Abstract:
The recruitment and stablization of a cheap African labour force for the production of raw
diamonds at Mwadui since 1940 has been attributed to the management of the mining
company, the Williamson Dioamonds Limited. A re-examination of the history of labour
at Mwadui mine reveals that there were socio- economic and socio-political forces outside
and on the mine which made it possible for the management to recruit and maintain the
labour force. The colonial and neo—colonial cheap raw materials from the
underdeveloped world to the industrialization nations had brought about the imposition
of the capitalist mode of production on the traditional economies of Tanzania. By the time
the mining operations commenced at Mwadui in 1940, the penetration of the capitalist
market forces into Tanzania rural societies had made the availability of labour for the raw
material industries relatively easier than at the beginning of colonialism. In the Course of
the development of Mwadui mine, African labour became increasingly abundant. There
was an increasing proletarianization in Tanzania and a process of mechanising production
on Mwadui Mine. proletarianizationn gave rise to a large unskilled labour force, while
mechanisation reduced the need for a large number of unskilled labourers. Since 1958,
very many unskilled labourers were being treated roughly or dismissed from Mwadui. As
a result, the workers sought to organise themselves under trade unionist activities. This
made it increasingly difficult for the management to control the workers in order to protect
the industry, which was considered as one of the major sources of public revenue, both the
colonial and later. The national state machneries intervened by controlling both the
management and the trade unionist activities on the mine The final result of this kind o?
protection of the industry was that the production of raw diamonds by cheap labour
continued at Mwadui. Although the working conditions improved and the government
obtained the revenue it wanted, the industrial and the commercial bourgeoisie of the world
capitalist system have continued to make profits through the exploitation of the Mwadui
workers during the colonial and neo-colonial epoch.