Author(s): | Johnson, David |
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Reviewer(s): | Jones, Laird |
Published by EH.NET (December 2002)
David Johnson, World War II and the Scramble for Labour in Colonial
Zimbabwe, 1939-1948. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications, 2000. iv
+ 179 pp. ISBN: 0-908307-85-3.
Reviewed for EH.NET by Laird Jones, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania.
At first glance, David Johnson’s monograph on Zimbabwean labor during the
Second World War appears unlikely to interest the general economic history
reader. It is a rather slim volume with a seemingly over-focused title. Turning
the pages, however, it is soon apparent that the author has attempted a much
broader project. Interpreting the war years as a crucial watershed, Johnson
seeks to connect two major bodies of research in modern African history: the
development of an early colonial economy and labor regime, and the rise of
postwar political and labor activism. Far from being narrowly focused, his
study weaves together a number of labor-related themes, from farm work to
industry, and policy to protest.
What is most refreshing about the book is that it examines Zimbabwean labor
history outside the shadow of the South African literature, making comparisons
and drawing upon theses developed elsewhere in colonial Africa. In particular,
the author cites Walter Rodney on the war as a watershed, Fred Cooper on the
war and workers, and Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale on settler politics and the
colonial state. Of course, Johnson does make reference to scholarship on
Zimbabwe and South Africa, but the broader perspective is both informative and
more appealing to a wider audience.
The argument begins strongly. The introduction asserts, “the war was a pivotal
moment in the relationship between capital and labor in Zimbabwe, then Southern
Rhodesia. Under the guise of support for the British war effort,
undercapitalized settler producers — who were unable to attract an adequate
supply of labor through a dependence on market forces — used their political
power to influence the state to coerce Africans into wage employment in order
to take advantage of unprecedented opportunities presented by the expansion of
internal and external markets.” Moreover, the author connects these efforts to
postwar labor unrest and later mass nationalism. He cautions, “settler
prosperity and the economic development on which it was built were not without
contradictions. The expansion of the war and post-war years … greatly
increased the social basis for Africans to challenge their economic and
political subordination.”
The first chapter clearly establishes that military service was not a
significant Southern Rhodesian contribution to the allied war effort. Africans
generally dreaded it. Nor did white settlers volunteer in great numbers. Even
the Southern Rhodesian government did not encourage mass enlistments. Instead,
it pursued a strategy of training small, highly skilled combat units. In part,
Johnson argues, this official reticence stemmed from longstanding fears of
armed rebellion. No settler-dominated legislature wished to see large numbers
of Africans under arms, whatever the circumstances. But in greater part,
Johnson maintains, reluctance to raise a larger fighting force stemmed from the
desire of settler farmers, would-be manufactures and mine operators to
capitalize on the war economy, and for this they required African laborers, not
African soldiers.
Chapter two outlines the wartime stimulus to the Southern African economy, and
settler efforts to cash in, which Johnson terms, “the lucrativeness of
loyalty.” The Southern Rhodesian government, for example, hosted a number of
British flight training facilities. Construction of these bases proved a
windfall for settler contractors, as did provisioning the influx of military
personnel for local merchants. More important, wartime demand revived the
mining industries and gave company owners greater leverage to lobby for higher
mineral prices. The agricultural sector expanded too and in Zimbabwe none saw
their situation more improved than tobacco planters. Finally, wartime shortages
of imported European consumer goods proved an impetus to secondary
industrialization in many Southern African cities.
The key variable in the wartime economic boom, the author argues in chapter
three, was African labor. Since the official repeal of corv?e labor in the
1920s, settler employers had faced a dwindling supply of local workers. Many
young people simply found cash crop agriculture on the Reserves more
remunerative than wage labor on settler farms or in the mines. For nearly two
decades the situation failed to become acute, because during the Depression
there was sharply reduced demand, and worker shortfalls were made up with low
wage migrants from less prosperous neighboring colonies. It was the war,
Johnson points out, which brought the matter to a head. In settler agriculture,
mining and industry there was sharply increased demand for workers, and at the
same time, several neighboring colonies severely restricted the outflow of
migrants, ostensibly to aid their own war efforts. Rather than relying on
market forces, however, Southern Rhodesian employers attempted other options —
professional recruiting organizations, appeals to more distant labor pools, and
increased demands on their remaining work force. Settler farmers had long
lobbied the Southern Rhodesian government to reimpose forced labor, and
following the failure of the 1941-42 maize harvest finally pushed through the
Compulsory Labor Act.
Forced labor, in the midst of a war against authoritarianism, was a dicey
matter. The author presents considerable evidence in chapter four that
conscription was most unpopular in the Reserves. Further, he suggests that even
the colonial state was contradicted in this effort. Certainly, elected
officials sought to reward settler employers. However, conscription quotas
placed on African chiefs or headmen in the Reserves undermined the legitimacy
of the colonial regime on the ground. And a return to forced labor risked
criticism from anti-colonial and labor activists in Europe. Therefore,
officials justified the scheme as essential to the war effort and organized it
accordingly. Young people were formed into large units, and worked in gangs,
traveling from one job site to the next. Some might be engaged in military
construction, others in roadwork, and many in agricultural fieldwork.
These four chapters contain several noteworthy assertions. First, the author
documents that settlers maneuvered within the context of the war to gain
political and economic advantage. The point has certainly been made previously
for Eastern and Southern African in the case of the First World War, but less
for the Second. This contention also provides better context for postwar
politics, at least for settler efforts to set legislative agendas and to impose
reactionary forms of control on African populations. Second, Johnson points out
that settler enterprises exploited forced labor long after the literature
suggests. Moreover, they did so during a crucial recovery, which some argue was
a take-off period for large-scale, settler agriculture. Whereas others have
attributed this belated settler success to better access to extension services
or transport, new hybrid seed types, mechanization or political control over
para-statal marketing boards, the author reintroduces the question of primitive
accumulation and returns African labor to center stage. This contention too has
great bearing on the postwar situation as well as on the present, but
unfortunately these connections are not developed.
The argument becomes clouded in chapter five, which outlines the postwar repeal
of compulsory labor, as well as employer initiatives to organize state-related
recruiting entities to make up shortfalls. Most failed, the author argues,
since during the immediate postwar period there was relative prosperity in the
Reserves, and few young people were willing to seek low wage agricultural
employment. Moreover, those in need of work headed to urban areas or undertook
clandestine migration to South Africa. Thus, the author places European settler
and African peasant agriculture in competition, a common theme in the Southern
African literature, and implies that in the postwar period, from a labor
standpoint, it was settler agriculture that suffered. Unfortunately, while
these are interesting observations, supported in some instances by documentary
evidence, they seem difficult to sustain without considerable further research.
How could settler agriculture expand throughout the period in the wake of an
apparent worker shortage? Did “external” migrant labor again come to play a key
role? What about other factors besides labor? Likewise, “peasant” agriculture
has largely been considered to be in commercial decline after the war.
Certainly there were belts of prosperity close to urban food markets or
transportation routes. But in more isolated areas, those that had for years
been exploited as labor pools, had conditions really improved to the point that
few people would take occasional farm work?
The sixth and final chapter jumps to the urban areas to outline postwar African
political and labor activism. It is a rather abrupt transition in that the
preceding chapters deal largely with settler farmer politics and rural labor.
At several points the author does state that wartime conditions led to an
expansion in mining and stimulated secondary industrialization, but beyond
these generalizations, he provides little information on actual conditions in
mines, factories or transportation facilities. The policy connections are also
difficult to discern. Did wartime compulsory labor policy play any role in
sparking postwar urban protests? Were there rural-urban linkages? Were there
other wartime urban or industrial policies that factored into postwar unrest?
Unfortunately, the book ends abruptly and the author offers no conclusions.
David Johnson’s initial study constitutes a promising beginning to a massive
topic. It provides some important analyses, on wartime politics and forced
labor in particular. The data on clandestine migration to South Africa also is
original and impressive. However, given the book’s limited length, its
contributions are not thoroughly developed. In the future, the author needs to
flesh out his thesis with further research on rural-urban linkages in labor
activism or political protest, on the impact of urban wartime policies, and
perhaps on the process of secondary industrialization.
Laird Jones teaches African and World History at Lock Haven University. His
research is in late modern East African urban and economic history. He is
currently working on a project about consumer imports.
Subject(s): | Labor and Employment History |
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Geographic Area(s): | Africa |
Time Period(s): | 20th Century: WWII and post-WWII |