Plunder for Profit Book contents
- Plunder for Profit
- African Studies Series
- Plunder for Profit
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on Currency, Units and Weight
- Introduction
- 1 Global Perspectives and Local Narratives
- 2 The Post-War Tobacco Boom and the Development of Conservationism in Southern Rhodesia, 1947–1960
- 3 A Silenced Spring? Exploring Africa’s ‘Rachel Carson Moment’
- 4 Beyond Agency
- 5 ‘The Threat of Soil Erosion Is Far More Permanent Than the Threat of Sanctions’
- 6 Tobacco-Control Discourses and the Tobacco Industry in Southern Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, 1953–2020
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
3 - A Silenced Spring? Exploring Africa’s ‘Rachel Carson Moment’
A Socio-environmental History of the Pesticides in Tobacco Production in Southern Rhodesia, 1945–1980
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2023
- Plunder for Profit
- African Studies Series
- Plunder for Profit
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on Currency, Units and Weight
- Introduction
- 1 Global Perspectives and Local Narratives
- 2 The Post-War Tobacco Boom and the Development of Conservationism in Southern Rhodesia, 1947–1960
- 3 A Silenced Spring? Exploring Africa’s ‘Rachel Carson Moment’
- 4 Beyond Agency
- 5 ‘The Threat of Soil Erosion Is Far More Permanent Than the Threat of Sanctions’
- 6 Tobacco-Control Discourses and the Tobacco Industry in Southern Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, 1953–2020
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Summary
This chapter uses the lens of political ecology and environmental history to interrogate the use of pesticides in tobacco farming in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 1945 to 1980, and their effects on the human body, the body politic and the natural environment. It traces the growth of pesticide use from the end of the Second World War, which saw a turning point in the global pesticides’ regime as crop chemicals such as DDT became widespread. It explores the problems that arose with the use of these pesticides and connects this narrative with the various global debates on ‘environmentalism’ that arose in the 1960s, and how this impacted on the evolution of legislation and policies to curtail pesticide use in tobacco production in Southern Rhodesia. The chapter constructs a contextual reading of Silent Spring in Southern Rhodesia and Africa.
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- Plunder for ProfitA Socio-Environmental History of Tobacco Farming in Southern Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, pp. 123 - 164Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023