Methods used to Recruit Labour in Rhodesia

Slaves toiling. Image credit stockton.edu

• The settlers used force to get labour at first chibharo, slave or forced labour
• They forced local chiefs to supply able bodied men
• Policemen would raid villages and force all able bodied men to go and work
• In 1903, the Native Labour Bureau was established to recruit native labour
• It was used to recruit by force men from Zambia, Nyasaland (Malawi) and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique)
• The workers worked for twelve contracts and earned very low wages
• African workers were subjected to cruel punishment if they tried to escape such as being jailed with hard labour
• Arresting and sentencing those who ran away was also used as a way to secure cheap labour
• Africans evicted to the reserves found them less productive and this forced them to work for the settlers
• Landless natives were taken advantage of as they were heavily exploited by the settlers because they had nowhere to go
• The settlers also employed system of tying the peasant to a farm which was a system whereby a worker was payed after the farmer had harvested their crop
• This was to make sure an employee stayed with one farmer
• Europeans would also extend a good hand to keep their workers such as lending them food stuffs
• The introduction of taxes ensured that African worked for them to raise the monies

To access more topics go to the History Notes page.