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Who's for work? The management of labour in the process of accumulation in three Adja villages, Benin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Jan H. B. den Ouden
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Extract

In the rural Adja region of south-west Bénin there is a labour problem. People who want to expand their businesses need cheap and reliable labour, but such labour is difficult to find and to manage. The sort of ‘big men’ known as alo-su amè dji—those mainly interested in investing in and dominating people—would like to keep up the appearance of being a ‘big man’ with many people under their control, but they cannot avoid the modern temptation of aspiring to personal wealth. Their style of management is to use mainly domestic labour, yet they face problems as the young begin to distrust the intentions of their household heads: the latter are suspected of looking after their own interests, while their followers doubt whether they will get a fair share of the assets when there are so many of them in a large family. Furthermore, sons and dependants find a long, very low-paid ‘apprenticeship’ increasingly unacceptable.

There is growing awareness of the difficulties of working with domestic labour and of the splintering effect of redistributing assets between a great many people. A small but growing number want accumulation for themselves and a limited number of descendants. This new style is associated with the sort of accumulators called eho wu amè, people who try to maximise financial gain. They work with much less family than hired labour (and prefer a much lower rate of polygyny). But hired labour at economic rates is not easy to find and there are organisational problems.

Résumé

Dans la région rurale du sud-ouest Bénin il y a un problème de main d'oeuvre: ceux qui veulent étendre leurs entreprises ont besoin d'une main d'oeuvre sûre, loyale et bon marché, ce qui est difficile à trouver et à gérer. Le genre de ‘big men’ que l'on présente ici comme alo-sum amè dji, des hommes qui s'intéressent surtout à investir dans les gens et à les dominer, voudraient avoir et garder l'apparence de ‘big man’ en contrôlant beaucoup de gens, mais ne peuvent éviter les tentations des temps modernes et ils aspirent à un accroissement de leur richesse personnelle. Dans leur façon de faire, ils veulent surtout utiliser la main d'oeuvre domestique et sont de plus en plus confrontés à des problèmes, car les jeunes gens sont de plus en plus sceptiques quant aux intentions des chefs de leurs ménages: ces accumulateurs sont soupçonnés de n'etre intéressés que par leur propre bien-être, et leurs dépendants doutent qu'il y ait un partage équitable entre les nombreux membres des grandes families dans le processus de la redistribution. De toutes façons,fils et autres dépendants sont de plus en plus réticents a demeurer dans un ‘apprentissage’ de longue durée, période au cours de laquelle beaucoup d'entre eux considérent leur niveau de vie trop bas.

Nous constatons une prise de conscience de plus en plus croissante non seulement des difficultés à travailler avec de la main d'oeuvre domestique, mais également de l'effet dispersant d'une redistribution entre un grand nombre de gens. Une minorité, mais probablement croissante, de gens veulent de l'accumulation, non seulement pour eux-mêmes mais aussi pour un nombre restreint de descendants.

Type
Finding workers, calculating profit
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 1 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

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