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The Making of Wage Laborers in Nineteenth Century Southern Africa: Magololo Porters and David Livingstone, 1853–1861

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2014

Elias Mandala
Elias Mandala*
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
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Abstract

This essay illuminates the worldwide transition to free labor from various forms of unfree labor by examining that process in the particular conditions of Southern Africa's encounter with Britain. Dr. David Livingstone's servants—whose descendants in Malawi have been called “Magololo,”1 a term used throughout this essay to distinguish them from the “Kololo” conquerors of Bulozi in contemporary Zambia and parts of Namibia—exemplify this global development. Between 1853 and 1861, over a hundred young Magololo men worked as porters, deckhands, and guides and showed Livingstone the very places in southern Africa whose “discovery” (for Britons) made Livingstone famous. Owing tribute labor to their king, Sekeletu, they initially performed these tasks as subjects. But, after Livingstone's return from England in 1858, they labored for wages; they were among the first groups of Africans in the region to make the emblematic modern move from formally unfree labor to formally free labor. This transition, which would form the core conflict of indirect rule in British Africa, radically altered Livingstone's relationship with his guides: They rebelled against him in 1861. This is one side of the story. The other side follows from the fact that one cannot sensibly speak about workers without the story of their employers. Accordingly, this essay revisits the well-known story of Livingstone's life but offers a different perspective than other biographies. It is the first study to combine the long-familiar documentary evidence with oral sources, for the specific purpose of retelling the Livingstone narrative (in its many renderings) from the viewpoint of his relations with the Magololo workers. In that way, it can shed light on the beginnings of the transition to wage labor in this region.

Type
African Labor Histories
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 86 , Fall 2014 , pp. 15 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2014 

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References

Notes

I feel deeply indebted to Karen Fields, Bill Hauser, and Dean Miller for carefully reading, fixing the Africanized English syntax, and offering invaluable comments on the original draft.

1. In Chimang'anja, the language of the Mang'anja people of southern Malawi, the singular is “Mmagololo” and the plural, “Amagololo.” But the common practice in English is to drop the singular-plural marker and use the root, Magololo, with or without the English “s.”

2. Unwilling to express feelings of hurt or remorse (see Jeal, T., Livingstone [London, 1973]Google Scholar), Livingstone does not anywhere in his published diaries tell his readers that he dismissed the Magololo. All he says is that he “left” them at Chibisa's. But from John Kirk, the diarists of the Universities Mission to Central Africa, and the traditions preserved by the porters' descendants, it is clear that the separation was initiated by an angry Livingstone: Interview with Chief Joseph Maseya (Maseya Village, T.A. Maseya, Chikwawa, January 30, 1976); Bennett, N. R. and Ylvisaker, M., eds., The Central African Journal of Lovell Procter, 1860–1864 (Boston, 1971), 248Google Scholar; Rowley, H., The Story of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (New York, 1969 [1867]), 297Google Scholar; Foskett, R., ed., The Zambezi Journal of Dr. John Kirk, 1858–1863, 2 vols. (Edinburgh and London, 1965) 2Google Scholar: 389, 394–95, 398, 512, 585–86.

3. The tentative title of the book-length account I am writing is “Black Englishmen: Environment and Politics in the History of the Magololo Chiefs of Malawi and Former Servants of Dr. David Livingstone, 1851–1913.”

4. For two notable exceptions, see Graham-Jolly, H. G., “Livingstone's Legacy: The Makololo Chiefs of Chikwawa District,” Nyasaland Journal 19 (1966): 7–14 Google Scholar and Simpson, D., Dark Companions: The African Contribution to European Exploration in East Africa (London, 1975)Google Scholar. Dark Companions examines Livingstone's relations with all of his African servants.

5. The Magololo do not have their own language in Malawi; they speak the language of the Mang'anja people, which is a local variation of the national language, Chewa. The fact that they do not have their own language is a major reason I have resisted the temptation to treat their story as another instance of ethnic formation.

6. Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. and Lovejoy, P., eds., The Workers of African Trade (Beverly Hills, CA, 1985)Google Scholar.

7. Isaacman, Allen and Isaacman, Barbara, Slavery and Beyond: The Making of Men and Chikunda Ethnic Identities in the Unstable World of South-Central Africa (Portsmouth, NH, 2008)Google Scholar; Rockel, Stephen J., “‘A Nation of Porters’: The Nyamwezi and the Labour Market in Nineteenth-century Tanzania,” The Journal of African History 41 (2000): 173–95Google Scholar. I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for directing my attention to the Nyamwezi study.

8. Gutkind, P. C. W., “Trade and Labor in Early Precolonial History: The Canoemen of Southern Ghana,” in The Workers of African Trade, ed. Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. and Lovejoy, P. (Beverly Hills, CA, 1985), 25–49 Google Scholar; Amselle, Jean-Loup, “Lignage, Esclavage, Contrat, Salariat: L'évolution de l'organisation du commerce à longue distance chez les Kooroko (Mali),” in The Workers of African Trade, ed. Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. and Lovejoy, P. (Beverly Hills, CA, 1985), 123–38Google Scholar.

9. Mainga, Mutumba, Bulozi Under the Luyana Kings: Political Evolution and State Formation in Pre-colonial Zambia (London, 1973), 65Google Scholar.

10. Livingstone, David, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years Residence in the Interior of Africa and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast; Thence across the Continent, Down to the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean (London, 1857), 251Google Scholar; Macnair, J.I., ed., Livingstone's Travels (London, 1954), 65Google Scholar.

11. Ross, Andrew, David Livingstone: Mission and Empire (London and New York, 2002)Google Scholar, 87, 92, 96, 97, 99, 101,106.

12. Livingstone, Missionary Travels, 555; Tomkins, S., David Livingstone: The Unexplored Story (Oxford, 2013), 93Google Scholar. When he returned to Linyanti in July 1853, he had probably already spent much of the £150 out of the £270 (he gave his wife £120) he had received in Cape Town in May 1852 from the London Missionary Society (LMS). Ross, David Livingstone, 98.

13. Livingstone, Missionary Travels, 375; Ross, David Livingstone, 98.

14. Foskett, John Kirk 1: 219–20; Livingstone, Missionary Travels, 215, 552, 565, 572; Macnair, J. L., ed., Livingstone's Travels (London, 1954), 65Google Scholar.

15. Foskett, John Kirk 2: 383, 398.

16. Livingstone, David and Livingstone, Charles, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries and of the Discoveries of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa (London, 1865), 272Google Scholar; Schapera, I., Livingstone's Private Journals, 1851–1853 (London, 1960), 209–10Google Scholar; Livingstone, Missionary, 215; Foskett, John Kirk 1: 220.

17. Livingstone, Missionary Travels, 635.

18. For Livingstone's expressions of displeasure with Magololo conduct, see Wallis, J.P.R., ed., The Zambezi Expedition of David Livingstone, 1858–1863. 2 vols. (London, 1956), 1Google Scholar: 123; Foskett, John Kirk 2: 398.

19. Wallis, Livingstone, 1: 84.

20. Livingstone, Missionary Travels, 510.

21. Livingstone, Missionary Travels, 636.

22. This was Sekwebu, appointed by Sekeletu as Livingstone's second in command, on the eastbound journey. A linguist who spoke many languages, Sekwebu committed suicide on the boat near Mauritius. Livingstone, Missionary Travels, 727–28.

23. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 42; see also Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 42.

24. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 42; Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 43.

25. Foskett, John Kirk 1: 209.

26. Clendennen, G. W., ed., Livingstone's Shire Journal, 1861–1864 (Aberdeen, 1992), 1Google Scholar.

27. Foskett, John Kirk 1: 209.

28. Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 143.

29. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: xxvi–xxvii; xxxvi–xliv-; Foskett, John Kirk 1: xiv–xxi.

30. I believe, as did the late Andrew Ross, that the Portuguese at Tete, who told Livingstone about Lake Malawi, also informed him about the Rapids, less than a hundred miles away. But he could not reconcile such a reality with his belief that God planned to save Africans through British steam technology.

31. Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 84; Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 119.

32. Rockel, “A Nation of Porters.”

33. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 102.”

34. See Mandala, “Black Englishmen,” Chapter 4.

35. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 87.

36. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 102–12; Foskett, John Kirk 1: 209–12.

37. Both cloth and guns would become pivotal in the Magololo's bid for power in southern Malawi; see Mandala, “Black Englishmen,” Chapter 3. For the importance of guns in Bulozi and the surrounding region, see Macola, Giacomo, “Reassessing the Significance of Firearms in Central Africa: The Case of North-western Zambia to the 1920s,” Journal of African History 51 (2010): 301–21Google Scholar. I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for directing my attention to this source.

38. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 69–70.

39. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 148.

40. Ross, David Livingstone, 170.

41. Ross, David Livingstone, 138; Jeal, Tim, Livingstone (New York, 1973), 252Google Scholar.

42. Bennett and Ylvisaker, Procter, 57.

43. Bennett and Ylvisaker, Procter, 65.

44. Foskett, John Kirk 1: 315; Jeal, Livingstone, 289.

45. Bennett and Ylvisaker, Procter, 62, 68.

46. Ross, David Livingstone, 138.

47. Bennett and Ylvisaker, Procter, 58.

48. Bennett and Ylvisaker, Procter, 53, 78.

49. Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 33.

50. Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 173.

51. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 112.

52. Foskett, John Kirk 1: 261; see Foskett, John Kirk 1: 264, for those with Kirk on the overland trip from Chikwawa to Tete between October 18 and 25, 1859.

53. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 164; Cloth also served as a reward for those who spied on other members of the Expedition: Martelli, George, Livingstone's River: A History of the Zambezi Expedition, 1858–1864 (London, 1970), 118Google Scholar.

54. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 147.

55. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 150.

56. Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 288. Sekeletu's demands seem excessive (Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 288) because most African rulers demanded only one tusk. See also Livingstone, Missionary Travels, 684–85.

57. Kalusa, Walima, “Elders, Young Men, and David Livingstone's ‘Civilizing Mission’: Revisiting the Disintegration of the Kololo Kingdom, 1851–1864,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 42 (2009): 55–80 Google Scholar. An anonymous reviewer drew my attention to this source, which injects intergenerational conflict in the debate about the collapse of the Kololo state.

58. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 169.

59. The number of Magololo who returned to Bulozi varies, depending on the source: Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 159; Macnair, Livingstone's Travels, 212; Wallis, Livingstone 2: 388–89; Rangeley, “The Makololo,” 70; Jeal, Livingstone, 284. A major source of the discrepancies is the fact that Livingstone does not always distinguish between his Magololo and the non-Magololo servants of two Portuguese residents of Tete (Senhores Clementino and Sicard), who were also on the journey. I think that Rangeley is far off the mark while Jeal is pretty close to the truth.

60. Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 303.

61. Livingstone and Livingstone, Narrative, 303–4.

62. See Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1:118–19; 132, 135–37, 138, 150 for insights into the troubled relationships.

63. Foskett, John Kirk 1: 307. See also Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 174; the “moral agent” has become the “agent of the devil.”

64. Foskett, John Kirk 1: 310–13. See also Foskett, John Kirk 1:219–21; Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 124–25; 174.

65. Wallis, Zambezi Expedition 1: 205; Foskett, John Kirk 2: 389.

66. Foskett, John Kirk 2: 393–95.

67. Interview with Chief Joseph Maseya, Maseya Village, T.A. Maseya, Chikwawa, January 30, 1976.