The Institutionalization of Contract Labour in Namibia

The South West African Native Labour Association (SWANLA) has received much attention by scholars of Namibia as the primary source of exploitation that eventually led to the rise of the independence movement led by SWAPO. Little attention has been given to SWANLA's predecessors, the Southern Labour Organisation (SLO) and the Northern Labour Organisation (NLO), which recruited and administered contract labour during the inter-war years. These two organizations played a fundamental role in breaking down traditional African societies in Namibia, and in creating a wage-labour economy in the southwest African territory. This study uses archival documents from the SLO and the NLO to reveal how the contract labour system was institutionalized in Namibia after World War One. This analysis confirms the centrality of the diamond industry for explaining the nature of contract labour, and much of Namibian politics itself, during the twentieth century in Namibia.