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Industrial Efficiency and the Urban African. A Study of Conditions in Southern Rhodesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Extract

The report of the Commission of Enquiry set up to investigate the protection of secondary industries in Southern Rhodesia, published in 1946, produced statistical evidence to show that output per head was considerably lower than in any other Commonwealth country. The figures quoted refer to 1938, but there is little evidence of any marked advance in African productivity since that date. Only in isolated instances is native labour today working to the full satisfaction of its European management and, as a general rule, Government officials and industrial or commercial employers are unanimous in their condemnation of African inefficiency. Many of these opinions are founded upon race prejudice or ignorance of industrial history, but there is, nevertheless, ample evidence in the form of high absentee rates, rapid labour turnover and an almost complete failure of normal incentives to produce increased productivity, to indicate that something is radically wrong in the industrial field.

Réusmé

LE RENDEMENT INDUSTRIEL ET L'AFRICAN URBAIN

La commission d'enquête, établie pour étudier la protection des industries secondaires dans la Rhodésie du Sud, a rapporté que la production par unité de la main-d'œuvre africaine est plus basse que celle de n'importe quel autre pays du Commonwealth britannique. L'auteur de cet article examine quelques facteurs dans l'environnement social de l'Africain urbanisé qui pourraient être la cause de ce rendement réduit. Ces facteurs comprennent le manque d'une opinion publique vigoureuse, comme celle qui fonctionne dans les sociétés tribales, pour persuader les membres individuels à prendre leur part dans le travail commun et dans d'autres activités; les taux réduits des salaires et les conditions de vie peu satisfaisantes, l'existence des règlements de laissez-passer, qui sont une source continuelle de contrariétés et de désappointements; le manque d'encouragement, car aussi durement que l'ouvrier africain travaille, et en dépit de tout ce qu'il peut gagner, il n'arrive pas à s'assurer une sécurité sociale ou à améliorer son rang dans la société. Bien qu'il existe un nombre limité de logements pour les gens mariés, et malgré les services sociaux qui sont établis, les ouvriers africains urbains constituent une communauté nomade plutôt qu'établie et ils continuent à maintenir des liens avec leurs foyers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1953

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References

page 135 note 1 In the towns are found representatives of almost every tribe in Central and Southern Africa as well as all stages of education, from primitive illiteracy to men with University qualifications.

page 136 note 1 There are, no doubt, some exceptions to these general principles. The Nguni peoples, to whom the Matabele of Southern Rhodesia are closely related, were certainly not organized on such lines. They raided their neighbours for stock, women, and slaves, and between raids they rested while the ‘boys’ they had captured did the heavy work. The traditional attitudes influencing the behaviour of this group of people may well be different from those operating in the case of less war-like tribes, but their effects are very much the same. To many Matabele, the Europeans are considered to have taken over their own one-time role of using conquered peoples to do the menial tasks. They do not regard these Europeans as very industrious and when white people are seen doing heavy work their motives are not understood.

page 136 note 2 Sir Orde-Brown, G., The African Labourer, International African Institute, 1953.Google Scholar

page 137 note 1 Instances of this tendency were encountered in Bulawayo 1950.

page 137 note 2 As will be shown as recently as opportunities to achieve prestige or new skills are limited by legislature and current practice.

page 138 note 1 Industrial, Commercial and Municipal Native Employment Regulations. Government Notice 144/1949.

page 138 note 2 Little starvation is found at present because of the vast amount of food sent into town by rural kinsmen and because of the subsidiary sources of income—most of which are illegal or immoral—to which many townsfolk resort from sheer necessity.

page 139 note 1 In particular by the conditions imposed in the Industrial Conciliation Act.

page 139 note 2 Although the flow of labour from Southern Rhodesia into the Union is considerable and would, in fact, be very much greater if steps were not taken to prevent migration, the number of South African natives who seek work in Southern Rhodesia is negligible. Union natives know that there is no greater freedom across the Limpopo and that wages are very much lower.

page 140 note 1 It is not generally realized how much the average African travels or how much he observes as he passes from place to place. Social and economic conditions in neighbouring territories are well known and discussed, as are the merits and demerits of individual employers. Letters, motor transport, the railway, and African newspapers all widen the knowledge and experience of the urban African.

page 140 note 2 The Chief Native Commissioner informed the writer in 1949 that It was his policy to make no distinction between various categories of Africans.

page 141 note 1 This act incorporates a number of earlier legislative enactments.

page 141 note 2 Attempts have been made recently at Gwelo to give leasehold urban houses to Africans but it is questionable whether those who invest their savings in such ventures will be able to afford normal rates and taxes when they cease to be employed. The economic rentals of such properties are almost double the rent, subsidized by the Municipality, that is paid by men renting accommodation on the normal monthly basis.

page 143 note 1 ‘White Reserves’ as Sir Godfrey Huggins has called them.

page 144 note 1 If the incentives for a man to settle in town and to make it his home are to remain as limited as they are at present, there is little point in continuing to build married accommodation with a view to encouraging family life. Married couples cannot begin to lead family lives in the real sense of the term and with a resulting increase in the husband's interest in productivity, until they see security for themselves—no matter how distant or how difficult to attain; until they can form part of a community in which public opinion can operate and in which they themselves, as man and wife or as parents, can command some measure of self-respect as human beings.