Abstract: From 1920s to 1940s, the imperial trust represented by the British South Africa Company brought the South Rhodesian white settlers’ farms into the chain of global economy and industry. As a result, it iniated a series of changes in the economic and racial orders on South Rhodesian farms. The change of economic order is reflected in the shift in planting choices, from grain crops, such as mealie, to economic crops, such as tobacco, whereas the change of racial order is embodied by the contentious racial relationship between white farmers and native blacks. In The Grass Is Singing, Dick’s bankruptcy and Mary’s death seem to have resulted from the symbiotic change of “new orders” in economy and racial relationship on the South Rhodesian farms.

Key words: Doris Lessing, The Grass Is Singing, imperial trust, "new orders" of farm, South Rhodesia