History of labour and capital on the Musoma goldfild 1925-1966.

The establishment of the Gold mining industry and the introduction of cotton as a commodity in the “subsistence” sector, affectively integrated Musoma district in the international division of labour. The district exported gold and cotton to the metropole and imported manufactured goods such as hoes and clothes from the metropole. The peasants bought the imported goods with money earned through wage employment or sale of agricultural produce. This study is concerned with the peasant involvement in the labour market on the Musoma Goldfield 1925-1966. It is based on accounts of the labourers’ own experience in wage employment on the mines. The accounts are enriched by library and archival documentary data. There is also an attempt to look at the way how capital for the gold mining industry was mobilized both locally and externally. The study is covered in four chapters. The first chapter looks at the way the capitalist mode of production articulated with the pre-capitalist modes to form a single social formation in which the capitalist mode was dominant. The process of articulation of the modes enabled the miners to pay a wage that was below the requirement for the reproduction of worker’s family. The reproduction of the labour power of the family was taken care by the worker’s own family in the subsistence sector. The role of the colonial state in creating conditions for the emergence of labour from the subsistence sector to the capitalist sector is clearly shown. The second chapter looks at the development of the Musoma Goldfield during the British Colonial period. The focus is on the prospecting and discovery of various reef mines and mobilization of capital. Some of the mines were small in size and were worked with individual capital mobilized locally. Other mines were large and required large amounts of capital investment in plant and equipment to exploit the reef. Thus either external or local firms came to operate the mines, but some only had small amounts of capital. The third chapter is an analysis of the methods of recruitment, bearing in mind that given the peasants access to the land and opportunity to earn cash by producing export crops in the district, the bulk labour force for the industry was unstable. The role of the Colonial State is given a prominent place in making labour recruitment policy. The fourth chapter is on the working and living conditions of the labourers. The methods that were used by employers to stabilize and control the workers are analyzed. There is an attempt to show the workers’ reactions to the process of proletarianisation. On this aspect, labour is seen as a historical agent which has a disposition to struggle to influence the course of its own history. Thus an attempt is made to show the workers’ struggle both individually and collectively to assert their freedom.