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Seamen and the Nigerianization of Shipping in the Postcolonial Era
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2014
Abstract
This article examines the impact that indigenization policies had on labor and on the cultures of work in postcolonial Nigeria. Scholars have studied indigenization in the context of nationalist politics, statecraft, and development in postcolonial Africa. However, we have little knowledge of how working classes experienced and interpreted indigenization schemes. Focusing on the indigenization of shipping, this article discusses both how Nigerian seamen anticipated the establishment of the Nigerian National Shipping Line and the actual impact of Nigerianization on their working lives. By taking a close look at changes in shipboard hierarchies, labor relations, and the culture of work on NNSL vessels, we can gain a deeper understanding of how broader political processes associated with decolonization and postindependence shaped working-class lives in postcolonial Nigeria.
- Type
- African Labor Histories
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2014
References
NOTES
I would like to thank the Israel Science Foundation (grant 793/10) for their generous support of this research.
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