Economy, society and labour migration in central Mozambique, 1930-.1965: a case study of Manica province

Abstract

My thesis deals with the social and economic history of central Mozambique, in particular Manica pronvince. The main purpose of the study is to explain and analyse the causes and processes through which central Mozambique was gradually integrated into the regional economy and transformed into a labour reserve for southern Rhodesia'a mines and commercial farms. In particular, the thesis explores the socio-economic implications of labour migration for rural life im Manica and examines the different forms of collective organisation and political consciousness amongst Mozambican migrants in Southern Rhodesia between 1930 and 1960s. The thesis structured into four sections. The intoductory section provides the overview of the independent local kigdoms of Manica and Quiteve. The first part of the section examines the impact of mercantile capital before the nineteenth century and the influence of the Gaza-Nguni between 1830s and 1890s. The second party , analyses colonial conquest and the political economy of the Mozambique company and labour mogration before the 1930s. The second , concentrates on the colonial years of 1930 and 1965, and discusses the unsuccessful attempts of the undercapitalised portuguese economy to attract and stabilised local African Labour. African households responded to the marketeconomy through producing maize , wheat and cotton cash crops. The third section investigates the different ways youth and adult males incorparated migrancy into rural society in Manica district, particulary its role in the process of the emergence and consolidation of African peasantry, as well as the improvement of their standard of living ans the education of their children. The last section analyses the process through which Mozambican migrants established proto-nationalist organisations and developed various forms of political consciousness in Southerm Rhodesia