Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaften und öffentliche Angelegenheiten
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African Labor and Foreign Capital: The Case of Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate in Ethiopia, 1951-1974

T Praveen Kumar, P Prashanthi, Shaik Sabiya, M Chinna Eswaraiah

Africa has been known for its cheap labour until this day. Regardless of Africans’ immense contribution to the development of world economy by providing their labour, they could not get a fair payment. Being at low skill level and having undeveloped social organization might have been ascribed to the prevailing poor wage among African labourers. Nevertheless, Africans have been underpaid even in works which do not require any intermediate or special skills. Thus, African labour is mercilessly exploited because of the strong link created between the owners of the capital (most of the time foreigners) and the corrupted African leaders. Ethiopia was no exception. The WonjiShewa sugar plantation can be taken as a case in point. The plantation was established after a concession was signed between the Imperial Government of Ethiopia and the Dutch Company, Handels Vereeniging Amsterdam (HVA) on 12 June 1951. The concession leased an area of 5,000 hectares for a sugar cane plantation and sugar factory. It began production in 1954. The over populated Kambata people were the target of the management for labour. The workers’ expectation for better wage and good working condition became nightmare rather; they began to face the deadly malaria and the tyranny of Dutch management at Wonji. Workers were paid only Eth $0.75 cents for a day. The almost idyllic picture that management had succeeded in portraying of life at Wonji concealed one of the most notorious cases of exploitation and racial discrimination in Ethiopian industrial life. This paper investigates how the strong link between foreign private capital and the Imperial Government of Ethiopia contributed a lot to the misery of workers at Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate. The findings revealed that the Dutch who owned Wonji-Shewa Sugar Plantation exploited the labour of many Ethiopians mercilessly.