Country: Zambia

Group: Tonga

Date Finalized: 3/17/2023

Team: Ariana Jackson (lead),  Brandon Nevarez, Katherine Edwards, Jhanz Marco Garcia, Monica Hallock

Content Warning: Forced Labor, Slavery

Approximate Time Period: Late 1800s, early 1900s

After slave trading ended in 1899, the British Administration claimed Tonga land and traveled around Tonga creating an annual census for tax purposes (Zambia’s Traditional History, 2020). This was an issue for the Tonga because they lived in small hamlets and did not have a recognized chief (Zambia’s Traditional History, 2020). The British appointed a chief and ordered the hamlets to amalgamate into villages of at least 10 taxpayers. The British coerced men to conduct labor in mines and on farms in Southern Rhodesia (Zambia’s Traditional History, 2020). These recruited workers were often locked into lengthy or misleading contracts which prevented them from leaving or quitting (Vickery, 1986). The Native Labour Bureau provided contracts in which workers were often locked into an unknown employer. Under Masters and Servants Legislation in Southern Africa, it was considered a criminal offense for workers to leave (Vickery, 1986). This led to the consideration of recruited workers as “The most exploited of an exploited class”, and labor under such conditions was despised and avoided by many of the Tonga (Vickery, 1986). Additionally, the British forced many Tonga to work for free on the railway in Tongaland in 1905  (Zambia’s Traditional History, 2020). After the construction of the railway, most of the land within traveling distance of it was allocated for white-owned farms (Zambia’s Traditional History, 2020). There is no evidence of the Tonga people experiencing forced labor discrimination type today. The nobles and royal family dominate the monetary section of the economy (Wikipedia, 2023).

Data quality for this case was rated a 2 out of 3 due to a substantial amount of data available as well as a lack of reliable sources. 

Sources

  1. Zambia’s Traditional History. (2020, June 26). Tonga. https://traditionalzambia.home.blog/tribes-of-zambia/early-bantu-settlers/tonga/
  2. Vickery, K. P. (1986). Black and White in Southern Zambia: The Tonga Plateau Economy and British Imperialism, 1890-1939. Greenwood Publishing Group. 97-98
  3. Wikipedia (2023). Tonga people (Zambia and Zimbabwe). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tonga_people_(Zambia_and_Zimbabwe)&oldid=1133775380