Rural economy and its untapped potential

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How did the black man end up being a town dweller? Some schools of thought has it that a black man had no business staying in town, calling this a treason to the future generations to come!

For some African countries, it all started 1700/ 1800s when the colonial masters thought of building a new economy in a so called dark continent with dark people, who according to them were living like savages.

Firstly, they took all the fatty and healthiest cattle, from the black man…destroying the only source of wealth he had. On top of that, he was driven to arid unfertile lands and told not to keep more than 8 cattle.

Next, the plan was simple, introduce

  1. Hut tax
  2. Dog tax
  3. Animal tax
  4. Add more

This forced their grandfathers to move to towns in order for them to be able to pay those taxes. Failure to pay taxes a black person would be forced to work in construction of railways, roads, dams and trenches.

Look at the houses which were built in townships, these were bachelor quarters, and were never meant to be lived for generations and generations.

The worker was just supposed to stay for a short period and return his rural home (ekhaya) as fast as possible. The whole urban set up was meant to carry a small number of workers and not the kind of numbers we see today.

Look at the road networks, sewage and water systems and other critical infrastructure, they were built to serve only a chosen few. Kariba was built not for the whole nation but to power the colonial economy.

The rural area was under developed to an extend that the black man hated his own roots. Everything rural was either taken away or was destroyed…even African names were changed.

There was virtually nothing comfortable about rural life…no water, electricity, schools, hospitals, roads! YOUR kids don’t hate rural areas (kumusha) they hate the hard life there, change it!

Look at developed countries, only the rich live in rural areas. They don’t call them rural areas but country settlements. Some of the most beautiful mansions in the world are in rural areas. The reason being they knew exactly where the wealth is…and developed the basic infrastructure.

Its now high time we leave the towns and go back to the rural areas not to only bury the dead and come back…but to develop basic infrastructures like good roads, solar power and boreholes (a borehole is not only a bush pump)

Lets stop keeping cattle like we have been doing for the last 100 years but form cooperatives and revive CSC. In other words its now time to shift from subsistence farming to commercial farming.

Farming should never been seen as a passive activity but a billion dollar business. No more waiting for rain water for farming but let’s continue to build those dams for irrigation.

We can’t import maize from other countries while we have about 60% youths who are roaming the streets in towns doing nothing.

Let’s go back to our roots and pick up where our grandfathers left. Improve the rural land till we reach a time when only the rich will afford to live in rural areas.

Business Opportunities in rural areas

  1. Piggery
  2. Dairy
  3. Forestry
  4. Cotton
  5. And others

Rural areas are the new gold mines, let’s start our billion dollar projects there…!

Zambia belongs to Zambians and only Zambians can improve it and so is Zimbabwe and other African countries.

Mr Vision (Random Thoughts)


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