Colonialism and the development of the contract labour system in Kavango
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Date
2015
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Namibia Press
Abstract
The contract labour system in Namibia was a colonial invention and needs to be
explored in the context of colonial historiography. Many scholars have written on the
contract labour system in Namibia. However, while there is a general understanding
of the system, the Kavango as a supplier of contract labour is neglected, as the
historiography has largely focused on the supply of labour from the region that was
labelled ‘Ovamboland’ (Clarence-Smith and Moorsom, 1977; Cronje and Cronje, 1979; Hishongwa, 1992; Kane Berman, 1972; McKittrick, 1998; Moorsom, 1989; Cooper, 2001). However, the area known today as the regions of Kavango East and Kavango West has a significant role in the history of migrant labour in Namibia and there is an opportunity to reassess the system using a different regional context. Although labour recruitment in the Kavango had been on-going prior to 1925, it was unorganised with limited numbers of recruits collected by colonial officials, and it was only after 1925 that the South African administration finally managed to formalise labour recruitment. The formalisation of the contract labour system in the Kavango occurred with the formation of the Northern Labour Organisation (NLO) and Southern Labour Organisation (SLO) in 1925. These were later amalgamated into the South West Africa Native Labour Association (SWANLA) which recruited labourers from the Kavango and Ovambo in the early 1940s until the collapse of the contract labour system in 1972. Using qualitative research methods to gather and analyse data, this paper employs oral interviews, archival and written sources to explain the encounters of the Kavango population with colonialism and asks why both German (1885-1915) and South African (1915-1989) colonial authorities needed labourers from Kavango, and what strategies the colonial administration used to extract labour.
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Keywords
Colonialism, Contract labour system, Kavango
Citation
Likuwa, K.M. (2015). Colonialism and the development of the contract labour system in Kavango. In J. Silvester (Ed.), Re-Viewing Resistance in Namibian History (pp. 105-126). Windhoek: UNAM Press.