Labor Relations in Zimbabwe from 1900 to 2000: Sources, Interpretations, and Understandings

Abstract

This article looks at the shifts and continuities in labor relations in Zimbabwe from c. 1900-2000. It does so by looking at three cross sections (1904, 1951, and 2002) to examine the changes that have taken place. By exploring the continuities (subsistence agriculture) and shifts (limited industrialization and urbanization) of labor relations over this period, it is hoped that the article provides a comprehensive account of the rapid and radical changes Zimbabwe underwent during the twentieth century and the impacts these have had on the peoples and economies within the southern African nation.

Agricultural commercialisation and changing labour regimes in Zimbabwe

“…Moreover, from the 1990s, the 'structural adjustment' ensured that the government had inadequate capacity to monitor and enforce policy reforms (Amanor-Wilks 1995; Kanyenze 2001). The agricultural sector's contribution to employment rose from 879 workers in 1904 to 83,000 by 1936and 220,162 in 1951and 314,965 by 2002(Pilossof 2014; also see Phimister and Pilossof 2017, 220). By the late 1990s, there were around 300,000 workers on large-scale farms; although only half of them were permanent workers and the rest were seasonal, temporary workers, often women, moving to farms from communal areas (CSO 2001).…”