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“Liberty or Death”: Working Class Agitation and the Labour Question in Colonial Freetown, 1938–19391

Part of: Labour History and the Case against Colonialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2009

Ibrahim Abdullah
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This article examines the labour disturbances which occurred in Freetown, Sierra Leone (Figure 1), between 1938 and 1939. Contrary to the prevailing interpretation that the colonial state in Africa was faced with an alternative of either forcefully pushing the working class out of the city or moving towards some form of corporatism, this article argues that such an option was only feasible in situations where labour was relatively quiescent or where a casual labour problem existed. In Freetown, where a stable labour force existed, the choice was between accepting a militant labour movement over whom officials had little or no control, or creating a labour movement that would eschew militant protest and follow the path dictated from above. The existence of a militant organization committed to continous agitation and the use of strike weapons to force employers to acknowledge the presence of a working class were critical factors in shaping official response to labour disturbances in the British colonies.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , August 1995 , pp. 195 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1995

References

2 For an empire account of this policy see Weiler, Peter, “Forming Responsible Trade Unions: The Colonial Office. Colonial Labor, and the Trades Union Congress”, Radical History Review. (1984), pp. 28–30Google Scholar.

3 See the following: Higginson, John, “Bringing the Workers Back In: Worker Protest and Popular Intervention In Katanga, 1931–1941”, Canadian Journal of African Studies 22, 2 (1988)Google Scholar; Oyemakinde, Wale, “The Nigerian General Strike of 1945”, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 7 (1975)Google Scholar; Iliffe, John, “The Creation of Group Consciousness: A History of the Dockworkers of Dar es Salaam”, in Cohen, Robin and Sandbrooke, Richard, Development of an African Working Class (London, 1975)Google Scholar; Clayton, Anthony, “The General Strike in Zanzibar, 1948”, Journal of African History, 17 (1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Abdullah, Ibrahim, “Profit versus Social Reproduction: Labor Protests in the Sierra Leonean Iron Ore Mines, 1933–38”, African Studies Review, 35, 3 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Henderson, Ian, “Early African Leadership: The Copperbelt Disturbances of 1935 and 1940”, Journal of Southern African Studies 12 (1973)Google Scholar; Cooper, Frederic, On the African Waterfront (New Haven, 1987)Google Scholar; Suret-Canal, J., “The French West African Railway Workers' Strike, 1947–1948”, in Cohen, Robin, Copans, Jean and Gutkind, Peter (eds), African Labor History (Beverly Hills, 1978)Google Scholar.

5 Stadler, A. W., “Birds in the Cornfield: Squatter Movements in Johannesburg, 1944–1947”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 6 (1979), p. 93–123CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maylam, Paul, “The ‘Blackbelt’: African Squatters in Durban 1935–1950”, Canadian Journal of African Studies 17 (1983), pp. 413–427Google Scholar; Joseph, Richard, “Settlers, Strikers and Sans-Travail: The Douala Riots of 1945”, Journal of African History 15 (1974), pp. 669–681CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Engwenyu, Joseph, “Labour and Politics in Ghana: The Militant Phase 1947–1950”, Canadian Association of African Studies (1982)Google Scholar.

6 Fyfe, Christopher, A History of Sierra Leone (London, 1962)Google Scholar; Peterson, John, The Province of Freedom (London, 1969)Google Scholar; Porter, Arthur, Creoledom (London, 1963)Google Scholar.

7 Denzer, LaRay, “I.T.A. Wallace-Johnson and the West African Youth League: A Case Study in West African Nationalism” (Ph.D., University of Birmingham, 1977)Google Scholar; Amolo, Milcah, “Sierra Leone and British Colonial Labour Policy, 1930–1945” (Ph.D., Dalhousie University, 1977)Google Scholar.

8 CO 267/670/32210/2, Part I, Secret dispatch, Acting Governor Blood to Secretary of State, 9 February 1939.

9 N. A. Cox-George, “An Essay on Employment and Unemployment in Sierra Leone in 1948” (mimeograph, Fourah Bay College Library, Freetown, n.d.), p. 31: Cox-George likened the movement to the Chartists in Britain a century earlier because of the similarity in the questions they addressed, “political constitution, civil liberties, better wages and workmen's compensation and general amelioration of the conditions of the working classes”.

10 Marcus Grant, “History of Trade Unionism in Sierra Leone” (mimeograph, Freetown, 1978), p. 2.

11 For a comprehensive account of Johnson's activities see Denzer, “Wallace-Johnson and the West African Youth League”.

12 CO 267/670/32210/2, Governor to Secretary of State.

13 Daily Mail, 3 May 1938.

14 Cited in Denzer, “Wallace-Johnson and the West African Youth League”, p. 173.

15 Sierra Leone Weekly News, “An Appeal by Wallace-Johnson”, 30 April 1938.

16 During this period, the idea of a popular front was quite common to communist organizations. It is not impossible that through his numerous contacts with world communism Wallace-Johnson would have been familiar with this strategy.

17 CO 267/670/32210/1, Memorandum submitted by members of the executive and central committee of the West African Civil Liberties and National Defence League, incorporating the West African Youth League (Sierra Leone Section) to Governor, 16 June 1938.

18 ibid.

19 ibid.

20 ibid.

21 ibid.

22 ibid.

23 ibid.

24 The founder of this union, Marcus Grant, was insistent that it was Wallace-Johnson who pushed him to organize workers. Interview with Marcus Grant, June–July 1987.

25 CO 267/666/32215, Resolution passed at a mass meeting organized by seafaring men, held at the Wilberforce Memorial Hall on Thursday, 11 August 1938.

26 CO 267/665/32210, Colonial Secretary, on behalf of Governor, to George Pratt.

27 CO 267/665/32210, Governor Jardine to Sir Cecil Bottomley, Crown Agent for the Colonies, 19 August 1938.

28 ibid.

29 CO 267/665/32210, Resolution passed at a mass protest meeting of members of the working class, their supporters and sympathizers, held at the recreation grounds, Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sunday, 25 September 1938.

30 CO 267/665/32210, Malcolm Macdonald to Governor Jardine, 13 September 1938.

31 CO 267/665/32210/2, Governor Jardine to Secretary of State, 27 September 1938.

32 CO 267/665/32210/2, Governor Jardine to Secretary of State, 23 September 1938.

33 Legislative Council Debates, Governor's address, 2 November 1938, p. 3.

34 ibid.

35 CO 267/666/32216, Governor Jardine to Malcolm Macdonald, 4 August 1938, p. 3.

36 Interview with Marcus Grant.

37 ibid.

38 See Denzer, LaRay, “Women in Freetown Politics, 1914–61: A Preliminary Survey”, in Last, Murray and Richards, Paul (eds), Sierra Leone 1787–1987: Two Centuries of Intellectual Life (Manchester, 1987)Google Scholar.

39 Interview with Ya Alimamy, June 1987.

40 Wyse, Akintola J.G., “The Sierra Leone Branch of the National Congress of British West Africa, 1918–1946”, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 18, 4 (1985), p. 696CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 For an alternative account of these events see Denzer, LaRay, “Wallace-Johnson and the Sierra Leone Crisis of 1939”, African Studies Review, 25, 2 and 3 (06/09 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Denzer, “Wallace-Johnson, and the West African Youth League”, p. 282. This position in line with the idea of a Popular Front.

43 Resolution passed at a mass meeting of the Mabella Coaling Workers' Union, held on Sunday, 1 January 1939, to consider certain treatment being meted to them in the execution of their daily duties, The African Standard, 10 February 1939.

44 Ibrahim Abdullah, “Working Class Newspapers as Sources for African Labour History: The Artisan and The African Standard in Colonial Sierra Leone”, forthcoming.

45 Lenin, , What is to Be Done? (Moscow, 1983)Google Scholar.

46 The African Standard, 16 January 1939.

47 Resolution passed at a mass meeting of the War Department Amalgamated Workers' Union, held at St John's school room on Saturday, 7 January 1939, to consider the attitude of the authorities of the War Department towards the economic difficulties of their African civilian employees, The African Standard, 13 January 1939, p. 13.

48 ibid.

49 For details on state/labour relations before the Youth League see Abdullah, Ibrahim, “Profit versus Social Reproduction: Labour Protests in the Sierra Leonean Iron Ore Mines, 1933–38”, African Studies Review, 35, 3 (1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Abdullah, Ibrahim, “Rethinking the Freetown Crowd: The Moral Economy of the 1919 Strikes and Riots in Sierra Leone”, Canadian Journal of African Studies 28, 1 (1994)Google Scholar.

50 CO 267/670/32210, Acting Governor to Secretary of State, 11 February 1939.

51 The governor, however, had the power to intervene “unofficially if he is of the opinion that the workers' demands are of so reasonable a nature that the moral force at the command of government should be brought to bear upon the employers”, ibid.

52 The African Standard, 3 February 1939, p. 7.

53 ibid.

54 CO 267/670/32210, Resolution passed at a meeting of the War Department Workers' Union, 18 January 1939.

55 The African Standard, 3 February 1939, p. 9.

56 The Daily Mail, 31 January 1939, reported the matter as if it were striking workers who went on the rampage. Interview with Suba Mansaray and Momoh Tucker confirmed The Standard's story.

57 CO 267/670/32210/2, Officer Commanding Troops, Sierra Leone to Under Secretary of State, The War Office, 23 February 1939.

58 ibid.

59 The leader of this alleged mutiny, Emmanuel Cole, was made a national hero by the Momoh regime in 1987.

60 CO 267/671/322161/1, Judge Advocate summing up before court martial, 8 May 1939.

61 ibid.

62 CO 267/670/32210/1, Jardine to Dawe, 3 February 1939.

63 West African Pilot, “Court Martial Imprisons 11 Africans Gunners for Mutiny”, 9 May 1939.

64 CO 267/670/32210, Acting Governor to Secretary of State, 8 February 1939.

65 ibid.

66 The African Standard, “The Mabella Workmen and the Cable and Wireless Company”, 10 February 1939.

67 ibid.

68 CO 267/670/32210/2, Acting Governor to Secretary of State, 8 February 1939.

69 CO 2267/670/32210/1, Telegram, Governor to Secretary of State, 16 March 1939.

70 CO 2267/670/32210, Acting Governor to Secretary of State, 6 April 1939.

71 The African Standard, “Comedy of Errors No. 5”, 9 June 1939.

72 CO 267/671/32245, Notes of a conversation with Sir Douglas Jardine, 17 January 1939.

73 Ibid., Note of points about Sierra Leone made by Professor W.M. Macmillan in conversation with Dawe, 20 January 1939.

74 Spitzer, Leo, The Creoles of Sierra Leone (Ife, 1975), p. 199Google Scholar.

75 Ibid., p. 200.

76 CO 267/670/32210/2, Acting Governor to Dawe, 15 March 1939.

77 The African Standard, 10 February 1939 in CO 267/670/32210/2.

78 The African Standard 3 February 1939.

79 ibid.

80 The African Standard, “Under the Horrible Conditions which Exist in the Police is it Possible for us to Strike? A Policeman raises a Pertinent Question”, 24 February 1939.

81 CO 267/670/32210, Acting Governor to Secretary of State, 16 March 1939.

82 ibid.

83 Compare this quote from Captain H.E. Rydon's opposition to the Trade Union bill in Tanzania, , “Would any person in their senses give a child of six a loaded automatic to play with? I scarcely think so, because it is a dangerous weapon, and the child might injure himself beside injuring those on whom he would be inclined to use it”, cited in Shivji, Issa G., Law, State and the Working Class in Tanzania (London, 1986), p. 157Google Scholar.

84 CO 267/670/32210, Acting Governor to Secretary of State, 16 March 1939.

85 For details on these legislations see, Abdullah, Ibrahim, “The Colonial State, Mining Capital and Wage Labour in Sierra Leone” (Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1990)Google Scholar; Spitzer, Leo and Denzer, LaRay, “I.T.A. Wallace-Johnson and the West African Youth League”, parts 1 and 2, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 6, 3 and 4 (1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

86 CO 267/673/32254/8, General comments on the situation which led to the enactment.

87 CO 267/672/23354/1.

88 Arthur Creech Jones Papers, Creech Jones to Malcolm Macdonald, 23 June 1939.

89 CO 267/672/32254/1, Reply by the Committee of Citizens to statement made on 19 May by His Excellency the Governor to unofficial members of the legislative council regarding certain bills.