How Africa cameto grow tea (2)We conclude Roy Moxham's fascinating account of how Africa came to grow tea. "In the 19th century,when China had seemed an unreliable supplier," says Moxham, "the British had established tea in Indiaand Ceylon [as an alternative source of supply]. Similarly, following the loss of India and Ceylon, theBritish turned to a part of the globe that they still controlled - Africa." Osei Boateng reports

Acombination oi civil unrest inChina during the 19 centuryand the country's perceived"unreliability" to grow and pro-duce tea compelled the British to

look elsewhere for the bulk of rheir rea sup-ply. They did not have to look far as India layjust across the border. And so to India theywent to grow tea and undercut the Chinesesupply.

For decades, the East India Company(EIC) had acted as the government of partof India, and being a British company, It wasanswerable, to some extent, to the British

52 . NEW AFRICAN January 2005

government. However, Parliament becameconcerned about allowing a company torun a country, so in 1784 the India Act waspassed which established a Board ot Controlover how the company ran affairs in India.

In 1834, the EICs charter was finallyrevised, and the company's monopolyof trade between China and Britain wasremoved. However, Britain decided that itwas in its national interest to grow tea inIndia, via the EIC.

"The great bulk of India tea came roBritain," writes Moxham. "In 1888, Indianproduction rose to 86 million lbs, and a

major landmark was reached - for Britishtea imports from India had become greaterthan those trom China. It was an imperialdream come true. 'But there was a down-side. Labourers on the Indian tea estates wereheavily exploited. Slavery had been commonin British India in the 18 century as mostEuropeans there kept household slaves. TheEIC traded in slaves as well, and it was notuntil 1789 that their export was prohibited.

Slavery was finally abolished In BritishIndia in 1843, a whole decade after it hadbeen banned in most of its other British colo-nies. But it didnt take long before a new type

of slavery was invented for the Indians.Moxham recounts: "The practice of

recruiting Indian labourers for work on dis-tant tea plantations grew our ofthe aboli-tion of slavery. The Emancipation Bill wentthrough the British parliament in 1833.Although this legislation gave rights to theslaves and compensation to their owners, itsimmediate effects were Hmited since the ex-slaves were forced to become 'apprentices'for a number of years before they were freeof their masters."

In those days, children were feir game andthe British planters used them to great effect.Indeed it was often the only way familiescould earn enough to survive. Normally thechildren started to work when aged five orsix, and if they were on one of the better teaplantations, they might be paid one-and-a-half rupees a month.

"At the end ofthe 19 century," saysMoxahm, "India was producing nearly 200million lbs of tea. Of this, 85% was exportedto Britain. There were over 500,000 acres(780 sq miles) of tea across the country. Vir-tually all this tea had been planted In only 40years - bnt at a terrible human cost."

CeylonEnter Ceylon. In the late 19 century, thegreatest rival to Indian tea came not fromChina but from Ceylon. Renamed Sn Lankain 1972, Ceylon, a large tropical island lying20 miles off the southeastern coast of India,came to the notice ofthe Portuguese in 1505as they opened up trade routes between Asiaand Europe. But by 1656, [he Dutch haddefeated the PortugLiese and driven them outof Colombo, the island s capital.

Using their own multinational company,the United East India Company, the Dutchcontrolled Ceylon for 140 years. At the time,Ceylon was the world's only supplier of highquality cinnamon, and the monopoly overthe trade was immensely profitable to theDutch. Any interference with this monopoly- such as smtiggling out the cinnamon or itsoil, or merely damaging a plant - carried thedeath penalty.

"The Dutch started growmg coffee on thecoastal plains ot Ceylon," Moxham recounts."By 1835, 4,000 acres of heavy forest hadbeen cleared and planted. Rumours reachedBritain that fortunes were to be made. Landwas bought purely for re-sale, and a specula-tive 'bubble' developed. All uncultivated landwas regarded as Crown land, and available

for acquisition by potential planters. Anytitle the indigenous populations of Ceylonmight have had was ignored, and much com-mon land was sequestered.

"In addition, although this was illegal, theinhabitants of entire villages, inconvenientlylocated in the midst of land required by theBritish, were expelled. With so many highgovernment officials involved in land specu-lation themselves, there were few checks."The ghost of Zimbabwe had their rootsfirmly planted in British land practices allover the Empire.

But in 1869, disaster struck. A danger-ous fungus (initially seen as yellow powderyblotches) enveloped the coffee plantationsin Ceylon. Within 10 years, the disease haddecimated half of the country's production.Slowly the industry died away. But, from theashes of Ceylon coffee, rose Ceylon tea. By1885, there were over 100,000 acres of tea inCeylon. By 1900, there were 384,000 acres.

At the end of the19th Century, 85% ofIndian tea was exported to Britain, butat a terrible human cost

The most conspicuous newcomer to teaaround this time was Sir Thomas Lipton, adynamic salesman wbo had started as a smallgrocer in Clasgow, Scotland, in 1871. Byselling cheap, and through massive advertis-ing, he managed to establish a chain of 400shops.

In 1889, hestarted to buy tea at auction inLondon, and through his shops and agentsmanaged to sell 6 million lbs in 1890. That

same year, on his way to Australia, Liptonstopped off in Ceylon.

His motto had always been "cut out themiddleman", so Lipton seized the oppor-tunity offered by the then ensuing financialcrisis to buy several tea plantations in Cey-lon. "Although his name later became syn-onymous with tea in Europe and America(where many thought he owned the wholeCeylon tea industry), his purchase of 3,000acres was only about 15% of Ceylon's totaltea acreage," says Moxham.

By 1900, there was over 600 sq miles oftea in Ceylon, producing 150 million lbsfor export, mainly to Britain. This made theindustry-' in the relatively tiny Ceylon nearlyas big as that of India.

"Nearly all this planting," Moxham says"had been done in only 20 years - an extraor-dinary achievement. That it had been largelyfinanced, not by big companies, but by indi-viduals and small partnerships, made it allthe more remarkable."

AfricaBy this time, Africa was not in the pictureat all regarding tea. But it all changed as thesecond half of the 20'-" century turned outto be a bad time for Imperial Britain. Theproblems were compounded by the SecondWorld War and the huge financial burden itimposed on Britain. An ascendant Americahad been chipping at London's global powerand finally usurped it in the years followingthe end ofthe War.

The tea estates in India did not fare welleither, during this period. Britain's woesworsened when just before independencein 1947, India was partitioned, and some ofthe lucrative tea estates went over to the newcountry of Pakistan. This part of Pakistansubsequently broke away in 1971 to becomeBangladesh.

"Following independence," Moxhamwrites, "the Indian government began to planextensive nationalisation of key industries.Tea featured in some ofthe recommenda-tions, and tnany British companies tookfright and began to run their estates down.

"They spent as little as they could on main-tenance and renewal, and sent the inflated'profit' back to Britain, They also sold someestates to Indians. Various other legislationover the next two decades restricted profits,and prompted further sales. By the 1970s,about two-thirds of the total tea acreagebelonged to Indian companies.

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"Three-quarters of all the tea producedin India was now drunk there. The biggestwholesaler was a subsidiary oi the Anglo-Dutch Corporation, Unilever, which ownedthe Brooke Bond and Lipcon brands. But rheBritish did not have it entirely their own way.Tata Tea, part of a huge Indian conglomer-ate, accumulated about 60 tea estates. Onthe wholesale side, Tata worked closely withTctley In 2000, Tata botight control ofTedeywith its worldwide brand."

Today, Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, retains itsformer name for many of its tea brands andexports over 90% of its production, makingit the world's biggest tea exporter.

But for che British, events in Ceylon, andto a much smaller extent in India, forcedthem to reconsider their global tea policy. "Inthe 19 century, when China had seemedan unreliable supplier," writes Moxham, "theBritish had established tea in India and Cey-lon. Similarly, foiiowing the loss of India andCeylon, the British turned to a part oftheglobe that they still controlled - Africa.

"The planting of tea in Britain's African

colonies had begun in Nyasaland (nowMalawi) in the late 19'- century. It wasalways clear that given the amount of suit-able land, tea there would never be a verylarge industry The possibilities in langan-yika (now Tanzania) and Uganda were alsolimited." So the British turned their atten-tion to Kenya.

Tea had been grown in Kenya on anexperimental basis since 1903. By 1924, thecountry was still producing only 1,000 lbs ayear. Two British companies - Brooke Bondand James Finlay - then decided to funda-mentally transform Kenyan production.

Brooke Bond first established a branch inKenya in 1922 to tnarket its tea.s. By 1925,it had captured 60% of the whole hast Afri-can market. In 1924, the company boughtits first 1,000 acres of land in Kenya nearLimuru, with the intention of both plantingand also buying tea tor manufacture fromneighbouring smallholders.

A year later, James Finlay & Company hadfollowed suit, after seeing an opportunityCO buy cheap land in Kenya. "After the First

World War, the British colonial governmentin Kenya had made land available co Britishex-servicemen - a highly contentious pol-icy that was much resented, since Africansclaimed ownership over much ofthe land,"says Moxham.

"The British East Africa Disabled OfficersColony was given 25,000 acres of 'surplus'land near Kericho, Kenya. The soil and cli-mate of Kericho and Limuru proved excel-lent for tea. Yields were high.

"Spurred on by events in India and Ceylon,the two British companies - Brooke Bondand James Finlay - dramatically increasedtheir acreage right until Kenya became inde-pendent in 1963. They continued to plantfurther until 1976, after which the Kenyangovernment blocked future expansion. By2000, the British companies had over 50,000acres of tea between them, with BrookeBond, still the leading brand in Kenya, chebiggest owner."

But the real breakthrough in che EastAfrian nation came in the 1960s with theestablishment of the Kenya Tea Develop-ment Authority (KTA) to encourage Afri-can smallholders to grow tea. Funded by theWorld Bank and other international agen-cies, the KTA built factories to process cheproduction of small farmers who grew teaalongside more traditional crops.

Individual plots were about one acre each,but so many Kenyans took to tea growingthat the total acreage became huge. Coupledwith excellent management tactics, hardwork and the willingness to embrace mod-ern methods, Kenya's smallholders made theproject the most successful in the world.

By 1975, they controlled a third of Kenya'soverall production. By 1988, the country s150,000 smallholders had overtaken theproduction of che big British estates. Today,Kenya exports about 95% of its tea, mak-ing it the world's second biggest tea exporter,afi:erSri Lanka.

It had been a milestone, but one achievedat a huge cost. As Moxham puCs it: "lea pro-duction was founded on cheap labour, andcontinues to rely on very cheap labour...Intrepid and eccentric British plantersHocked to India, Ceylon and Africa, and amillion workers were moved on to the plan-tations, bought, sold, and stolen like slaves...Today, the British addiction is shared bymany: tea is easily the world's most populardrink whose wholesome image belies its vio-lent pasc'̂ BNA

54 . NEW AFRICAN January 2005