The Second World War Revival of Forced Labor in the Rhodesias

Abstract

The history of compulsion in Africa, Frederick Cooper remarked a while back, turns to be a long one ... .1 Indeed it does, even if one restricts attention to the colonial period, as I shall do here. Cooper's statement begs the question, however, of the definition of compulsion or, for our purposes, forced labor. We can establish a theoretical spectrum, along which actual cases might fall. At one end, we might observe (with some silliness perhaps) that all of us born without the proverbial silver spoon must in some way to survive. At the other end lies what I would call gun to the head forced labor work as I tell you or die which all of us, I presume, would agree is forced labor par excellence. Between these two extremes lies a whole range of situations, described with various terms from conscription and coercion, on to recruitment, enticement, and control, through to influence, persuasion, and suggestion. Exactly what constitutes force is often more difficult to determine than might be assumed. For instance, it is widely recognized that taxation was imposed in colonial situations in order to generate or out wage labor for European employers or rulers, as well as to raise revenue. Critics of empire like J. A. Hobson could conclude at the turn of