The Great Groundnut Fiasco
Colonial East Africa and the Downfall of a Labour Government
The fascinating story of Labour’s efforts to feed post-war Britain by leveraging its African colonies—and the enduring political consequences of the Scheme’s failure
Description
Britain in 1946 was a bruised and miserable nation. Despite its victory in World War Two, it had emerged disillusioned, hard up and chronically short of food and edible oils. The new Labour government had won a decisive mandate, but had so far failed to deliver its promised ‘New Jerusalem’. Desperate to restore morale, it devised an audacious solution to Britain’s post-war scarcity: the East African Groundnut Scheme.
Thousands of volunteers would clear Yorkshire-sized tracts of Tanganyikan bush to grow oil-rich groundnuts. Labour championed this crusade with messianic zeal, convinced that British ingenuity could transform its colonies into agricultural powerhouses. But despite massive investment, the Scheme collapsed spectacularly, having failed to conduct adequate research and having disregarded local knowledge. Conservatives and tabloids buried it beneath ridicule, with ‘groundnuts’ becoming a byword for left-wing incompetence and economic bungling. The fallout would contribute to Labour’s 1951 electoral defeat. But was it truly a government blunder?
Christopher Hale reveals a more complex story. The United Africa Company (a subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever) sold the Scheme to fraught ministers, then catastrophically mismanaged operations. The real scandal wasn’t socialism gone wrong—it was the betrayal of a nation’s hopes by a corporate behemoth.
Table of contents
Introduction: ‘Like Something Out Of A Marx Brothers Film…’
Prelude:
Chapter One: ‘Britain Can Make It?’
Chapter Two: The Empire Of Unilever
Chapter Three: ‘The Land Was Lush And Green’
Chapter Four: The Fat Crisis Deepens
Chapter Five: The Strange Case Of Tanganyika
Chapter Six: Mission To Africa
Chapter Seven: The Roots Of Catastrophe
Chapter Eight: Enter Mr Streaky
Chapter Nine: The Convert
Chapter Ten: Mustering The Groundnut Army
Chapter Eleven: Mile After Mile Of Nothing
Chapter Twelve: We Remember Clearly…
Chapter Thirteen: The Tools For The Job
Chapter Fourteen: But What Of The Africans
Chapter Fifteen: The Day Of The Sherviks
Chapter Sixteen: Desperate Measures
Chapter Seventeen: ‘Delays, Evasions And Mystifications’
Chapter Eighteen: Dead, Dead, Dead
Chapter Nineteen: The Strange End Of The Groundnut Scheme
Chapter Twenty: The Groundnut Inheritance
Bibliography
Index
Author(s)
Christopher Hale is a documentary producer and the author of five non-fiction books. Educated at the Universities of Sussex and Edinburgh, he has made documentaries for broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4 and National Geographic. His books have focused on the Holocaust, post-colonialism and the ideologies of the Third Reich.
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