Hut tax

The hut tax was a type of taxation introduced by British colonialists in Africa on a per hut or household basis. It was variously payable in money, labour, grain or stock and benefited the colonial authorities in four related ways: it raised money; it supported the currency (see chartalism); it broadened the cash economy, aiding further development; and it forced Africans to labour in the colonial economy. Households which had survived on, and stored their wealth in cattle ranching now sent members to work for the colonialists in order to raise cash with which to pay the tax. The colonial economy depended upon black African labour to build new towns and railways, and in southern Africa to work in the rapidly developing mines.

South Africa

By 1908 the following hut taxes were imposed in southern Africa:

• In Natal, under Law 13 of 1857, 14 shillings per hut occupied by natives. Natives that lived in European style houses with only one wife were exempt from the tax.
• In the Cape Colony, under Act 37 of 1884, 10 shillings per hut with exclusions for the elderly and infirm.
• In the Transkei, 10 shillings per hut.

Zimbabwe

In Mashonaland, now part of Zimbabwe, hut tax was introduced at the rate of ten shillings per hut in 1894. Although authorized by the Colonial Office in London, the tax was paid to the British South Africa Company, the agent of colonial government in the area. Coinciding with confiscations of cattle, the introduction of forced labour and a series of natural disasters, the tax probably contributed to the Shona part of the rebellion against the colonialists in 1896, known as the First Chimurenga or Second Matabele War.

Other countries

The tax was also used in Uganda and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). In Sierra Leone it sparked the Hut Tax War of 1898.

Liberia also implemented a hut tax, which in one case led to a Kru revolt in 1915.

External links

• Nations of Eastern Africa