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Work in Times of Slavery, Colonialism, and Civil War: Labor Relations in Angola from 1800 to 2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2014

Jelmer Vos
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Abstract

In Angola, a trend towards labor commodification, set in motion under the impact of the nineteenth-century produce trade and colonial rule, has been reversed in the decades since independence. Angolans have always worked mainly in the reciprocal sphere, but with the growing commercialization of the economy after the abolition of the slave trade, self-employment has also become a constant in Angolan labor history. By 2000, the rural population was thrown back to subsistence farming, while the larger part of the urban population has tried to survive by self-employment in the informal economy. Wage labor, widespread under colonialism, has become less common.

Résumé

Au cours des décennies de l’après-indépendance, l’Angola a renversé la tendance à la commodification du travail déclenchée sous l’impact du régime et des politiques commerciales coloniaux du XIXe siècle. Les Angolais ont toujours travaillé surtout dans un système de réciprocité communal (domestique, familier, etc.); néanmoins, en raison de la commercialisation croissante du travail après l’abolition de la traite d’esclaves, l’activité indépendante est devenue une constante de l’histoire du travail en Angola. A partir de 2000 la population rurale est revenue à l’agriculture de subsistance pendant que la plupart de la population urbaine a essayé de survivre à travers l’activité indépendante dans l’économie informelle. L’activité salariale, qui s’était développée sous l’époque coloniale, est devenu moins répandue.

Type
Labor History and Africa
Information
History in Africa , Volume 41 , June 2014 , pp. 363 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2014 

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