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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Exploitation and Abuse of African Labour in the Colonial Economy of Zimbabwe, 1903-1930: A Lopsided Struggle between Labour and Capital |
Author: | Makambe, E.P. |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | Transafrican Journal of History |
Volume: | 23 |
Pages: | 81-104 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Zimbabwe Southern Africa Great Britain |
Subjects: | black workers colonialism Economics and Trade Labor and Employment History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Economics, Commerce history imperialism Labor working conditions |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/24520271 |
Abstract: | This paper shows that the exploitation and abuse of African labour in colonial Zimbabwe was widespread and general between 1903 and 1930. Various factors were responsible for this. Firstly, most settler employers were seriously undercapitalized and could only achieve profitability through cost minimization on items that were necessary for the maintenance of a reasonable standard of welfare for African labourers. Secondly, most African labour was foreign, originating from the trans-Zambesi territories (Zambia, Malawi), and was consequently extremely vulnerable to economic exploitation and social control. Thirdly, the colonist employers often hid behind white settler ideology which was transposed from the precapitalist era and tended to relegate African labourers to a non-human status, which justified their exploitation. Finally, the colonial State consistently allied itself with settler capital in the exercise to promote capitalist production and accumulation at the expense of the position of African labour. Note, ref., sum. |