The Development of Labour Migration from Nyasaland, 1891-1914

Literature › Works

F. E. Sanderson (1961). The Development of Labour Migration from Nyasaland, 1891-1914. The Journal of African History, Vol. 2, No. 2. Cambridge University Press.

Type	journal article
Scope	Wider apartheid literature
Method	archival narrative
Period studied	1891–1914
Regions	Nyasaland, Southern Rhodesia, Transvaal/Witwatersrand, Northern Rhodesia, Portuguese East Africa, Katanga (Congo), Tanganyika
Themes	mining migrant labour, labour markets wages, business and state, origins segregation, demography urbanisation
Citation key	sanderson1961

Argument

Labour migration from Nyasaland was well established by 1914, although mass migration came mainly in the inter-war years. It was driven by a poor subsistence economy with almost no local wage employment, by hut and 'labour' taxes set high relative to local cash earnings, and by much higher wages in Southern Rhodesia and the Transvaal. Rhodesian employers, short of local labour and under-capitalised, deliberately drew on alien labour because it could be expanded without raising wages. Nyasaland's thin colonial state could not regulate the outflow, and neither the Rand mine-owners' recruitment bans nor the Union's later restrictions on tropical labour stopped it; migrants simply rerouted. The author concludes that the costs of migrancy to the sending economy outweighed its benefits.

Evidence and method

Colonial Office and Foreign Office correspondence (Africa South series), British Central Africa Gazette, Cd. command papers (notably Cd. 3993 of 1908), Rhodesia Native Labour Bureau reports, the 1935 Emigrant Labour Committee report, the Pim Report, Southern Rhodesian census and public-health reports, and secondary works (Van der Horst, Hone, Duff, Burden, Abraham). The author also searched the Zomba and Salisbury archives. Data are acknowledged to be unreliable, and one table of Southern Rhodesian population and labourers is reproduced.

Place in the debates

• Role of taxation and compulsion in creating a wage-labour supply (cheap/forced labour origins) (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Argues that hut and labour taxes, together with administrative practice such as 'finding work' for defaulters, were a strong stimulus to wage migration. Migration had begun before taxation or pacification, however, so taxes were an additional rather than the sole cause.
• Costs versus benefits of migrant labour for sending areas (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Judges the disadvantages (social disruption, retarded African agriculture, low wages) to outweigh the advantages (a softer transition, a mobility that acted as a reserve price on labour).
• Capacity of colonial states to regulate labour migration (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Holds that Nyasaland lacked the staff, sanctions and inter-governmental co-operation needed to regulate migration, so passes and recruitment bans were largely ineffective.

Findings

• By the time of writing, migration abroad involved roughly a third of Nyasaland's adult men, because the country could offer paid work to only a small fraction. (p. 2)

  Today approximately one-third of the total male adult population is employed abroad; for, although Nyasaland is one of the most densely peopled areas in Southern Africa

• Official migration statistics are unreliable, so the actual numbers cannot be known. (p. 2)

  official data on these labour movements are not very reliable and can frequently be shown to contain gross inaccuracies.

• Taxation was calibrated to induce longer wage employment, and the 6s. rate sufficed to supply labour until 1914. (p. 4)

  the 6s. tax proved more or less adequate to maintain a satisfactory supply of labour

• Wages followed the tax rate, so peasants without local cash opportunities had to travel far and contract for months to pay it. (p. 5)

  Since in Nyasaland wage rates per month tended to follow closely the annual rate of tax, the African, if he had no local cash earning opportunities, had to travel long distances to the work centre

• Wage differentials pulled migrants to Southern Rhodesia and the Rand. (p. 6)

  Apart from the social and economic pressures within Nyasaland, migrants were attracted to Southern Rhodesia and the Transvaal by the vastly superior wage rates operating there.

• Rhodesian employers preferred imported alien labour because it could be expanded without raising wages. (p. 8)

  Aliens, however, could be brought in to meet an increased demand for labour without causing wage levels to rise appreciably, if at all.

• Alien workers came to dominate the Southern Rhodesian labour force. (p. 9)

  by 1921 alien workers formed almost two-thirds of the total in employment.

• Nyasa recruits on the Rand suffered extreme mortality, which led to a ban on recruitment in 1907. (p. 10)

  The death-rate of those recruited from Nyasaland by the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association was consistently above ioo per mille per annum (in I905-6 the rate was 166.3)

• The 1907 ban did not stop migration, because men continued to travel independently towards Johannesburg. (p. 10)

  The inability of the mine-owners to reduce the rate substantially led to a prohibition on recruitment from Nyasaland in 1907.

• Union restrictions on tropical labour were evaded by irregular routes, and over time migrants redirected to Southern Rhodesia. (p. 11)

  Some penetrated the Union via Bechuanaland or Southern Rhodesia, many entered via Portuguese East Africa by 'purchasing' Portuguese passes so as to obtain mine work.

• The Nyasaland state lacked the capacity to regulate the outflow. (p. 12)

  effective regulation presupposes an adequate administrative staff, enforceable penal sanctions and a high degree of inter-governmental co-operation. Nyasaland could not achieve any of these requirements.

• Migrancy gave Africans some bargaining leverage by preserving the village economy as a fallback. (p. 14)

  it gave him a mobility, denied to the European worker during the Industrial Revolution, which acted as a reserve price on labour and limited the degree of exploitation by the European system.

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source	Kind	Period	How used
Nyasaland Annual Colonial Report, 1958	official statistical series	1958	Supplies the contemporary estimates of Nyasa male adults employed abroad and in paid employment at home, framing the scale of migration.
Nyasaland Colonial Report for 1920 and Kuczynski, A Demographic Survey of the British Colonial Empire, ii	official statistical series	1920	Used to show that official estimates of Nyasas working abroad were grossly understated when compared with South African and Southern Rhodesian figures.
British Central Africa Gazette (various issues, 1894-1903)	legislation gazette	1894-1903	Source for early labour movements, tax extension, tax and labour regulations, illicit recruiting cases and Ngoni/Tonga labour movement.
Report by Commissioner Johnston, C. 7504 of 1894, Africa no. 6	commission or official report	1894	Gives the number of Europeans resident in 1894 and the initial hut tax rate, showing limited wage-earning opportunities.
British South Africa Company Minutes (21/3/1900, 10/4/1900)	company records or reports	1900	Cited for internecine warfare hampering migration and for Codrington's observation of Ngoni returning from Mashonaland.
British Central Africa Order/Ordinance no. 5 of 1901 (labour tax)	legislation gazette	1901	Establishes the 6s. tax with 3s. remission and the proclaimed district power.
Pim Report, Col. No. 145 of 1938	commission or official report	1938	Used to compare tax rates with cash-earning capacity in Northern Rhodesia and for Katanga recruiting history.
Report of the Commission on the Native Rising, Nyasaland, 1916	commission or official report	1916	Source for the tax being raised to 8s. at the outbreak of war.
G. N. Burden, Nyasaland Native Labour in Southern Rhodesia (1938) and Nyasaland Natives in the Union of South Africa (1940)	commission or official report	1938-1940	Evidence on compound stores, tokens and credit, and on Nyasas entering the Union illegally.
Central African Times; Life and Work in British Central Africa; Aurora (Livingstonia journal)	newspapers periodicals	1903-1904	Evidence on tax evasion by flight to the border, labour market effects, mission views and conditions of the journey.
Cd. 3993 of 1908 (Transvaal Labour Commission/native labour report with Sharpe evidence)	commission or official report	1908 (data 1902-1907)	Principal source for wage rates, Nyasa numbers on the Rand, death rates, alien labour share in Rhodesia, Sharpe's 1907 estimates and WNLA recruiter testimony.
Cd. 1200 of 1902	commission or official report	1902	Supports Southern Rhodesian mining wage rates.
S. T. Van der Horst, Native Labour in South Africa (1942)	secondary literature compilation	1900s-1936	Used for Rand wage rates, WNLA recruitment and the share of tropical Africans on the Rand 1913-1936.
P. F. Hone, Southern Rhodesia (1909), citing official figures on population and labour rolls	secondary literature compilation	1902-1907	Table of population and indigenous versus alien labourers showing Rhodesia's dependence on alien labour.
Southern Rhodesia Census 1911 (employers' returns)	population census	1911	Registers 12,881 Nyasas by employers' returns, used to infer a larger inflow.
Reports and Proceedings of the Rhodesia Native Labour Bureau (1908-1912)	employer association records	1908-1912	Supplies ferry crossing counts, desertion rates, contract lengths, Nyasa recruit allocation and bureau policy.
Southern Rhodesia, Report of the Chief Native Commissioner, 1919	commission or official report	1919	Supports the claim that Nyasas contracted independently for six months or less.
Southern Rhodesia, Annual Report on Public Health, 1915, 1919, 1920	official statistical series	1915-1920	Numbers of Nyasas on Rhodesian mines (10,513 by 1916) and their ranking by origin.
Report on Nyasaland Natives in the Union of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, by J. C. Abraham, Zomba, 1937	commission or official report	1937	Source for alien workers forming two-thirds of Rhodesian employment by 1921 and Nyasa illegal entry routes.
Report of the Emigrant Labour Committee (Travers Lacey Committee), Zomba, 1935	commission or official report	1935	Source for pass system, its evasion, Tanganyika migration, Union Miniere policy and forecasts of social effects.
Northern Rhodesia, Report upon Native Affairs, 1931	official statistical series	1931	First official estimate of Nyasas employed in Northern Rhodesia (4,597).
Nyasaland Legislative Council Proceedings, Zomba (1908, 1909)	parliamentary debates	1908-1909	Governor's and Deputy Governor's addresses on government aims to regulate migration.
East Africa Commission report, Cd. 2387 of 1925	commission or official report	1925	Reports population decline 1921-23 attributed to migrancy and disease, with the author noting error margins.
Archives of Zomba and Salisbury and Foreign Office records in London (author's search)	state archives	nineteenth century	Author states searches found almost no mention of labour emigration before 1900.

Inference

Quantification: Illustrative figures.

Narrative historical reconstruction from colonial official reports, gazettes and parliamentary papers, combining scattered numerical estimates (wages, tax rates, labour counts) with qualitative reasoning about tax incentives, wage differentials and regulation. Quantities are cross-checked against recipient territories' figures; no formal statistical analysis.

Key claims

Claim	Basis	Strength
Hut and labour taxes, set high relative to local cash-earning capacity, pushed Nyasas into wage labour and abroad, with Sharpe's 1901 labour tax having an immediate effect. (p. 262)	British Central Africa Gazette, Sharpe correspondence in Africa South series, BCA ordinance of 1901, Central African Times.	Partial data
Wage differentials (3s.-6s. a month in Nyasaland versus £2-£3 on the Rand and 15s.-45s. in Southern Rhodesia) attracted migrants abroad. (p. 263)	Van der Horst, Cd. 3993 of 1908, Cd. 1200 of 1902, Africa South 717.	Partial data
Official migration data are unreliable and grossly understate the numbers abroad, e.g. 20,000 reported in 1920 versus about 60,000 indicated by recipient-territory figures. (p. 259)	Nyasaland Colonial Report 1920 compared with South African and Southern Rhodesian figures; pass system criticism.	Partial data
Southern Rhodesia depended increasingly on alien labour, with alien workers outnumbering indigenous workers from about 1911 and forming nearly two-thirds by 1921; Nyasas became the largest mine group. (p. 266)	Hone's table from official figures, Abraham 1937 report, Southern Rhodesia public health reports.	Partial data
Migration to the Rand was substantial despite official restrictions, with very high Nyasa mine death rates (above 100 per mille) leading to the 1907 recruitment ban, after which migration continued independently. (p. 267)	Cd. 3993 of 1908 (WNLA figures and recruiter testimony, Nyasaland pass numbers), Van der Horst.	Partial data
Nyasaland's government lacked the staff, sanctions and inter-governmental cooperation to regulate migration effectively. (p. 269)	Pass system record, Emigrant Labour Committee 1935, Legislative Council proceedings, R.N.L.B. reports.	Illustrative or anecdotal
By 1914 migration abroad was an established part of the economy involving a considerable proportion of adult men, though its social and demographic effects before 1914 are poorly known. (p. 269)	Inference from scattered estimates, mission commentary and later Emigrant Labour Committee 1935 report.	Asserted

The author's caveats

The author repeatedly states that official data on labour movements are unreliable and contain gross inaccuracies; the pass-based estimates are suspect, recipient-territory records depend on employers' recording of origin, Hone's figures have a high margin of error, and information before 1900 and for Tanganyika, Portuguese East Africa and Congo is almost totally lacking.

Gaps in the evidence

The argument lacks any systematic series on emigration, such as consistent pass counts, border crossing registers or recruiting records, and no household or village survey exists to test claims about motives and tax effects. Rhodesian and Transvaal employer registers, WNLA and RNLB archives and district annual reports could allow better reconstruction of flows; many survive in archives, and later analyses have used some. Quantitative wage and tax burden comparisons by district would test the tax-as-incentive argument more rigorously.

Replicability: Data described but not public.