The sharecropping economy, African class formation and the 1913 Natives' Land Act in the highveld maize belt

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Book chapter

Title:	The sharecropping economy, African class formation and the 1913 Natives' Land Act in the highveld maize belt
Author:	Keegan, T.
Book title:	Industrialisation and social change in South Africa; African class formation, culture, and consciousness, 1870-1930
Year:	1982
Pages:	195-211
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	apartheid squatters tenancy maize
Abstract:	From its inception with the opening of large urban markets, the South African maize revolution was in considerable measure predicated on black peasant enterprise. In areas of white settlement on the highveld, this enterprise largely took the form of sharecropping - a system in which surplus labour was extended on the tenant's plot, and the surplus extracted by the landlord took the form of a proportion of the crop. This generally amounted to a half, rising in cases to two-thirds or even more. This essay examines the sharecropping economy, its significance and characteristics, and its eventual decline and destruction. Notes.