British Colonialism, Labor Migration and Mothers’ Authority in Northern Rhodesia

In the early twentieth century British colonialism wanted to mine the copper found Northern Rhodesia but they had a hard time recruiting laborers.  In South Africa they were able to enlist or compel local chiefs to send migrant workers to the diamond and gold mines, but the social and political situations were quite different further north.  The majority of the African societies in Northern Rhodesia and those of the bordering colony, Nyasaland, were matrilineal and the people were organized into small independent polities.  Not only were there no chiefs to pressure for migrant workers, older women controlled the labor of the young men through an institution labeled by anthropologists as bride service.  In the matrilineal culture of the region a young man seeking a wife had to fulfill the obligation of working for the mother of the bride and her sororal group for at least seven years before he could be considered a legitimate husband. Brideservice of this length meant that older women controlled young men’s labor for a significant part of their most productive years. The colonial government in Northern Rhodesia certainly understood how brideservice and matrilineal social relations undermined their attempts to obtain male migrant labor. As a result, the government enacted laws trying to destroy these social institutions.  This paper will look at the approaches and policies of British colonialism in Northern Rhodesia as well as the creative ways Africans undermined and resisted them.