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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Prelude to Scandal: Liberia and Fernando Po, 1880-1930 |
| Author: | Sundiata, Ibrahim K. |
| Year: | 1974 |
| Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
| Volume: | 15 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 97-112 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Liberia Bioko |
| Subjects: | forced labour cocoa History and Exploration |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/180372 |
| Abstract: | In 1929-30, members of the ruling Americo-Liberian elite in Liberia were said to be conniving at the illegal shipment of workers to plantations on Fernando Po. The Liberian 'scandals' illuminated only one end of the Liberia-Fernando Po labour trade. A League of Nations Commission of Enquiry did not explore conditions in the European colonies but concluded, at second hand, that 'labour conditions in Fernando Po may have been greatly improved in recent years'. Major blame was assigned to the black republic rather than to the exploiters of black labour in Spanish Guinea. The actual nature of the Liberia-Fernando Po connection is somewhat more complex. The scandals have their genesis not in the rapacity of certain Americo-Liberian politicians in the years 1925-30, but in the struggles of another black elite to maintain itself in the face of labour shortage and European competition. Dependence of cocoa cultivation on Fernando Po on migrant labour and European competition in the 20th-century crisis years led to detention of labour and nonpayment of contracts. The investigation into the trade was caused by the desire to keep Liberian labour on the mainland. Notes, sum. |
