Review
'His achievement is not merely mastery of a huge and difficult body of sources, much of it diligently collected oral material. His lifetime of scholarship, committed to a better understanding of Mozambique's twentieth-century history, gives an unusual depth to the study and an unusual confidence to the scholar. ... exceptionally fine book, Allen Isaacman shows that such large-scale human tragedies were not just the horrors of the deep past but are, rather, uncomfortably recent. Many of his sources, somewhat surprisingly in view of his grim story, are still alive. ... Professor Isaacman's achievement is very considerable. It is a great contribution to our understanding of colonialism and the transformations of rural life.' - Richard Rathbone in Labour History Review '... Cotton is the Mother of Poverty has revealed the multifaceted experiences and responses producers had and the meanings they attached to them. These voices have been silenced for too long. It is hoped that more studies will incorporate into their analyses the words of those who have suffered, coped, survived and resisted.' - M. Anne Pitcher in Journal of Southern African Studies 'Isaacman's book builds on a number of studies which he has already published on the social history of cotton and is a mature and measured analysis which is far from being a crude anti-colonial polemic...This excellent book is deeply rooted in a lifetime's study of Mozambique. It is a work I would highly recommend to anyone wanting not only to learn about the realities of colonial rule but to hear the voice of the people who experienced it...highly readable and essential for any library of African affairs' - Malyn Newitt in Journal of African History
Product Description
This study of the colonial Portuguese regime's economic policy in Mozambique shows how nearly a million African peasants were forced to grow cotton. It explores the lives of these coton producers, through interviews with former cotton growers and their families, as well as African policemen and overseers, and Portuguese settlers, merchants, missionaries and officials.
