International African Institute

Labour Emigration among the Moçambique Thonga: A Reply to Sr. Rita-FerreiraAuthor(s): Marvin HarrisSource: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1960), pp.243-245Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1158307 .

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[ 243]

LABOUR EMIGRATION AMONG THE MOZAMBIQUE THONGA: A REPLY TO SR. RITA-FERREIRA'

MARVIN HARRIS

(i) Sr. Rita-Ferreira disagrees with the 'cultural identification' which I am said to make between Thonga and Chopi. I cannot imagine what he disagrees about since my text merely states that Thonga and Chopi are ' ethno-linguistically related', which is, of course, irrefutable. (2) He claims that I dismiss the principles of agnatic kinship solidarity and the obligation of senior sons on behalf of the welfare of junior sons. The reader is given the impression that I argue that such norms do not exist, when in fact, the only issue in the text is the extent to which actual behaviour corresponds to the ideal principles. Apparently, Rita-Ferreira is not acquainted with the concepts of ideal and actual culture. (3) He says that I do not hesitate to contradict Junod on point (2) while I give no evidence from other reliable sources. Those who have not seen my article will no doubt be surprised to learn that my evidence consists of citations and quotes from Junod. (4) Rita-Ferreira's readers cannot help but gain the impression that I am ignorant of the basic similarity between Thonga social organization and that of other South-eastern Bantu peoples. Nothing in my text entitles Sr. Rita-Ferreira to harbour such illusions, especially since the sources which he uses to correct me are to be found in my own list of references. The unique ingredient in Thonga labour emigration is not Thonga social organization, but the interaction between that social organization, the Portuguese labour laws, and the international labour agreements. (5) According to him, I claim that the 'defeat of Gugunhana in I895 was followed by attempts to use native labour in the construction of harbours and railways'. Obviously, I must be wrong since the railroad was com- pleted in 1894. The actual text, however, reads 'accompanied by', not 'followed by'. Sr. Rita-Ferreira's misrepresentation cannot alter the fact that one of the main objectives of the I893 Commission headed by Antonio Enes was to intensify the exploitation of native labour. Antonio Enes himself was the chief architect of the I899 forced labour code. (6) Since there were already 80,000 Mozambique migrants on the Rand in I899, and since it was only in 1899 that the forced labour code was

enacted, how could forced labour stimulate migration to the mines? Rita-Ferreira ignores the six previous years of military campaigns and the military government. During these years the liberal labour code of 1878 was entirely superseded by mili- tary command. The 1899 code merely enacted what was common practice from the moment Enes landed in MoSambique. (7) Rita-Ferreira places great emphasis on the claim that the aboriginal techno-environmental adaptation was unsatisfactory. This is not in dispute, and is, indeed, a support for my contention that Thonga social organization was unstable. (8) He also places considerable emphasis on the fact that the payment of lobola was being made in pounds sterling prior to I895. Again, this is not in dispute, since I made the same point. (9) Actually, I used both of these points to prove that 'wage labour contradicted nothing of significance in the old way of

I See Africa, April I960, pp. I42-52.

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244 LABOUR EMIGRATION AMONG THE MOZAMBIQUE THONGA

life '. But this leaves us with the enigma of why it was necessary to legislate the forced labour laws of 1899. My answer was, briefly, that the voluntary supply was

being drained off by the mines. Rita-Ferreira, however, does not offer any explanation of the 1899 code. (io) He cites Junod to prove that felling and burning was always 'woman's work '. My own Thonga informants, however, insisted that felling and

burning was traditionally men's work. There is no doubt that Junod saw women

clearing the secondary growth. But that was because at least 200,000 of the Thonga young men were away in the mines, or employed as voluntary or forced labourers in

Mogambique. (I i) He claims that the deleterious results of Thonga migratory labour have been exaggerated by ' superficial observers ' because such emigration ' has done a great deal to raise the standard of living and education' of Southern Mogambique. I confess to utter bafflement over his use of the term ' raise ', since the present rate of

illiteracy in the Sul de Save is 99 per cent. It would be very difficult for anyone to hold that the achievement of i per cent. literacy is adequate compensation for the 81,166 Mogambique Africans who died in the mines between 1902 and 1955, not

counting those who succumbed after they were shipped home. (12) He also asserts that 'the temporary absence of the family head is not considered a serious matter'. This claim cannot be based upon evidence furnished by an objective study, since none has ever been tolerated. My own unfortunately incomplete field studies, how- ever, indicate that the tensions, insecurities, and hardships caused by the absence of able-bodied males is a striking feature of every household I was able to learn about before the administration forced me to suspend my inquiries into these and related issues. (I3) He argues that the threat of forced labour conscription could not have

played an important role in perpetuating the migratory currents because, 'Had

[conditions] been very bad, the Thonga and Chopi labourers would have settled en masse with their families on foreign territory... .' As a member of the Portuguese administration, Sr. Rita-Ferreira might be expected to know (a) that the international labour agreements stipulate that clandestine migrants must be shipped back to

Mogambique; (b) that the legal migrants lose half of their pay if they do not go back; (c) that wives and children are not permitted to accompany the legal migrants; but that (d) despite these measures, there are, according to the census, about 1 30 working- age females to oo00 males in the Sul de Save, and (e) a virtual depopulation of every post area immediately adjacent to the territorial borders. Naturally, millions of Africans continue to live in Mozambique. Their love of their homes and families is not, however, a testimony to their toleration of the labour code. One might just as well argue that segregation in the southern United States cannot be very bad because so many Negroes do not migrate to the north. (14) He quotes Governor Brito Comacho to prove that there has never been any substantial demand for forced labour within MoSambique. The quotation, however, is taken from a book by Eduardo Saldanha, a famous local planter who was bitterly opposed to Comacho. Saldanha was so incensed by the manpower shortage that he accused Comacho of

taking bribes from the Chamber of Mines, and published four fulminating volumes

demanding the end of the international labour conventions and the massive conscrip- tion of forced labour for domestic agriculture. (I5) Rita-Ferreira denies that the

Portuguese labour policy has retarded the development of Thonga and Chopi agri- culture. His evidence is the annual sale of 1I,500,000 of cash crops. This amounts

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LABOUR EMIGRATION AMONG THE MO;AMBIQUE THONGA 245

to aper capita income from agriculture of at most ?2, scarcely a result commensurate with what Rita-Ferreira describes as over fifty years of government stimulation of African farming.

Resume

L'IMIGRATION DE LA MAIN-D'CEUVRE CHEZ LES THONGA DU MOZAMBIQUE: R1gPONSE A A. RITA-FERREIRA

L'AUTEUR repond aux divers points souleves par A. Rita-Ferreira dans son memoire, et tout specialement lorsqu'il estime avoir ete inexactement cite ou trahi dans sa pensee. En ce qui concerne la solidarite entre parents, il souligne que la seule question contestee est celle de l'accord du comportement veritable avec les principes theoriques. Loin d'etre en opposition avec Junod, ses propres indications consistent, pour la majeure partie, en cita- tions empruntees a cet auteur. I1 est pleinement conscient de la ressemblance fondamentale entre l'organisation sociale des Thonga et celle d'autres peuples bantous du sud-est. L'unique facteur de la migration de la main-d'ceuvre thonga n'est pas leur organisation sociale, mais les interactions de cette organisation sociale avec les lois ouvrieres portugaises et les accords internationaux concernant la main-d'ceuvre. Un des principaux buts vises par la Commission de 893 etait d'accroitre l'exploitation de la main-d'ceuvre indigene et le code du travail force, promulguee en i 899, avait ete rendu necessaire par 1'epuisement des ressources de la main-d'ceuvre volontaire recrutee pour les mines. C'est pour la meme raison que les femmes ont ete contraintes d'assumer des taches agricoles, restees jusqu'alors, par tradition, le travail des hommes. Lorsque Rita-Ferreira pretend que la menace de la conscription pour le travail force n'aurait pas cree une situation intolerable, parce que les travailleurs thonga et chopi ne s'installaient pas en masse, ni avec leurs familles dans des territoires etrangers, cet auteur parait meconnaitre le fait que les accords internationaux concernant la main- d'ceuvre auraient rendu impossible leur migration dans ces conditions.

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