The gold niners and nine workers on the Lupa Goldfield 1922 – 1963

This is a study of the forces of production involved in the mining of gold on the Lupa Goldfield, from 1922 – 1963. It attempts on examination of the employers, the labour, the relations of production, the nature, role and long-term effects of the dominant ideology. Indeed, through an analysis of the development of the forces involved, the study attempts, in four chapters, to throw some light on the role of the Lupa gold mining industry in the underdevelopment of the district of Chunya. Chapter I is about the background to the emergence of the mining activity on the Lupa. It examines the extent to which societies in southern Tanganyika participated in the colonial economy prior to the opening of the gold mining industry on the Lupa. By 1922 there was no significant wage-labour employment in southern Tanganyika participated in the colonial economy prior to the opening of the gold mining industry on the Lupa. By 1922 there was no significant wage-labour employment in southern Tanganyika, and as almost all the labour-intensive agricultural activities were located along coast, along the Tanga: line and along the Dar es Salaam-Kilosa stretch of the Central Line, southern Tanganyika was only important as a labour reserve area. Therefore, the mining of gold in the Lupa area emerged under conditions and circumstances which easily gave it a monopoly of the colonial labour. Chapter 2 attempts to examine the employers who are, in the terminology of the place, referred so as miners. It also examines the establishment and organization of the industry in terms of the administration of area, regulations governing entry and acquisition of mining licenses, working and living conditions, employers’ defences of their own interests and their reaction to the development of the labour farce. Above all, the chapter examines the relationship between the price of gold on the metropolitan market and the increase and fall in the number of gold miners on the goldfield. Lastly, the study throws some light on the role of alluvial goldmining on the participation of the able bodied male population of the Lupa area in production activities after the official closure of the mining industry. Chapter 3 deals with an examination of the labour force, referred to as workers. It looks at their response to the techniques of labour-creation employed by the colonial administration. It also examines their reactions to working and living conditions; their reactions to the social organization of the goldfield population; their struggle to improve the conditions under which they worked and lived, and their utilization of the capilalist production contradictions and super structural changes to gain control of mining. Finally, chapter 4 examines the main patterns of consumption and investments. It also tries to relate the African’s internalization of the ideology of racial superiority to the development problems of the district of Chunya. In the same context, the chapter examines the role of the “digger mentality” in the social development of the are.