Migrant Labour and the Peasantry in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1930-1965

Morapedi, Wazha G.

doi:10.1080/030570799108669

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Studies historically have documented that remittances have been an important source of income for migrant households (Beinart 1980;Leliveld, 1997;Morapedi, 1999;James, 2001). But there are a number of reasons why it might be expected that the incentives for remitting income among migrants in South Africa are weaker now than they were before.…”

Section: The Economic Ties Of Labour Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Has Been Happening to Internal Labour Migration in South Africa, 1993–1999?

Posel

Casale

2003

South African J Economics

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This paper attempts to redress the lack of research into temporary labour migration at a national level in South Africa. Using the 1993 Project for Statistics on Living Standards and Development and the 1995, 1997 and 1999 October Household Surveys, we explore three broad areas: the extent of labour migration over the period 1993 to 1999; the characteristics of migrant workers and how these have changed over time; and the economic ties that labour migrants have maintained with their households of origin. We find that labour migration from African rural areas has increased, driven largely by a rise in the proportion of women leaving their households of origin to work or to search for work. Using a simple multivariate regression analysis together with descriptive statistics, we explore some possible reasons for why there has been this increase in female migration. We also find that over the period migrants have retained strong economic ties with their households of origin, and that remittances remain an important share of income for these households. However, the analysis is limited by the paucity of data that exist on labour migrants in the national household surveys. We therefore have also sought, wherever possible, to expose the limitations of the data and the likely biases that result.

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Section: The Economic Ties Of Labour Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Has Been Happening to Internal Labour Migration in South Africa, 1993–1999?

Posel

Casale

2003

South African J Economics

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“…Rather, the majority retained access to agricultural resources for crop farming and cattle rearing, and they moved temporarily between their home village and the place of employment. Labourers were primarily recruited from rural households with few or no cattle in the rural areas and many used their savings to buy cattle as they returned home (Morapedi 1999).…”

Section: From Agriculture To Industry and Service Sectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing income inequality and structural transformation: The case of Botswana, 1921-2010

Hillbom¹,

Bolt²

2015

WIDER Working Paper

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In Sub-Saharan Africa we find some of the highest levels of income inequality in the world. Nevertheless, we generally know very little about the historical development of inequality. In this paper we look at how inequality developed in colonial and post-colonial Botswana. We show that income inequality started rising in the 1940s and peaked in the mid-1970s about the time that the economy switched from cattle to diamonds. Since the 1990s, it has then declined somewhat. Following the tradition of Kuznets we discuss how this rise and decline could be related to a potential structural transformation of the economy.

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“…Studies are divided on the socio-economic impact of labour migration. The dominant argument in the literature is that it causes considerable economic damage in the areas of out-migration, in part by robbing whole generations of energetic young people (Stichter 1985: 31–4; Morapedi 1999: 198–9; Kowet 1978: 86–100) 3 . However, others subscribe to the idea that migrancy did little harm to rural life, arguing that the absence of over half the able bodies from rural routine due to migration brought many concrete benefits to the subsistence economy through remittances.…”

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confidence: 99%

The rise and rise of agricultural wage labour: evidence from Ethiopia's south,c.1950–2000

Negash¹

2017

Africa

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This article seeks to examine the dynamic transformation in the system of labour mobilization and the consequent intermingling of peoples of diverse cultural background in northern Sidama, Ethiopia. It investigates the different labour recruitment strategies deployed in the study area at different times, ranging from traditional to hired labour. In the former case, the household plays a major role in the recruitment and supply of agricultural labour, whereas in the latter case, ‘trans-locality’ reinforced by migration becomes central to the labour history of the region. In the 1940s and 1950s, Emperor Haile Selassie I granted large estates of land in the study area to absentee landowners who started schemes of commercial coffee farming. The subsequent expansion of commercialized coffee farming in a locality called Wondo Gänät (northern Sidama) from the 1950s onwards was responsible for the introduction of agricultural wage labour into the wider region. There was no local surplus labour to satisfy the labour needs of the new coffee farms. This void was later filled by Kembata, Hadiya and Wolayita migrant labourers who flocked into the study area from regions widely noted for their scarcity of arable land. This translocal movement of workers paved the way for the beginning of wage employment and eventually the commodification of farm labour in line with capitalist agriculture. Although commercial coffee plantations provided the initial stimulus for labour commodification in the study area, sugar cane-based cash cropping has helped it flourish even further. I argue in this article that the imperial land grants of the late 1940s and 1950s were an important milestone both for the agricultural history of the study area and for the organization of farm labour. Most importantly, I also argue that some of the social tensions and conflicts that often haunt contemporary northern Sidama are legacies inherited from the labour migrations of the 1950s and 1960s and the demographic heterogeneity that ensued.

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Migrant Labour and the Peasantry in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1930-1965

Cited by 15 publications

References 5 publications

What Has Been Happening to Internal Labour Migration in South Africa, 1993–1999?

What Has Been Happening to Internal Labour Migration in South Africa, 1993–1999?

Changing income inequality and structural transformation: The case of Botswana, 1921-2010

The rise and rise of agricultural wage labour: evidence from Ethiopia's south,c.1950–2000

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