him
the
opportunity
of redress,
but
nothing approaching
such
support
to obtain asolution.
SURVEY AND REGISTRATION
OF AFRICAN LAND UNITS IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA
By
j.
E. S. Bradford
(Prepared
for
the
Commonwealth
Survey
Officers'
Conference-19SS)
PART
I
INTRODUCTION
'f
HE
Native
Land
Husbandry
Act, 1951, which was promulgated in 1952,
was
brought
in as a measure to achieve, in the ultimate, stabilisation of agri-
cultural
and
industrial employment of Africans by inducing
them
to become
either full-time farmers or full-time workers in industry. At
the
same
time
the
act is designed to ensure
that
maximum productivity
and
use of
native
land
be also achieved. During
the
sixty
years
that
have elapsed since
the
country
was founded it became
apparent
that
the African tended more
and
more
to divide his loyalties
and
his time between his
patch
of
land
in his reserve
and employment in
industry
in an almost seasonal rotation. Under
the
new
act
this tendency
must
of necessity disappear and result in permanent
peasant
farmers or more efficient
and
non-migratory industrial workers.
. The purposes of
the
Native
Land
Husbandry
Act are manifold. By its
lmplementation good farming practice on
native
land
can be
enforced;
security of tenure by an individual African can be achieved by
the
grant
to
him of
the
farming right of an economic
land
unit;
overgrazing
and
frag-
mentation of
land
can be
prevented;
natural
resources can be
preserved;
allocation of land for
the
establishment of native towns
and
trading
centres
can be provided for. In other words the new
act
should ensure
that
native
land
is utilised in
the
interests of
the
Africans themselves in
the
best possible
manner.
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