Labour migration and rural transformations in colonial Njombe district, 1900 – 1960s

This study examines the relationship between labour migration and rural transformation in colonial Njombe district from 1900 to the 1960s. It questions the view that existed for decades contending that labour migration during the colonial period was entirely detrimental to the labour sending rural areas. By integrating written and oral information, the study establishes that such exclusive attribution of rural underdevelopment to labour migration was indeed a traditional way of viewing labour migration. Such a view was based on archival information as presented by missionaries and anthropologists who themselves took a negative view of labour migration. While acknowledging negative impacts of labour migration, the study argues that colonial Njombe people were not merely victims of colonial compulsion. Instead, they sometimes sought to act with autonomy with the intention of improving their lives through labour migration. It was the combination of material wealth, skills and experience acquired through such migrancy that contributed to the wider process of rural transformation in their district. Indicators like changes in agricultural technology, increased entrepreneurial activities and literacy are used in this study to show such transformation. The study, therefore, adds to the literature on labour migration in Africa by illuminating an aspect that has so far received little attention. In historiographical terms, the study adds a new dimension to our understanding of African initiative and African agency in acting upon various processes affecting people’s lives.