This study is an enquiry into the processes shaping rural livelihoods in peripheral areas. The study is situated in the field of livelihood research and departs in the persistent crisis within African smallholder agriculture and in rural policy debates during the postindependence era. The research takes a critical stance to the way that people-centred and actor-oriented approaches have dominated livelihood research, thereby over-shadowing structural and macro-oriented features.

The aim of this study is to, through a historical perspective on rural livelihoods and policy regimes, uncover the political and economic processes, with their discursive foundations, that shape contemporary rural livelihoods in peripheral areas. The analytical framework emphasises four key factors: ideas of development and modernity; the terms of incorporation into the global economy; rural policy regimes; smallholders’ ways of making a living. Inspiration is gained from critical political geography, world-systems analysis and different perspectives on rural livelihoods and development.

The empirical study is based on fieldwork in Chipata District in Eastern Zambia, investigations at the National Archives of Zambia, the British National Archives and library research. The findings are presented in three parts. The first part looks into contemporary policies and the situation among smallholders in Chipata District. The second part examines the history of the area up to independence in 1964. The third part examines the post-independence period which links colonial experience to the contemporary situation.

The findings suggest that smallholders’ livelihoods are shaped by long-term politicaleconomic- discursive processes, rooted in the terms of the study area’s integration into the world-economy in the colonial period. Colonial policies peripheralised the area through tax, labour, and market policies and the creation of native reserves, all of which have led to contemporary problems of food insecurity, soil depletion and a marginal role in agricultural markets. Since the inception of colonial rule, semi-proletarianisation has been a dominant process in the area. Current diversified livelihoods are more a contemporary expression of this semi-proletarianisation than a consequence of postcolonial policies. The households in the study area show preference for a farming way of life. However, the development goal of modernity has since long led to an ‘othering’ of smallholders, labelling them backwards and resistant to change. In the early twenty-first century this ‘othering’ has been played out through a development programme aimed at changing attitudes and mindsets among the farmers in line with individualistic and entrepreneurial behaviour. The ‘othering’ discourses of contemporary and colonial policymakers display striking similarities in this case.

Using empirical data from archival research and rural fieldwork in Chipata district (former Fort Jameson district) in Zambia, this article explores historical processes shaping smallholders’ contemporary livelihood situations. Contemporary issues such as food insecurity, environmental degradation, lack of markets and inputs are investigated from a historical perspective. The article highlights colonial policies as decisive in shaping the physical, social and economic landscape of the study area. Policies such as the creation of native reserves, land alienation and European settlement, taxes and market regulations had a deep impact on smallholders’ livelihoods and are to a large extent still influencing the study area. Furthermore, it is suggested that livelihood diversification among smallholders in the study area is a contemporary expression of a historical process of semi-proletarianisation, rather than a response to postcolonial policies, which is generally suggested in the literature. Findings show that the ‘othering’ of African smallholders during the colonial period has been reproduced into present policies in the study area. Overall, the article argues that research on rural livelihoods gain from adopting a historical perspective; in understanding the long-term impact of colonial rule and in understanding of how postcolonial policies are formulated and by what impact they are implemented.

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Livelihoods approaches focus on the poor and their knowledge and agency, but risk underplaying broader contextual forces which constrain and shape that agency. Livelihood trajectories approaches attend more fully to these structural, contextual dynamics. A three-year study using quantitative and qualitative methods investigated livelihood trajectories over two decades in a village affected by deforestation in Northeast Cambodia, and sought to identify critical junctures structuring those trajectories. A timber rush, a land rush, a turn to agriculture and ongoing competition to shape post-forest reterritorialisation were identified as the critical junctures. These transformed the physical environment, and initiated waves of migration which in turn transformed the social and economic structure and everyday life of the village. This valuably disrupts narrative simplifications associated with community forestry. The junctures furthermore suggest an analytical framework for understanding deforestation-livelihoods dynamics in other contexts, thus demonstrating how livelihood trajectories research might contribute to middle-level theory building.