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Labour Aristocracy–a Northern Nigerian Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Keith Hinchliffe
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Extract

The term ‘labour aristocracy’ first appeared in the literature on African economic development in 1968,1 although African wage labour had previously been described as a privileged elite on many occasions. I wish to question the accuracy and relevance of the type of calculation upon which these descriptions are based, and to present the situation which prevails today in Northern Nigeria, using detailed survey data on the earnings of rural farmers, urban workers, and those employed in small-scale enterprises.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 1974 , pp. 57 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

Page 57 note 1 Arrighi, Giovanni and Saul, John S., ‘Socialism and Economic Development in Tropical Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), VI, 2, 08 1968, p. 143.Google Scholar

Page 57 note 2 Turner, H. A., Wage Trends, Wage Policies, and Collective Bargaining: the problems for underdeveloped countries (Cambridge, 1966), p. 53.Google Scholar

Page 57 note 3 Lewis, W. Arthur, Reflections on Nigeria's Economic Growth (Paris, 1967), p. 42.Google Scholar

Page 57 note 4 Todaro, Michael P., ‘A Model of Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less-Developed Countries’, in The American Economic Review (Menasha), LIX, 1, 03 1969, pp. 138–48,Google Scholar and Income Expectations, Rural–Urban Migration, and Employment in Africa (Geneva), 104, 5, 11 1971, pp. 387–413.Google Scholar

Page 58 note 1 Ghai, Dharam P., ‘Incomes Policy in Kenya: need, criteria, and machinery’, in The East African Economic Review (Nairobi), IV, 1, 06 1968, pp. 19–34;Google Scholar and Knight, J. B., ‘The Determinants of Wages and Salaries in Uganda’, in Bulletin of the Oxford University Institute of Economics and Statistics (Oxford), XXIX, 3, 1967, pp. 233–64.Google Scholar

Page 58 note 2 Cf. Bairoch, Paul, Urban Unemployment in Developing Countries (Geneva, 1973), pp. 27–8:Google Scholar ‘Not enough data are available to make possible an estimate of the differences in the rural and urban cost of living in most of the developing eountries but, at a rough estimate, the difference may be reckoned as being between 10 and 60 per cent.’

Page 59 note 1 A notable exception being Knight, J. B., ‘Rural–Urban Income Comparisons and Migration in Ghana’, in Bulletin of the Oxford University Institute of Economics and Statistics, XXXIV, 2, 1972, pp. 199–228.Google Scholar

Page 59 note 2 See, for instance, Kilby, Peter, Industrialization in an Open Economy: Nigeria, 1945–1966 (Cambridge, 1969);Google ScholarWarren, W. M., ‘Urban Real Wages and the Nigerian Trade Union Movement, 1939–60’, in Economic Development and Cultural Change (Chicago), xv, 1, 10 1966, pp. 21–36;Google Scholar and Frank, Charles R. Jr ‘The Problem of Urban Unemployment in Africa’, Princeton University Research Program in Economic Development, Discussion Paper No. 16, 1970.Google Scholar

Page 60 note 1 Norman, D. W., ‘An Economic Survey of Three Villages in Zaria Province’, vol. I, Samaru, Ahmadu Bello University, 1972;Google Scholar and Rural Economy Research Unit, ‘Farm Income Levels in the Northern States of Nigeria’, Samaru, Ahmadu Bello University, 1972.Google Scholar

Page 60 note 2 I am most grateful to Dr N. Khawaja and R. Reichenbach, my colleagues in the Department of Economics at Ahmadu Bello University, for access to this information.

Page 60 note 3 Norman, op. cit. p. 1.

Page 60 note 4 During 1972 the Nigerian pound exchanged for £1.26 sterling.

Page 64 note 1 Rural Economy Research Unit, op. cit. p. 12.

Page 64 note 2 Knight, 1972, loc. cit. p. 211.