The new constitution protected African Reserves that had been set up by the BSAC as Tribal Trust Lands; it further gave Africans the right to purchase land outside the Reserves equally with whites. This arrangement lasted five years. In 1930, the Land Apportionment Act created racial land segregation by allocating 50% of the land to Europeans, 30% for Africans, and 20% unallocated. The Land Tenure Act in 1969 increased the share of land allocated to Africans from 30 to 53% and decreased the European allocations from 50 to 47%. These land percentages mean very little, though, without population facts. The European population was scarce; they had 1 person per a square mile. The African population, on the other hand, was estimated at 45.8 persons per square mile (Kriger 53-54). In other words, the Government allocated 28 million acres to 1 million blacks and 48 million acres to 50,000 whites (Blake 202-204). Besides, African land tended to be inferior to the European land.
The Government did not evict Africans from land on a large scale until the '40s, but it passed other legislation that benefited white farmers and retarded the efforts of black farmers. The Maize Control Acts in 1931 and 1934 set higher prices on crops produced for the internal market and lower prices for exports, and then restricted Africans from participating in the internal market (Kriger 58). Thus, Africans received an average of 1 shilling and six pence to six shillings and six pence per bag of maize, whereas Europeans received more than eight shillings per bag.
The Cattle Levy Acts in 1931 and 1934 further discriminated against Africans by subsidizing exports of European-produced cattle with the proceeds paid by Africans for cattle-dipping fees. Africans who protested argued that the proceeds should be used to benefit those who paid them (Schmidt 76-77).
If discrimination in land and farming policies was the first grievance that led to the liberation war, lack of education became the second. Historians Martin and Johnson claim that many Africans in the '60s and early '70s went for guerrilla training after they had been denied further education (Martin and Johnson 56).
