“…a principal of dynamic value in progressive colonial policy”:

Mainstreaming the co-operative ideal in British Africa 1945 - 1975

Billy FrankUclan

How did I get here? Fabians/Labour wartime planning Colonial drive for ‘co-operation’ Need for training (and staff – European and

African) Effective Colonial Development Policy? Training in Co-operative methods Curriculum

Today…

“I doubt if the importance of co-operative enterprise in the healthy development of colonial areas has been properly comprehended even by those who have been most ardent in checking abuses and working for the general prosperity and social well being of the colonial peoples”

Arthur Creech Jones 1943

Review of International Co-operation (ICA) July 1943

East Africa location RegistrarKenya (Nairobi) A G L Leslie

Uganda (Entebbe) A J Kerr

Tanganyika (Moshi) R S W Malcolm

Central Africa

Nyasaland (Zomba) H Bingham

Northern Rhodesia (Lusaka) J L Boyd Wilson

West Africa

Nigeria (Ibadan) R H Gretton

Gold Coast (Accra) M Hewson

Sierra Leone (Njala) A K L Hill

Gambia (Bathurst) W L Rickets

By 1949…

Territory Marketing Socs.

Credit Socs.

Consumer Socs.

Other Socs.

Total Reg. Socs.

Total Members

Paid up share capital

N. Rhodesia

(£ est.)

1945 6 1 0 1 8 763 18,450

1950 39 11 26 2 78 14,758 214,352

1951 53 14 26 4 97 15,560 227,537Nyasaland

1945 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1950 31 0 37 2 70 2,421 5,881

1951 35 0 40 4 79 3,097 7,715

Kenya

1945 Figures not available

1950

1951 218 1 19 19 257 28,200 Not available

Tanganyika

1945 46 4 1 1 52 45,846 27,533

1950 114 5 3 5 127 94,685 80,083

1951 126 5 2 5 138 106,096 90,920

Territory Marketing Socs.

Credit Socs.

Consumer Socs.

Other Socs.

Total Reg. Socs.

Total Members

Paid up share capital

Uganda (£ est.)

1945 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1950 257 0 5 11 273 24,993 24,842

1951 377 0 6 18 401 36,620 32,149Gold Coast

1945 123 4 9 11 144 11,100 45,200

1950 180 87 33 17 317 27,344 197,863

1951 204 - 36 89 346 30,189 310,810Nigeria

1945 238 99 7 236 186 35,263 7,177

1950 321 389 38 344 597 65,577 45,567

1951 323 423 36 309 1,091 64,294 49,470Sierra Leone

1945 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1950 27 2 5 11 45 2,379 1,135

1951 38 14 6 1 59 4,214 2,243

Wartime committees Advisory Committee on Cooperatives

◦ Exists in one form or another from 1946◦ Digby and Surridge, Marshall et al◦ Department of Technical Cooperation 1961 (col

dev)◦ CO – CRO become Commonwealth Office 1966

Ministry of Overseas Development 1964 Consultative Panel on Co-operation Overseas Development Administration

Advisory Committees

ACC – Dept. Technical Co-operation 1964

“Since the pattern has been created on British lines and out of British experience we consider that there should be a continuing interest in Britain in Co-operative Development in all the countries of the Commonwealth and the Department of Technical Co-operation should coordinate all possible types of assistance from Britain.”

Role of ‘advice’, ‘assistance’, ‘aid’ – funded through the various Regional Programmes

ACC Report 1964

A Manual of Cooperative Law and Practice [by] B. J. Surridge and Margaret Digby Prepared Under the Auspices of the Horace Plunkett Foundation for Cooperative Studies

1948, 1958, 1967, 1978

Margaret Digby (Plunkett Fdn.)

Gavin Green

By mid-1960s government looking to (perhaps) ‘freshen up’ advisory committees generally (Castle)

‘expert generation’

Training and Education