Mediators, Contract Men, and Colonial Capital: Mechanized Gold Mining in the Gold Coast Colony, 1879-1909

Recent years have seen renewed interest in the historical study of labor in Africa. Unlike those of the past, these new studies are rooted in the recognition of Africa's dynamic, expansive, and productive informal sector. While this book focuses on one of West Africa's earliest large-scale industries, namely the Wassa gold mines in the southwest Gold Coast, it is not solely concerned with the traditional working class. Rather, it explores the plurality oflabor relations that characterized the mining concessions during the period 1879 to 1909, including the presence of migrants from various parts of West Africa as well as casual and tributary laborers, both male and female.

In capturing the phenomenon of labor mobility as it played out in Wassa, Mediators, Contract Men, and Colonial Capital presents one of the fullest accounts of the labor agents who regularly brought groups of migrant laborers to the mines. The narrative discusses these agents' means of employment and roles in the informalization and indentureship of labor; in addition, it explores the regional dynamics of the recruitment machinery and confronts issues of coercion and choice.

Scholars interested in African history, global labor history, economic history, and women's work in Africa will find much of value in this innovative study.

Cassandra Mark-Thiesen is aResearch Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation (Marie-Heim Vögtlin Grant) in the history department of the University of Basel.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Prospectors, Politicians and the Question of "Progress": The First and Second Gold Boom in Wassa
Labor Recruitment in the Nineteenth Century: The Place of Practicality
Disrupted Recruitment at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: Women, Whites, and other Labor Agents
Government Strategies for Assisting the Mines
Labor Agents, Chiefs and Officials, 1905 to 1909: The Incorporation of the Northern Territories' Labor Reserve
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index