² ‘AlgodSo Colonial’, Boletim Geral das Colonias, no. 295 (Jan. 1950), 173.Google Scholar

³ Oral Testimony (henceforth ‘O.T.’), Group interview, Caoxe village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 26 Oct. 1976.

⁴ The group of songs to be considered here were collected between July and September 1975 and in November 1976 along the north bank of the Zambezi River between the Shire-Zambezi confluence and the delta, from villages within the cotton concession area formerly held by the Sena Sugar Estates Ltd. and in the rice concession area formerly held by Arrozal of Chinde. These songs are almost exclusively women's songs, and they are already fading from memory, as the concession system which sparked them was ended in 1961. They provide a vivid insight into the functioning of the concession system and, as such, are important historical documents. Tapes, transcriptions and translations will be housed at the Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade de Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo and at the University of Zambia Library, Lusaka.

⁵ van der Horst, Sheila T., Native Labour in South Africa (London, 1942), 216Google Scholar; Wilson, Francis, Labour in the South African Gold Mines (Cambridge, 1972), 70.Google Scholar

⁶ Johnstone, Frederick A., Class, Race and Gold: A study of class relations and racial discrimination in South Africa (London, 1976), 33–4Google Scholar. As van der Horst has pointed out, Mozambique labour was particularly vital in that it was a pool of experienced labour which could be adjusted to counteract fluctuations in the supply of non-Mozambique labour. Van der Horst, , Native Labour, 218–19.Google Scholar

⁷ See Foreign Office(F.O.) 63/1449, F.Crowe to F.O., 13 Apr. 1901, and MacDonnell, H. to Lansdowne, , 6 Nov. 1901Google Scholar. For a discussion of the modus vivendi, see Duffy, James, A Question of Slavery (Oxford, 1967), 142–6.Google Scholar

⁸ That is, those territories not governed by the Companhia do Niassa, the Companhia de Moçambique or the prazo administrations in the Zambezi valley.

⁹ On the mass emigrations, see Warhurst, P. R., ‘Rhodesia and Her Neighbours, 1900–1923’, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Oxford University, 1970, 167Google Scholar; 189, for migrations to Southern Rhodesia; Zambian National Archives, KSJ 4/1, ‘Annual Report, 1917/18, for East Luangwa District’ for migrations into Northern Rhodesia; Vail, Leroy, ‘Mozambique's Chartered Companies: The Rule of the Feeble’, J. Afr. Hist, xvii, 3 (1976), 401–2Google Scholar, for migration into Nyasaland; and F.O. 371/8377, Governor of Tanganyika to Colonial Office, 9 Oct. 1922, for migrations to Tanganyika.

¹⁰ See, for example, the Lourenço Marques Guardian, 18 Apr. 1922Google Scholar; also, Duffy, James, Portugal in Africa (Harmondsworth, 1962), 138.Google Scholar

¹¹ F.O. 371/8373, Prince Arthur of Connaught to Colonial Office, 19 May 1922. Smuts threatened to open a new port at Kosi Bay and cease using Lourenço Marques unless the latter was brought under a South African commission of control. Sir Eyre Crowe, in a Minute of 22 Feb. 1922, noted that this was a move ‘on the part of the Union … towards the absorption of the Portuguese colonies. We know this to be their ambition’.

¹² F.O. 371/8373, Prince Arthur of Connaught to Colonial Office, 27 Apr. 1922.

¹³ F.O. 371/8373, Minute of SirCrowe, Eyre, 27 June 1922.Google Scholar

¹⁴ F.O. 371/9481, Prince Arthur of Connaught to Devonshire (Colonial Office), a Mar. 1923.

¹⁵ F.O. 371/8375, Telegram of Smuts to Walton, 6 Feb. 1922, encl. in Walton, to Crowe, E., 9 Feb. 1922Google Scholar; Minute of SirCrowe, Eyre, 13 May 1922Google Scholar; Smuts, to Walton, , 6 Feb. 1922Google Scholar, notes that:

Hornung's loan is for Mozambique development and renders that Province independent of the Union. This should be prevented. Portuguese should not be allowed [to] flout Union Government.

The Foreign Office was hostile to Smut's plans and tactics. See, for example Minute of SirCrowe, Eyre, 10 Feb. 1922.Google Scholar

For Hornung's attitudes see F.O. 371/8373, Hall, to Governor General of South Africa, 19 June 1922Google Scholar. This aspect of South African imperialism is overlooked in Hyam, Ronald, The Failure of South African Expansion, 1908–1948 (London, 1972), 27–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶ F.O. 371/9482, Memorandum of SirCrowe, Eyre, 8 Nov. 1923.Google Scholar

¹⁷ F.O. 371/9482, Minute of SirCrowe, Eyre, 26 Nov. 1923.Google Scholar

¹⁸ F O. 371/12701, Imperial Secretary to Dominions Office, 8 Dec. 1927.

¹⁹ F.O. 371/12701, President, Transvaal Chamber of Mines to Imperial Secretary, 12 Dec. 1927.

²⁰ F.O. 371/13421, Barclay, to F.O., 28 Aug. 1928.Google Scholar

²¹ F.O. 371/13424, Pyke, to F.O., 18 Jan. 1928.Google Scholar

²² F.O. 371/13423, Encl. 2 in Dominions Office to F.O., 8 Aug. 1928.

²³ The amount of labour going to Southern Rhodesia, as compared with the amount going to the Union, was not large, being restricted for the most part to Tete Province until at least 1936. Prior to 1936 the labour to Southern Rhodesia was governed by the Tete Agreement of 1913. For a discussion of this, see Warhurst, P. R., ‘The Tete Agreement’, Rhodesian History, i (1970), 31–42.Google Scholar

²⁴ See Smith, Alan, ‘António Salazar and the Reversal of Portuguese Colonial Policy’, J. Afr. Hist, xv, 4 (1974), passim.Google Scholar

²⁵ Relatórios e Informações—Annexo de Boletim Oficial, 1908 (Lourenço Marques, 1909), 55.Google Scholar

²⁶ Boletim Geral das Colonias, no. 45 (Mar. 1929), 278–9.Google Scholar

²⁷ Munro, J. Forbes, Africa and the International Economy, 1800–1960 (London, 1976), 102.Google Scholar

²⁸ Ibid. 128–9.

²⁹ Kay, Hugh, Salazar and Modern Portugal (London, 1970), 30Google Scholar; Spence, C. F., Moçambique (East African Province of Portugal) (Cape Town, 1963), 78.Google Scholar

³⁰ The British Ambassador in Lisbon summed up the situation in the mid-1920s when he wrote his annual report for 1924:

… we find her with a weak Government, an incompetent and contemptible Parliament, her credit abroad impaired, no budget, a huge deficit, business at a standstill, high prices, and a discontented working class.

Unemployment and inflation were both increasing as the escudo, nominally at a par of 53¾d., was fluctuating wildly around the 2d. mark. F.O. 371/11090, ‘Annual Report for 1924’, by Sir Lancelot Carnegie.

³¹ Didrio do Governo, 1st ser., 165, 30 July 1926.Google Scholar

³² International Labour Office, Report of the Commission Appointed Under Article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation to Examine the Complaint Filed by the Government of Ghana concerning the Observance by the Government of Portugal of the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention of 1957 (Geneva, 1962), 137 n.Google Scholar (henceforth, ‘I.L.O. Report’).

³³ de Martel Patricio, Francisco, ‘Junta de Exportação do Algodão’, Boletim Geral das Colonias, nos. 341–2 (Nov. and Dec. 1953), 52.Google Scholar

³⁴ Spence, , Moçambique, 78Google Scholar

³⁵ de Moçambique, Colonia, O Algodão em Moçambique (Lourenço Marques, 1928), 28; 35.Google Scholar

³⁶ Portaria no. 1180, 4 Sept. 1930, Regulamento do Trabalho des Indigenas na Colonia de Moçambique (Lourenço Marques, 1930), passim.Google Scholar

³⁷ Confidential communication, Nov. 1976. Henceforth the Sena Sugar Estates Ltd. will be abbreviated to ‘S.S.E.’.

³⁸ Boletim Geral das Colonias, no. 198 (Dec. 1941), 90.Google Scholar

³⁹ Diário do Governo, 1st ser., 53, 5 Mar. 1937.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Spence, , Moçambique, 78.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Sena Sugar Estates Ltd., Archives, Luabo, Mozambique (henceforth ‘S.S.E.Ar.’), File 202, ‘Gremio de Productores de Algodão’, list of concession-holders, 1938. By 1945 rationalization of the concessions had occurred, and the number in Zambesia had been reduced to four.

⁴² S.S.E.Ar., File 133a, ‘Recruiting: Angonia—Quelimane—Local’, Memorandum of 10 Nov. 1937Google Scholar, ‘Marromeu Recruting’; File 93, ‘Labour Recruiting: Government Side’, passim; Wilson, , Labour in the South African Gold Mines, 68–9.Google Scholar

⁴³ S.S.E.Ar., Mopea Head Office, Annual Reports: Sugar—1929Google Scholar; Czarnikow, C., Ltd., ‘Movements in the London and New York Sugar Markets, 1935–1938’ (London, 1939).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ This argument does not obtain south of the river at Caia, as the minimum wage scale operative in the Companhia de Moçambique's territories, in which Caia was situated, was so high that local Caia labour was prohibitively expensive for the company. The company staffed the Caia factory and plantation with labour brought from north of the river, where the minimum wages were much lower than on the south bank.

⁴⁵ S.S.E.Ar., File 93, ‘Labour Recruiting: Government Side’, tables.

⁴⁶ Ibid., Memorandum on Labour, 20 Oct. 1937.

⁴⁷ S.S.E.Ar., File 32b, ‘Companhia Comercio de Moçambique’, Memorandum by Thurnheer, M. on the History and Affairs of the Companhia Comercio de Moçambique, 16 Mar. 1962Google Scholar; File 74a, ‘Gremio-Milhos/Mealies’, Thurnheer, to Hornung, C. B., 30 Mar. 1950Google Scholar; see also Cd. 7049, Report on a Journey Made from Chinde to Tete by Mr. Vice Consul Rule (Foreign Office Miscellaneous Series no. 686), 6.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ S.S.E.Ar., File 44c, ‘Final Cotton Reports’, Final Cotton Report for 1941.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Diário do Governo, 1st ser., 197, 31 Aug. 1946.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ S.S.E.Ar., File 44c, ‘Final Cotton Reports’, Final Cotton Report for 1942.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Relatório do Govemador Geral de Moçambique, 1940–1942, vol. II, 78–9Google Scholar, quoted in I.L.O. Report, 124.Google Scholar

⁵² Diário de Martha, 7 May 1943Google Scholar, quoted in S.S.E.Ar., File 44c, ‘Final Cotton Reports’, Final Cotton Report for 1942.Google Scholar

⁵³ Ibid., Final Cotton Report for 1949. The symbol ‘$’, replacing the decimal point, indicates that the money referred to is Portuguese escudos.

⁵⁴ S.S.E.Ar., File 44c, ‘Final Cotton Reports’, Final Cotton Report for 1942.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Ibid., Thurnheer, to Hornung & Co., Ltd., 30 Nov. 1944.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ S.S.E.Ar., File 201a, ‘Cotton Shipments to Portugal’, Final Cotton Report for 1940.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ S.S.E.Ar., File 44c, ‘Final Cotton Reports’, Final Cotton Report for 1941.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Ibid., Final Cotton Report for 1943.

⁵⁹ Ibid., Thurnheer, to Hornung & Co., Ltd., 2 July 1942.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Ibid., Hornung, to Thurnheer, , 29 Apr. 1944.Google Scholar

⁶¹ This song consists of a lead and a chorus. The lead differs from line to line, while the chorus is constant. This version was collected at Chimbazo Village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 13 Aug. 1975. In the context of this article, songs have been edited to avoid repetitions.

⁶² O.T., Group interview, Caoxe Village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 26 Oct. 1976.

⁶³ Personal communication from Costley-White, Moses, Dec. 1976.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ S.S.E.Ar., File 74, ‘Gremio-Milhos/Mealies’, chart; see also Spence, C. F., The Colony of Moçambique (Portuguese East Africa) An Economic Survey (Lourenço Marques, n.d. [1944]), 23–4Google Scholar, where the author notes that the drive for cotton had resulted in a drop in maize production and that the ‘overemphasis on cotton appears liable in the long run to prove detrimental to the interests of the Colony’.

⁶⁵ Spence, , Moçambique, 78–9.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ S.S.E.Ar., File 44c, ‘Final Cotton Reports’, Final Cotton Report for 1948.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Spence, , Moçambique, 80.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ I.L.O. Report, 137 n.

⁶⁹ Diário de Moçambique, 18 Feb. 1954, encl. in S.S.E.Ar., File 238, ‘Mopeia Estate’.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Diário do Governo, 1st ser., 257, 24 Nov. 1955.Google Scholar

⁷¹ S.S.E.Ar., File 238, ‘Mopeia Estate’, Hornung, to Thurnheer, , 11 Sept. 1952.Google Scholar

⁷² Ibid., Thurnheer, to DuBoulay, , 1 Dec. 1952.Google Scholar

⁷³ Ibid., Hornung, to Thurnheer, , 11 Mar. 1954Google Scholar; Thurnheer, to Hornung, , 11 Mar. 1954Google Scholar; Thurnheer, to Hornung, , 25 Mar. 1954.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Ibid., Hornung, to Thurnheer, , 11 Mar. 1954.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Ibid.

⁷⁶ S.S.E.Ar., File 44c, ‘Final Cotton Reports’, Hornung, to Luabo Office, 1 Nov. 1956Google Scholar. It is interesting to note that the post-tax profits of the sugar company, in spite of losses on cotton, increased from £103,245 in 1953 to £875,121 in 1957.

⁷⁷ Song collected at Madumo Village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 17 Aug. 1975.

⁷⁸ O.T., Interview with Todo, Jiwa, Madumo Village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 29 Oct. 1976.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Song collected at Muanavina Village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 24 Aug. 1975.

⁸⁰ I.L.O. Report, 142 n; S.S.E.Ar., File 201, ‘Cotton Shipments to Portugal’, D'Arouca to Hornung & Co., Ltd., 22 June 1959.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Diário do Govemo, 1st ser., 102, 2 May 1961.Google Scholar

⁸² Spence, , Moçambique, 81.Google Scholar

⁸³ Boletim Oficial—Supplement, 24, 16 June 1941.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ de Moçambique, Colonia, Cultura Industria e Comercio do Arroz (Lourenço Marques, 1941), passim.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ ‘O Problema do Arroz’, Boletim Geral das Colonias, no. 409 (July 1959), 113–30, passim.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ S.S.E.Ar., File 137, ‘Correspondence with Arrozal’, Rodrigues, P. A. Viana to Gomes, J. Barros, 18 Sept. 1943.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Ibid., ‘Zona Orizicola’, Report By de Paiva Raposo, A., 23 Oct. 1944.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Ibid., Appeal to Governor General of Mocambique from E.D., 8 Aug. 1944.

⁸⁹ Boletim Oficial, 2nd ser., 49, 31 Oct. 1944.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ S.S.E.Ar., File 137, ‘Correspondence with Arrozal’, de Paiva Raposo, A. to Rodrigues, P. A. Viana, 3 Mar. 1947.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Ibid.

⁹² O.T., Interview with Chanazi, Luis, Mathilde Village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 13 Nov. 1976.Google Scholar

⁹³ Rice, like cotton, is a very labour-intensive crop, and the allotment of half a hectare to one woman is indeed a large allotment. According to calculations, 770 hours of labour would be required in a growing season to grow half a hectare of rice. Haswell, M. R., Economics of Agriculture in a Savanna Village (London, 1953). 32Google Scholar. Haswell's figures are for the Gambia, but it is unlikely that there would be much variation in the lower Zambezi area. For an area closer to Mozambique, see the even more striking figures for rice as against maize in modem Malawi in Farrington, J., Farm Surveys in Malawi (Reading, U.K., 1975), XIII. iGoogle Scholar, where the average figures per acre are 174.5 hours for maize in a growing season and 1,622 hours for (irrigated) rice.

⁹⁴ O.T., Group interview, Chinde, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 13 Nov. 1976.

⁹⁵ Song collected at Pirira Village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 5 Aug. 1975.

⁹⁶ O.T., Group interview, Pirira Village, Quelimane District, Mozambique, 25 Oct. 1976.

⁹⁷ S.S.E.Ar., File 137, ‘Correspondence with Arrozal’, Thurnheer, to DuBoulay, , 11 July 1957Google Scholar; Provincia da Moçambique, Acta da Conferéncia des Administradores (n.p., n.d. [Quelimane, 1957]). 41.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ S.S.E.Ar., File 137, Correspondence with Arrozal', Thurnheer, to DuBoulay, , 6 Aug. 1957.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ I.L.O. Report, 143.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ S.S.E.Ar., File 44c, ‘Final Cotton Reports’, Relatórios sobre a campanha algodoeira, 1960 and 1962.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ S.S.E.Ar., File 238, ‘Mopeia Estate’, DuBoulay, to Hornung, , 10 Apr. 1963.Google Scholar

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