<P> Under colonial rule, the plantation system of farming was widely introduced in order to grow large quantities of cash crops, and employing cheap (often forced) African labor for export to European countries . Mining for gems and precious metals such as gold was developed in a similar way by wealthy European entrepreneurs such as Cecil Rhodes . The implementation and effects of these colonial policies could be brutal . One extreme example of exploitation of Africans during this period is the Congo Free State, administered under a form of "company rule". The Belgians, under Leopold II of Belgium, allowed businesses to use forced labour as they saw fit . The brutal conditions, famine and disease ended in the deaths of an estimated 10 million Congolese between 1885 and 1908 . </P> <P> Belgian government commissions in the 1920s found that the population of Belgian Congo had fallen by as much as 50% under Congo Free State rule as a result of forced labor (largely for the purposes of rubber cultivation), massacre by colonial troops, famine and disease . In white settler colonies like Algeria, Kenya, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), South Africa and Southwest Africa (now Namibia), the most fertile lands were forcibly expropriated from the indigenous populations for use by white settlers . In these countries African farmers were pushed onto "native reserves," usually located on arid, marginal lands . Slavery was also widely abolished by colonial powers . </P> <P> To some colonizers, such as the British, the ideal colony was based on an open economy, actively engaged in world trade through the export of raw materials and the import of finished goods . The British practiced a policy of light administration, enforcing relatively little regulation on their colonies, especially in non-economic matters . As long as British interests were achieved, native populations were given greater individual freedoms . However, other colonizers, such as the French, took a more active approach to governance, encouraging or even requiring their subjects to more fully assimilate into French culture . </P> <P> Colonizers were under heavy political pressure to make their colonies immediately and continuously profitable . In almost all cases, this constraint led to a shortage of long - term investment from the mother countries into the economic development in their colonies . While these countries did finance some major infrastructure projects designed to facilitate trade, this was primarily to aid in the immediate extraction of valuable resources, and there was little to no investment into growing local business . Another reason colonial governments allowed local economies to lag behind was that competitive local industries would have reduced the colonies' trade dependence on the central economies in Europe . </P>

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