RETHINKING THE RESERVES - SOUTHERN RHODESIAS LAND HUSBANDRY ACT REVIEWED

As new archival evidence becomes available, so the history of the 1950 s is likely to be the subject of major revision. By reviewing existing studies of one of this period's key features, notably the Land Husban dry Act, this article suggests a number of ways in which the subject m ight be opened up by future research. It argues that the actual impact of the Land Husbandry Act may have been overestimated, at the same ti me as the extent of differentiation among the peasantry was underestim ated. Rural elites may well have survived the Act, in the process cruc ially shaping opposition to it.