Preliminary Programme

Tue 13 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Wed 14 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Thu 15 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Fri 16 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

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Tuesday 13 April 2010 16.30
B-4 AFR01 Labour and Transport in Africa
Bibliotheek, muziekcentrum
Network: Africa Chair: Jan-Bart Gewald
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Ntewusu Aniegye : From Cattle Ranch to Lorry Park: A Social History of Accra Tudu Lorry Park 1920-2007
The motor vehicle is an indispensable form of transport because of its flexibility, adaptability and maneuverability. Among other functions, it plays a leading role in the movement of people ad goods from one sector of an urban area to another and between settlements. TDP consult Ltd (1998) stated that, the ... (Show more)
The motor vehicle is an indispensable form of transport because of its flexibility, adaptability and maneuverability. Among other functions, it plays a leading role in the movement of people ad goods from one sector of an urban area to another and between settlements. TDP consult Ltd (1998) stated that, the road transport sub-sector in Ghana accounts for ninety five percent and ninety four percent of the domestic passenger and freight movements respectively. By this role the motor vehicle has facilitated the physical expansion of cities. The form that settlements are assuming is primarily an account of rapid increase in car ownership.
The continuous growth in motor vehicle volumes, coupled with population growth have given rise to the establishment and control of lorry parks in Ghana. One of such lorry parks is Tudu in Accra, Ghana. The Tudu lorry park is of importance because it is located in the central area of the city where most journeys by motor vehicle terminate. Besides it is the focal point of the urban area in which the commercial and administrative activities take place. While Makola market is also very close to the park; the ministries, fire service, Accra central police headquarters are just within walking distance.
The Tudu lorry park presents many features which are worth studying. It is the evolution of Tudu as cattle rearing place in the 1880s, a residential area in the 1920s and a lorry park in the 1930s that form the basis for this presentation.
The paper to be presented, based on archival research as well as fieldwork, concentrates on the social history of Tudu Accra, Ghana. The paper will seek to explore the social history of this town quarter in the second half of the Twentieth Century and examine the role of the motor vehicle in the overall socio-economic and cultural development of Tudu Lorry Park from 1920 to 2007. (Show less)

Mary Davies : Rest houses, recruitment centres and remote places: the social history of a ‘departure point’ in Northern Malawi 1933-1975
Large numbers of labour migrants who travelled to work in the mines and farms of central and southern Africa were drawn from the Northern Province of Malawi; in some parts of the region up to 70% of the male population were away from their home during the 1940s, working for ... (Show more)
Large numbers of labour migrants who travelled to work in the mines and farms of central and southern Africa were drawn from the Northern Province of Malawi; in some parts of the region up to 70% of the male population were away from their home during the 1940s, working for wages elsewhere.

The Hewe Valley, which lies on the northwest border with Zambia, was an area from where significant numbers of migrant workers came. In addition to this it was one of the main places of departure for men who were recruited by the Witswatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA) from across the northern region and it became a customary resting point for others who were trekking across the border and on to the Copperbelt in Zambia.

An otherwise ‘remote’ place, Hewe is geographically isolated from surrounding communities. It lies at the bottom of a steep escarpment and is surrounded by mountains on all sides. It was the airstrip that was established by WNLA that saw the area suddenly become a recognised recruitment point and it was this base that formed the heart of Hewe’s trading centre Chiteshe, which takes its name from a local word which means ‘station’.

My paper will present some of the economic opportunities and social possibilities that this site provided to the community of Hewe and its surrounding area. I will look at the impact that this centre and the transient community of migrant workers who passed through it had on the local landscapes of power in Hewe, in particular with regard to the chieftaincy of Katumbi, the recognised Native Authority in the valley.

My presentation will place this social history of a relatively small community in northern Malawi within the broader historical context of a growing African Nationalism and atmosphere of ambiguity about the role of chiefs. It will attempt to understand its impact by considering the rapid social and economic change that was bringing about wider transformations in the region.

Labour migration affected Hewe in a number of very significant ways: the absence of large numbers of men changed agricultural patterns; certain individuals, particularly those who had had the advantage of a Livingstonia education as the mission was located very nearby, became wealthy; others had experiences which would shape their future investments and behaviour. The impact that the indirect infrastructures of recruitment and transport had on such communities, however, is less obvious. This is what my paper seeks to highlight. (Show less)

Walter Nkwi : “Human Lorries:” Labour mobillity and Transport in British Southern Cameroons, 1922-1961
The social history of labour and transport in Africa are invariably related and has caught the attention of researchers in time and space. Labour at the onset of the colonial enterprise became a conditio sine qua non for several reasons. One of these reasons was that labour was indispensable if ... (Show more)
The social history of labour and transport in Africa are invariably related and has caught the attention of researchers in time and space. Labour at the onset of the colonial enterprise became a conditio sine qua non for several reasons. One of these reasons was that labour was indispensable if the colonial adventure in any “meaningful” way was to score any success. Most studies in Cameroon history about labour have attempted to focus on the movement of labour to the plantations which were/and are found in the littoral quadrant and construction of railways and roads. The pith and kernel of this paper is an attempt to examine how the British colonial administration in the British Southern Cameroons procure labour for the day to day running of the territory with special focus on the transportation of the goods of colonial officials going on tour and transportation of mails that were meant for the colonial officials during the colonial period. I find this aspect of labour and transport captivating and stimulating because so far it has remained a terra incognita in the historiography of the British Southern Cameroons. Secondly we need to start knowing how the colonial officials on tour transported their goods as well as the effectiveness of the mailing system during the nascent years of colonial rule. The salient questions which the paper wishes to tackle therefore are the following: How were the goods of the government officials transported in the territory when they were on tour and when they were transferred from one place to another when there were no vehicles? How much was the labour paid? How was the labour procured? Which were the roads used? How were mails and other important issues of administration transported in the territory? What were the distances covered and who cooked food for the labour? What were the consequences on this type of labour when the motor car and postal services were introduced in the territory around the mid 1940s. The approach will be social history-that branch of history which according to the celebrated Africanist historian, Professor Ade Ajayi, defined “as a study of the change in patterns of daily life, the emphasis being on how people lived at different times in the past, what music, dance, architecture, marriage, and family life they favoured, what religion insofar as this impinges on daily life, and the pattern of change in the totality of life that these imply”. The emphasis of this type of history is on continuity and change in how people lived their lives. In other words, the basic challenge of social history can be said to be a fuller understanding of the complex processes that have led to the emergence and transformation of human society to its present form. Sources will be mostly gotten from archives in Cameroon and interviews when necessary will be conducted. (Show less)



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