502 THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONSpeasant" by demonstrating the possibilities of modern technology. To
be sure, these peanuts were not destined for consumption by Africans,
hungry as they might be; but the peasants would see (would be given
an "ocular demonstration," in bureaucratese) and copy the superior
ity of large-scale, mechanized agriculture. No hands; everything would
be done by machine: bulldozers, tractors, rooters, sowers, combines.
At the same time, as though to prove the virtues of British-style so
cialism (the project was intended, among other things, to demonstrate
a superior alternative to Soviet ideology), the British Labour govern
ment sent officials to teach the African employees how to strike for
higher pay. This altruism succeeded beyond expectations. The natives
took up spears, idled the tractors, blocked the roads, stopped the rail
way. Police had to be brought in; the union leaders, put in prison. The
strike failed, but the natives had learned a thing or two.^21
The planners went in without a plan. They chose a central site be
cause it was empty. It was empty because it had no water. Members of
the mission acknowledged "a total lack of any experience of mecha
nised agriculture." No one had ever tried this kind of thing. Informa
tion on rainfall patterns and their effect on yields was wanting; ditto
regarding the soil; and estimates on cost of clearing bush drew on ex
perience with airstrips during the war. Supplies took the form of left
over army stores from the Philippines, some useful, some worthless, all
the worse for neglect. The mission had no engineering expert. As one
member, an accountant, put it: "It was all guesswork, and our guess
was as good as anybody else's."
Both British housewives and African peasants had a long wait in
prospect. African farmers raised peanuts in some areas, but they (usu
ally the women) did so at enormous pain and effort, scratching and
clawing every step of the way. Even so, they did better than these ma
chines, which for all their steel, rubber, and internal combustion en
gines, sickened in the African climate. Breakdowns were common,
repair shops lacking, and what would they have done anyway without
replacement parts? Clearance of the gnarled brush and roots was a
nightmare. It cost ten times original estimates, and the ground, once
cleared, dried to brick hardness.* Very soon the projectors had to scale
back expectations and substitute sunflowers for some of the peanut
bushes. The changes did not help. Nature refused to cooperate, and
yields were far below expectations.
The effects on the local economy and society were deplorable. The
* On lateritic soil, see Chapter I.