The finance and trade of Mozambique arc organised to serve non-
African at thc expense of African
interests. This colonialist orientation
can only be eliminated by the
transfer of power to the Africans.
FORCED LABOUR
Forced labour is the cog around
which the fly-wheel of Mozambique
economy revolves. And as is the
case in Settler South Africa the
operation of the pass-laws is indispensable to such forced labour.
Once a man is made to carry on
his person a document to show
where he is employed failing which
the wrath of the law descends upon
him, that constitutes the essence of
forced labour. Such a man is bound
to look for any kind of work no
matter how he will be exploited in
the process if only it will save him
from jail.
Every African adult in Mozambique must carry a cadernets to show
not only where he is working and
where he had been working but also
where he has paid his poll-tax and
other dues.
The Portuguese boasted that
their system of pass-laws was foolproof and even the government of
settler South Africa took a leaf out
of their statute books by introducing
the reference book along the lines of
the Portuguese cadernets.
Thc various Geneva conventions
have their book definitions of forced
labour: the 1930 International
Forced Labour Convention, for
example, defined forced labour as:
'work or service exacted from any
person under the threat of any
penalty and for which the said
person has, not offered himself
voluntarily.1
The first part of this definition
constitutes the essence of forced
labour. The Portuguese cadernets
or the South African reference book
exact work or service from the
holders under the threat of penalty.
To force someone to accept any
kind of job rather than to go to
jail and to argue that he has therefore offered himself 'voluntarily' is
to indulge in calculated colonialist
cynicism.
As long as the pass system exists
therefore there can be no such thing
as voluntary labour, for anyone is
subject to its rigorous provisions.
Thc Portuguese, of course do not
deny the existence of forced labour
in their vast colonial concentration
camps' such as Mozambique. What
they do deny is the actual extent of
the practice for they still sell the big
lie that some Africans under them
are voluntary labourers.
Whatever observations are made
about labour in Mozambique must
be viewed against the background
of this analysis of the nature of
forced labour.
in 1906 the Portuguese government passed laws prohibiting,
in general terms, the use of forced
labour. Of recent years labour for
the cocoa fields of Sao Tome and
Principe have been obtained from
Mozambique rather than Angola. •
Contracts signed in Mozambique
were at first for four years. This
period had now been reduced to
one year, and repatriation is insisted
upon.
In 1903 British cocoa firms boycotted all cocoa from the islands of
Sao Tome and Principe because of
the forced labour used there. It was
following this that the 1906 law was
passed.
Much criticism has of late been
levelled against forced labour for
public works and private employment in Mozambique.
Portugal signed the Anti-Slavery
Convention (1926) which limited the
use of forced labour to public
purposes. She has, however, refused
.to sign the 1930 Forced Labour
Convention, and the 1936 Recruitment of Indigenous Workers Convention.
By her own 1928 Labour Cod?
Portugal restricts the use of forced
labour to public purposes and by the
Order of April 11, 1930 all such
labour must be paid for.
The Portuguese argue that labour
is an essential part of the "Civilizing
process", a formula they evolved
to justify the use of forced labour.
Portuguese colonial subjects are
compelled to work in public and to
produce marketable crops. More
often than not they work for
nothing.
In spite of official orders to the
contrary district officers get ten
times what the labourer will earn in
six  months  whenever  they  supply
labour to private employers.
The Witwatcrsrand Native Labour
Associaion (W.N.L.A.) has recruiting depots for the Rand and Free
State gold fields. More than 100,000
indentured labourers are recruited
annually from Mozambique to these
gold fields.
In 1896 these labourers were earning 3/- per day. Today they earn
3/4 per day, 4d. rise in 68 years.
The P ortuguese government sells
each of these labourers for £2 to the
South Africa mines. It also abuses
their deferred pay which is forwarded to it.
ASSIMILADOS
In Mozambique, as in other
Portuguese colonies, Portugal has
developed the racket of assimilado,
according to which certain Africans
by reason of having assimilated the
Catholic faith, Portuguese language
and culture and by reason of their
high standard of living are accepted
as full Portuguese citizens with all
rights and privileges attached
thereto.
Out of 6.5 million Africans there
are, after 450 years of Portuguese
rule, only a little over 4,000 Africans
who have qualified as assimilados,
a sure proof of the failure of the
"civilising mission" of the Portuguese.
The product of any African
woman and a Portuguese male automatically becomes an "assimilado."
The assimilado system was
designed to rob the African masses
of their leaders by incorporating
them into the body politic of the
ruling class in the vain hope that
Portuguese colonial rule would continue for ever.
Another measure that was designed to ensure that Portuguese colonial rule would continue forever is
the law that declared Portuguese
colonial integral parts of metropolitan Portugal.
Since the United Nations charter
prohibits interference in the
domestic affairs of member-states,
by this ruse, Portugal, in her incredibly naive expectation, attempted
to arm herself against the attacks of
anti-colonialists and anti-imperialists.
The changing of a territory from
a colony into an overseas province
20      VOICE OF AFRICA