Colonial Economies and SocietiesPt. 1: Economies

Colonial EconomiesColonial Economies

“We are landlords of a great estate; it is the duty of the landlord

to develop his estate.”

(Joseph Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, Birmingham, 1 April 1895)

From Militarism to MaterialismFrom Militarism to Materialism

Post WWI World:

European countries focusing on material wealth:

- where to find it - how to extract it - how to profit from it

Joseph Chamberlain put it bluntly: colonialism was like ‘developing a private estate’

New Images of Africa New Images of Africa

[H.F. War & J.W. Milligan,Handbook of British East Africa, 1912, xxiii]

New Images of Africa New Images of Africa

http://web2.hmco.com/history/world/bulliet/earth_peoples/2e/students/web_activities/ch32.html (Aux Colonies)

New Images of Africa New Images of Africa

commoditiesand workers!

These stamps identify colonies by their exploitable wealth –

[Brummett et al., eds. Civilization Past and Present, 891]

New Images of Africa New Images of Africa

This French Posteris captioned “Le Porteur”.

http://web2.hmco.com/history/world/bulliet/earth_peoples/2e/students/web_activities/ch32.html (Aux Colonies)

Key to Colonial Success: TaxationKey to Colonial Success: Taxation

Structures put in place to extract and transport wealth -- and to pay for both.

Role of government:- collect taxes - convince workers to produce wealth

Systems imposed to do both characterized Colonialism everywhere in Africa.

Key to Colonial Success: TransportationKey to Colonial Success: Transportation

Major limitation:

- transportation – or rather the lack of it

- where possible, steamships exploited possibilities of major rivers

River Travel (where possible)River Travel (where possible)

Lady Nyasa, first steamship to plyZambezi and Shire Rivers (BritishEast Africa 1890-1900)[Moir, After Livingstone, 33

Empress, modernsternwheeler (British East Africa1921)

[Moir, After Livingstone, 33]

River Travel on the CongoRiver Travel on the Congo

Even where river travel was possible, parts often had to be carried overland to avoid rapids and

other obstacles. This required African labour.

[Bulliet et al., eds. The Earth and its Peoples, 2nd ed., 234]

Key to Colonial Success: transportKey to Colonial Success: transport

.

As in19th c., most goods moved overland by “porterage”(“safaris” or caravans with many porters to carry the goods).

Key to Colonial Success: transportKey to Colonial Success: transport

Shona women and children transporting grain near Great Zimbabwe, circa 1920.

Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870 – 1939. 79

Key to Colonial Success: transportKey to Colonial Success: transport

African Carriers Receiving Loads (West Africa)

[E Isichei, History of West Africa Since 1800, 229]

Key to Colonial Success: transportKey to Colonial Success: transport

Kikuyu WomanEast Africa (below)

Basotho Women, SouthAfrica (above)

[Isak Dinesen’s Africa, 131] [RHW Shepherd & BG Paver, African Contrasts 1947]

Key Factor shaping Colonial Economy:Key Factor shaping Colonial Economy:

Presence or Absence of Europeans West Africa:

-- Agriculture, land, remained in hands of Africans

- (Few exceptions eg. Cote d’Ivoire, some plantation agriculture)

- Europeans in coastal cities, transport, banking, import-export companies:-African merchants usually shut out

Key Factor shaping Colonial Economy:Key Factor shaping Colonial Economy:

- - some African peasants benefitted

- - some indigenous elites profited

- - many became workers or migrants.

New economy re-shaped, exacerbated ethnic affinities, class divisions and regional strengths/weaknesses.

Taxes in Taxes in ‘‘MoneyMoney’’ and and ‘‘LabourLabour’’

Initially, produce was extracted ‘in kind’, eg. cotton in French West Africa (earlier photo and below)

Taxes in Taxes in ‘‘MoneyMoney’’ and and ‘‘LabourLabour’’

- as costs of colonial administration, infrastructure rose (especially interwar years) ‘tax’ took two forms:

- Money- Labour

Taxes in Taxes in ‘‘MoneyMoney’’ and and ‘‘LabourLabour’’

To earn money, people forced to work as labourers in new ‘cash economy’.

To build infrastructure (roads, railroads, ports), Africans forced to labour for little or no pay.

Cash CroppingCash Cropping

Much African wealth lay in agriculture:- Cotton (West, East, Portuguese Mozambique)- Peanuts (West – French Soudan)- Rubber (West & central)- Cocoa (West Africa— Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria,

Gold Coast)- Coffee (East)- Sisal (East)- Sugar (Southern)- Grapes/Citrus Fruits (North, South)- Tobacco (East/Southern)- Grains (West, East, South, Central, North)

Rubber in NyasalandRubber in Nyasaland

[Moir, After Livingston, 184]

The Vizara Rubber Estate, 1921

Cotton in East AfricaCotton in East Africa

[F. Moir, After Livingstone, 64]

‘Natives’ Ginning Cotton on European Estate

Tobacco Curing, East AfricaTobacco Curing, East Africa

[F.Moir, After Livingstone, 65]

“Natives” Taking Tobacco from Curing Barn on European Estate

Sisal PlantationSisal Plantation

[HF Ward & JW Milligan, Handbook of British East Africa 1912, 62]

Cash Cropping: needsCash Cropping: needs

“Cash Crops”: not for local consumption, intended for national or export market

- - needed chemical ‘inputs’ (e.g. fertilizers)

- - needed transport to market

- needed a market/markets

- needed land (same land used repeatedly)

- needed labour (low-paid labour)

Cash Cropping: impactCash Cropping: impact

‘Cash cropping: advantageous in short term, less so in long term:

-- as more village land, family labour invested in cash crops, less went to producing food/food crops

- - often led to food shortages

- less local, regional food subsistence

Cash Cropping: impactCash Cropping: impact

Dependency:

-- Fewer locally produced crops led to growing dependency on imported food

- ‘dependence’ meant need for more cash to purchase food

Cash Cropping: impactCash Cropping: impact

Dependency:

- sale of cash crops provided money to buy imported food. So…

- Created vulnerability to import fluctuations and price variability -

Vicious circle set in place involving basic necessities.

Cash Cropping: impactCash Cropping: impact

For example, sisal production in East Africa:

Main market in 19th

century: twine for farmers in Europe and North America

After introduction of sisal production in Tanganyika, market dried up as cheaper alternatives became available

http://www.ntz.info/gen/n00570.html

Cash Cropping: impact (cont.)Cash Cropping: impact (cont.)

Land used intensively:

- needed expensive fertilizers, often became exhausted

-- then necessitated expansion to produce same crop quantity

Cash Cropping: impact (cont.)Cash Cropping: impact (cont.)

Expanding cash crops:

- often exceeded local labour supply

-- led to “migrant labour”: workers moving from ‘poorer’ regions to ‘richer’ ones needing labour

Created ‘migrant labour systems’ in various parts of continent – many remain today.

Cash Cropping: impact (cont.)Cash Cropping: impact (cont.)

- assisted some regions: coastal West African agriculture, South African, Rhodesia mining, East African plantations …

-- worsened conditions in poorer regions: West African sahel (interior), regions/colonies surrounding South Africa …

Cash Cropping: impact (cont.)Cash Cropping: impact (cont.)

- Migrant Labour as ‘colonial system’ created‘labour reserves’ throughout continent

Exacerbated Existing Regional Economic Disparities; created new ones – with lasting legacies

Mineral ExtractionMineral Extraction

Mineral deposits barely tapped:

- gold (West , South)- diamonds (West, Central, South)- copper (Central, East)- tin (West)- phosphates (Sahara)- coal (West)

Mineral ExtractionMineral Extraction

- All required infrastructure and labour-- Most required significant capital

investment

Gold Mines in South Africa Gold Mines in South Africa

Underground work:dangerous andunhealthy. Ratio: one Europeanto twelveAfricans

(photo 1940s)

[RHW Shepherd & BG Paver, African Contrasts, 160]

South African Mine WorkersSouth African Mine Workers

Migrant workers were required to live in compounds or barracks that they shared with dozens of other miners.

They slept on concrete slabs stacked around the room.

[Brummett, et al., eds. Civilisation, Past and Present, 896]

Labour: a universal needLabour: a universal need

Issue: how to make Africans into workers?

Nomadic peoples:

- Saharan camel, cattle herders- East, Southern Africa cattle herders

-forced to become sedentary: process of ‘sedentarization’

Labour: a universal needLabour: a universal need

Issue: how to make Africans into workers?

Peasants:

- West Africa: taxes forced farmers to grow cash crops

- East, South: taxes forced farmers to leave land, work on European farms, plantations

Labour: a universal needLabour: a universal need

Slavery remained key ‘labour’ issue:

- slaves main labour force supporting local economies

- most workers recruited by colonial forces were still slaves (or recently ‘freed slaves’, still dependents): “blind-eye” policy

-

Colonial Labour and SlaveryColonial Labour and Slavery

Slavery remained key ‘labour’ issue:

- administrative need for support of local elites (taxes, forced labour) meant acknowledging their claims to ‘dependents’

Slavery continued to underpin many domestic, even political structures.

““Villages de libertVillages de liberté”é”

[E Isichei, History of West Africa Since 1800, 229]

Colonial Labour and SlaveryColonial Labour and Slavery

Colonialism offered new opportunities:

- army troops (remember Rashid bin Hassani…)

- urban domestic labour: food preparation, laundry, prostitution

Urban ServicesUrban Services

Cooking morning meal for labourers forced intoEuropean town for work (South Africa).

[RHW Shepherd & BG Paver, African Contrasts, 1947]

Colonial Labour and SlaveryColonial Labour and Slavery

Colonialism offered new opportunities:

- wage labour in mines/on plantations (even if some portion returned to ‘masters’ or ‘chiefs’)

- sale of skills formerly belonging to masters (eg. weavers, dyers, bakers, seamstresses, brick-makers …)

From Slave to WorkerFrom Slave to Worker

Female Cotton Workers/Spinners ( Segu West Africa c.1930) R. Roberts, Two Worlds of Cotton, 1800-1946, 1996]

Colonial Colonial LabourLabour and Slaveryand SlaveryQuestions Inherent in Colonial Economies :

- Was ‘forced labour’ (whether for taxes or infrastructure building) slavery in disguise?

- Did colonialism entrench traditional forms of exploitation that worsened under the weight/demands of Colonial Economies?

- Was solving ‘the labour problem’ and adhering to the rhetoric of ‘freedom and equality for all’ (not to mention the ‘White Man’s Burden’) an inherent contradiction of colonialism?