Dissimilar Coffee Frontiers

Sven Van Melkebeke, Ph.D. (2017), Ghent University, is a postdoctoral fellow affiliated to the Department of History at that university. He has published articles and book chapters on various commodity frontiers (coffee, rubber, cotton).

• List of Illustrations and TablesAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction 1 Relevance of This Research1.1 A Historiographical Sketch of Belgian Africa1.2 Theoretical Framework2 Geographical and Temporal Scope3 Coffee Cultivation in Belgian Africa4 Methodology and Sources5 Administrative Note6 OutlinePrelude: The Lake Kivu Region in the Nineteenth Century1 Lake Kivu’s Communities2 Peculiarities of the RegionPart 1 Structural Basis1 Coffee Production: From the Global to the Local1 The Roots1.1 “Out of Africa”1.2 African “Comeback” and the “Birth” of the Kivu Coffee2 Producing for the Global Market2.1 Global Coffee Production after World War I2.2 Belgian Africa’s Capacity2.3 The Kivu Region3 Conclusion2 Explaining the Divergence1 Historiography: Divergence in Rural Production Systems2 The Lake Kivu Region: Why Diversity?2.1 Environmental Factors?2.2 Successful Examples?2.3 German Legacy?2.4 Cost-Effectiveness?2.5 Famine of 1928–1929?2.6 Racially Defined Diversity?2.7 Population Density – Land Availability?2.8 Customary Land Tenure?2.9 Mandate versus Colony?2.10 Land, Locality and Legality as Prevailing Explanations3 Diversity in Reverse3.1 Smallholding in Eastern Congo3.2 Plantations in Western Rwanda4 ConclusionPart 2On the Ground3 Mobilizing Land for the Coffee Sector 1 The Congolese Kivu: Customary Land Systems and the Early Colonial Period1.1 Changing Access to Land1.2 Disputes Over Land1.3 The Role of the Local Administration2 The Rwandan Kivu2.1 Customary Land Tenure and the German Period2.2 Belgium Enters the Scene2.3 Land-related Tensions2.4 Administrative Interventions3 Conclusion4 Mobilizing Coffee-Cultivating Labor 1 Colonial Coffee Labor1.1 Entering the Plantations1.2 It’s All about the Numbers1.3 Plantations versus Mines2 Coffee Labor in the Mandate2.1 Customary Labor Mobilization and “Chiefly” Cultivation2.2 Vulgarization and Mobilization of the Rural Masses2.3 Other Kinds of Coffee Labor3 Conclusion5 Coffee Labor on the Spot 1 Workforce West of Lake Kivu1.1 Dual Employment Categories?1.2 Remunerating Laborers1.3 Labor Conditions2 Workforce East of Lake Kivu2.1 Coffee Production at Household Level2.2 Working Conditions in the Smallholder Sector2.3 Rwandan Plantation Workers3 Conclusion6 African Feedback 1 “Weapons of the Weak”1.1 The Cosyns Case1.2 Migrations1.3 Desertions and Absenteeism1.4 Coffee Pilferage and “illegal” Trade1.5 Various Kinds of Sabotage2 Lake Kivu Peasants2.1 How to Understand “Peasants”?2.2 Household (Plantation) Land2.3 Markets and Trade2.4 Income Diversification and the Role of Women3 ConclusionConclusion: A Merger Based on Diversity and Compromise 1 On Differentiation2 On CompromiseAnnex 1: Decree on Coffee Limitations (1938) Archives 1 African Archives Brussels (AAB)1.1 Belgian Congo1.2 Ruanda-Urundi2 Other CollectionsReferences Index

' [...] His comparative approach in two territories government is innovative in how he notes how the economic regime of each region affected each other. [...] Van Melkebeke convincingly does describe how material conditions (access to land, the role of private businesses and colonial state policies, the role of African elites) can explain the divergence between African producers dominating in Rwanda compared to European-controlled plantations in the Belgian Congo. [...] This study is a valuable addition to the neglected economic history of the Great Lakes region in Central Africa that is well situated in the larger literature on colonial cash crop agriculture in colonial Africa'.Jeremy Rich, Marywood University, in International Journal of African Historical Studies 54, No. 1 (2021), pp. 117-118