Tanganyika groundnut scheme
Encyclopedia
The Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme was a plan to cultivate tracts of what is now Tanzania
with peanut
s. It was a project of the British
Labour
government of Clement Attlee
. It was abandoned in 1951 at considerable cost to the taxpayers when it did not become profitable. Ground nuts require at least 500 mm (20 inches) of rainfall per year; the area chosen was subject to drought.
, a subsidiary of Unilever
, came up with an idea to cultivate groundnuts in the British protectorate of Tanganyika
, now mainland Tanzania, for the production of vegetable oil. Britain was still under World War II
rationing
and short of cooking fats. He suggested the idea to his contacts in the British government.
In April 1946, the British Labour government authorised a mission to visit suitable sites. The team was led by John Wakefield, ex-Director of Agriculture in Tanganyika. After a three-month mission, the team's report was optimistically favourable to the scheme. Wakefield believed that the main reason for the apparent barrenness of the Tanganyika was local primitive farming practices that would be easily solved by Western equipment. The government, with the lead of Minister of Food
John Strachey
, eventually authorised £25 million to cultivate 150,000 acres (607 km²) of scrubland in six years. They began to recruit men for the "Groundnut Army" and 100,000 ex-soldiers volunteered. The first site selected for cultivation was in Kongwa
in the central Tanganyika where locals had already cultivated groundnuts. Strachey chose an old political colleague, Leslie Plummer
, to be Chairman of the Overseas Food Corporation.
The first problem was the lack of heavy equipment to clear the land for cultivation. Eventually, the project managers found some suitable tractor
s and bulldozer
s from Canada and bought U.S. Army surplus tractors from the Philippines.
Next, the equipment had to be transported from the port of Dar-es-Salaam to the inland site using the only available transport—a single-track railway with a steam locomotive. Unfortunately, a sudden flood of the Kinyansungwe River wiped out the rail tracks, leaving a dirt road as the only means of transport. African workers went on strike and the British advance team was left with just one cook. They decided to settle in Sagara
with George Nestle, a local hunter.
At this stage, the British team decided finally to test the soil. They deemed it suitable despite the large amount of clay. Managers moved to the site in Kongwa and started to build a village, complete with prefabricated buildings. There was no suitable water source nearby.
When the British began to transfer equipment to the site from Dar-es-Salaam on the dirt road, they pushed through the Ruvu River and encountered large numbers of dangerous wildlife, including lion
s and crocodile
s. Tractors were scheduled to arrive by February 1947, but only 16 smaller tractors had reached the site by April. They were not entirely suitable for clearing the local brush and bamboo
.
Local large baobab
trees were also hard to remove and the task was made more difficult by the fact that one of them was a local tribal jail, another was a site of ancestor worship, and many had bee
s' nests in their hollow trunks. Some of the workers had to be hospitalised for numerous bee stings. On other occasions, workers had to face angry elephant
s and rhinos
.
The fact that the site was far from easily accessible water sources caused further problems. The water had to be ferried in and poured into a concrete-lined pool. Locals insisted on using it for swimming, despite protests by the European workers.
Eventually, local managers decided to train local workers for the job. Enthusiastic but inexperienced drivers wrecked many of the tractors. When the Colonial Office
sent two men to help the locals form their own trade union
, the locals decided to go on strike in support of the dockworkers at Dar-es-Salaam and demanded better pay and more food. Increased wages of the workers also contributed to local inflation
and villagers did not find enough money for food.
By the end of the summer of 1947, two-thirds of the imported tractors had been rendered unusable. Bulldozer blades that were used to butt ground roots were ruined in a couple of days. The Groundnut Army attempted to use "shervicks"—machines that were part Sherman tanks and part tractors—but they were also wrecked in short order. A more effective method was to link two bulldozers with a long chain that would cut through the brush while the third bulldozer could turn over trees that resisted the chain. With that method, the Groundnut Army could clear 40 acres (160,000 m²) a day. When the workers tried to order a suitable ship's anchor chain from London, the managers in London cancelled the first order because they thought it was a joke.
Only with great difficulty was the Groundnut Army able to plant the first nuts. When the rainy season arrived, some of the workshops and stores were swept away by a flash flood. The number of scorpion
s also increased. After that, the hot season baked the ground clay into a hard surface that made harvesting the nuts very difficult.
In February 1948, the project became the responsibility of the newly formed Overseas Food Corporation. It sent a new leader, Major-General Desmond Harrison, to the site. He immediately tried to install military discipline, which did not endear him to the workers. He eventually concentrated on copious paperwork. Late in the year, he was ordered back home on sick leave for advanced anaemia.
The original target of 150,000 acres (607 km²) was gradually reduced to 50,000 acres (202 km²). After two years, only 2000 tons of groundnuts were harvested. Later in the project, the Groundnut Army tried to switch to growing sunflower
s for their oil, but a heavy drought
destroyed the crop.
The Labour government cancelled the project in January 1951. The total cost over the years had risen to £49 million and the land had been ruined in the process, leaving it an unusable dust bowl
.
, head teachers Muriel Whitchurch (Margaret Rutherford
) and Wetherby Pond (Alastair Sim
) discuss which corner of the British Empire they can escape to, and she mentions having a brother who, "grows groundnuts in Tanganyika."
The Eagle (comic)
of 29 September 1950, in the Dan Dare
strip, 'reproduces' the front page of "Daily World Post" of 28 September 1995. The main item is the lack of news from Dan Dare's expedition to Venus. A small item is headed SUCCESS IN EAST AFRICA - PEANUT ARRIVES IN LONDON: "There was a touching ceremony in London yesterday when a whole unblemished peanut was handed to the Minister of Food by a delegation representing equally the native tribes in the groundnut area and the survivors of the Strachey scheme".
In the 1960 James Bond
short story Quantum of Solace, the governor of The Bahamas
tells Bond the story of a career civil servant named Philip Masters who, after a tragic life, gets "shunted off into the ground-nuts scheme."
The writer and comedian Spike Milligan
referred to the Concorde
project as a "flying ground-nut scheme" in a cartoon produced for the satirical magazine Private Eye
.
In a 1970 episode of the British sitcom Steptoe and Son
, Harold (Harry H. Corbett
) points out to an ex-girlfriend that her deceased husband was a "great Tory
twit, always sneering about Clem Attlee and the Groundnut Scheme".
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
with peanut
Peanut
The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...
s. It was a project of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government of Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
. It was abandoned in 1951 at considerable cost to the taxpayers when it did not become profitable. Ground nuts require at least 500 mm (20 inches) of rainfall per year; the area chosen was subject to drought.
Overview
In 1946, Frank Samuel, head of the United Africa CompanyUnited Africa Company
The United Africa Company was a British company which principally traded in West Africa during the 20th century.The United Africa Company was formed in 1929 as a result of the merger of the Royal Niger Company, which had been effectively owned by Lever Brothers since 1920, and the African &...
, a subsidiary of Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
, came up with an idea to cultivate groundnuts in the British protectorate of Tanganyika
Tanganyika
Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...
, now mainland Tanzania, for the production of vegetable oil. Britain was still under World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
rationing
Rationing in the United Kingdom during and after World War II
Rationing in the United Kingdom refers to rationing introduced by the government of the United Kingdom several times during the 20th century, mostly during and immediately after war....
and short of cooking fats. He suggested the idea to his contacts in the British government.
In April 1946, the British Labour government authorised a mission to visit suitable sites. The team was led by John Wakefield, ex-Director of Agriculture in Tanganyika. After a three-month mission, the team's report was optimistically favourable to the scheme. Wakefield believed that the main reason for the apparent barrenness of the Tanganyika was local primitive farming practices that would be easily solved by Western equipment. The government, with the lead of Minister of Food
Minister of Food
The Minister of Food Control and the Minister of Food were British government ministerial posts separated from that of the Minister of Agriculture. A major task of the latter office was to oversee rationing in the United Kingdom arising out of World War II...
John Strachey
John St Loe Strachey
Evelyn John St Loe Strachey PC was a British Labour politician and writer.-Background and education:Born in Guildford, Surrey, the son of John Strachey, editor of The Spectator, he was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. At Oxford, he was editor, with Robert Boothby, of the...
, eventually authorised £25 million to cultivate 150,000 acres (607 km²) of scrubland in six years. They began to recruit men for the "Groundnut Army" and 100,000 ex-soldiers volunteered. The first site selected for cultivation was in Kongwa
Kongwa
Kongwa is one of the 5 districts of the Dodoma Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the North by the Manyara Region, to the East by the Morogoro Region, to the South by the Mpwapwa District and to the West by the Dodoma Rural District....
in the central Tanganyika where locals had already cultivated groundnuts. Strachey chose an old political colleague, Leslie Plummer
Leslie Plummer
Sir Leslie Arthur Plummer, known to friends as Dick was a British farmer, newspaper executive and politician...
, to be Chairman of the Overseas Food Corporation.
The first problem was the lack of heavy equipment to clear the land for cultivation. Eventually, the project managers found some suitable tractor
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
s and bulldozer
Bulldozer
A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...
s from Canada and bought U.S. Army surplus tractors from the Philippines.
Next, the equipment had to be transported from the port of Dar-es-Salaam to the inland site using the only available transport—a single-track railway with a steam locomotive. Unfortunately, a sudden flood of the Kinyansungwe River wiped out the rail tracks, leaving a dirt road as the only means of transport. African workers went on strike and the British advance team was left with just one cook. They decided to settle in Sagara
Sagara (Tanzanian ward)
Sagara is an administrative ward in the Kongwa district of the Dodoma Region of Tanzania. According to the 2002 census, the ward has a total population of 18,197.-References:...
with George Nestle, a local hunter.
At this stage, the British team decided finally to test the soil. They deemed it suitable despite the large amount of clay. Managers moved to the site in Kongwa and started to build a village, complete with prefabricated buildings. There was no suitable water source nearby.
When the British began to transfer equipment to the site from Dar-es-Salaam on the dirt road, they pushed through the Ruvu River and encountered large numbers of dangerous wildlife, including lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s and crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
s. Tractors were scheduled to arrive by February 1947, but only 16 smaller tractors had reached the site by April. They were not entirely suitable for clearing the local brush and bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
.
Local large baobab
Baobab
Adansonia is a genus of eight species of tree, six native to Madagascar, one native to mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and one to Australia. The mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island....
trees were also hard to remove and the task was made more difficult by the fact that one of them was a local tribal jail, another was a site of ancestor worship, and many had bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s' nests in their hollow trunks. Some of the workers had to be hospitalised for numerous bee stings. On other occasions, workers had to face angry elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
s and rhinos
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....
.
The fact that the site was far from easily accessible water sources caused further problems. The water had to be ferried in and poured into a concrete-lined pool. Locals insisted on using it for swimming, despite protests by the European workers.
Eventually, local managers decided to train local workers for the job. Enthusiastic but inexperienced drivers wrecked many of the tractors. When the Colonial Office
Colonial Office
Colonial Office is the government agency which serves to oversee and supervise their colony* Colonial Office - The British Government department* Office of Insular Affairs - the American government agency* Reichskolonialamt - the German Colonial Office...
sent two men to help the locals form their own trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
, the locals decided to go on strike in support of the dockworkers at Dar-es-Salaam and demanded better pay and more food. Increased wages of the workers also contributed to local inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
and villagers did not find enough money for food.
By the end of the summer of 1947, two-thirds of the imported tractors had been rendered unusable. Bulldozer blades that were used to butt ground roots were ruined in a couple of days. The Groundnut Army attempted to use "shervicks"—machines that were part Sherman tanks and part tractors—but they were also wrecked in short order. A more effective method was to link two bulldozers with a long chain that would cut through the brush while the third bulldozer could turn over trees that resisted the chain. With that method, the Groundnut Army could clear 40 acres (160,000 m²) a day. When the workers tried to order a suitable ship's anchor chain from London, the managers in London cancelled the first order because they thought it was a joke.
Only with great difficulty was the Groundnut Army able to plant the first nuts. When the rainy season arrived, some of the workshops and stores were swept away by a flash flood. The number of scorpion
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger...
s also increased. After that, the hot season baked the ground clay into a hard surface that made harvesting the nuts very difficult.
In February 1948, the project became the responsibility of the newly formed Overseas Food Corporation. It sent a new leader, Major-General Desmond Harrison, to the site. He immediately tried to install military discipline, which did not endear him to the workers. He eventually concentrated on copious paperwork. Late in the year, he was ordered back home on sick leave for advanced anaemia.
The original target of 150,000 acres (607 km²) was gradually reduced to 50,000 acres (202 km²). After two years, only 2000 tons of groundnuts were harvested. Later in the project, the Groundnut Army tried to switch to growing sunflower
Sunflower
Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...
s for their oil, but a heavy drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
destroyed the crop.
The Labour government cancelled the project in January 1951. The total cost over the years had risen to £49 million and the land had been ruined in the process, leaving it an unusable dust bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
.
Cultural references
At the end of the 1950 British comedy film The Happiest Days of Your LifeThe Happiest Days of Your Life
The Happiest Days of Your Life is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder, based on the play by John Dighton. The two men also wrote the screenplay. It's one of a stable of classic British film comedies produced by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat for British Lion Film Corporation. The...
, head teachers Muriel Whitchurch (Margaret Rutherford
Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest...
) and Wetherby Pond (Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim
Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...
) discuss which corner of the British Empire they can escape to, and she mentions having a brother who, "grows groundnuts in Tanganyika."
The Eagle (comic)
Eagle (comic)
Eagle was a seminal British children's comic, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Morris edited a parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating...
of 29 September 1950, in the Dan Dare
Dan Dare
Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...
strip, 'reproduces' the front page of "Daily World Post" of 28 September 1995. The main item is the lack of news from Dan Dare's expedition to Venus. A small item is headed SUCCESS IN EAST AFRICA - PEANUT ARRIVES IN LONDON: "There was a touching ceremony in London yesterday when a whole unblemished peanut was handed to the Minister of Food by a delegation representing equally the native tribes in the groundnut area and the survivors of the Strachey scheme".
In the 1960 James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
short story Quantum of Solace, the governor of The Bahamas
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
tells Bond the story of a career civil servant named Philip Masters who, after a tragic life, gets "shunted off into the ground-nuts scheme."
The writer and comedian Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...
referred to the Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
project as a "flying ground-nut scheme" in a cartoon produced for the satirical magazine Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
.
In a 1970 episode of the British sitcom Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
, Harold (Harry H. Corbett
Harry H. Corbett
Harry H. Corbett OBE was an English actor.Corbett was best known for his starring role in the popular and long-running BBC Television sitcom Steptoe and Son in the 1960s and 70s...
) points out to an ex-girlfriend that her deceased husband was a "great Tory
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
twit, always sneering about Clem Attlee and the Groundnut Scheme".
See also
- Jari projectJari projectThe Jari project was an attempt to create a tropical tree farm in Brazil for producing pulp for paper.-Background:The Jari project was a brainchild of US entrepreneur and billionaire Daniel K. Ludwig. In the 1950s he noticed that demand for paper was rising. Since the forests of the temperate zone...
- Bai BangBai BangBãi Bằng is an industrial area northwest of Vietnamese capital Hanoi, home to the large paper mill of the same name, completed in 1996.-Controversial development project:...
- Railway stations in TanzaniaRailway stations in TanzaniaRailway stations in Tanzania include:- Maps :* - Tanga and Kidatu lines not shown.* * * * * Look for the MSN Map at the bottom of pages of many towns, or look for the Map Button at the top and scroll down the MSN map.- Central Line :...
- FiReControlFiReControlFiReControl was a project, initiated in the UK in March 2004, to reduce the number of control rooms used to handle emergency calls for fire services and authorities. Presently there are 46 control rooms in England that handle calls from the local public for emergency assistance via the 999 system...