Diamonds in the Rough : Corporate Paternalism and African Professionalism on the Mines of Colonial Angola, 1917–1975

Authors

Todd Cleveland

Files

Series

New African Histories

Description

Diamonds in the Rough explores the lives of African laborers on Angola’s diamond mines from the commencement of operations in 1917 to the colony’s independence from Portugal in 1975. The mines were owned and operated by the Diamond Company of Angola, or Diamang, which enjoyed exclusive mining and labor concessions granted by the colonial government. Through these monopolies, the company became the most profitable enterprise in Portugal’s African empire. After a tumultuous initial period, the company’s mines and mining encampments experienced a remarkable degree of stability, in striking contrast to the labor unrest and ethnic conflicts that flared in other regions. Even during the Angolan war for independence (1961–75), Diamang’s zone of influence remained comparatively untroubled.

Todd Cleveland explains that this unparalleled level of quietude was a product of three factors: African workers’ high levels of social and occupational commitment, or “professionalism”; the extreme isolation of the mining installations; and efforts by Diamang to attract and retain scarce laborers through a calculated paternalism. The company’s offer of decent accommodations and recreational activities, as well as the presence of women and children, induced reciprocal behavior on the part of the miners, a professionalism that pervaded both the social and the workplace environments. This disparity between the harshness of the colonial labor regime elsewhere and the relatively agreeable conditions and attendant professionalism of employees at Diamang opens up new ways of thinking about how Africans in colonial contexts engaged with forced labor, mining capital, and ultimately, each other.

Copyright Statement

Diamonds in the Rough © 2015 by Ohio University Press is licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language

eng

ISBN

9780821445211

Publication Date

7-15-2015

Publisher

Ohio University Press

City

Athens

Keywords

Diamonds in the Rough, Angola, diamond mining, colonialism, Portuguese empire, African labor, Diamang, labor history, mining industry, colonial economy, paternalism, forced labor, professionalism, social history, Angola independence, African workers, labor relations, colonial Africa, economic history, Todd Cleveland, mining communities

Disciplines

African History | African Studies | International and Comparative Labor Relations | Labor History | Natural Resource Economics

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Cleveland, Todd, "Diamonds in the Rough : Corporate Paternalism and African Professionalism on the Mines of Colonial Angola, 1917–1975" (2015). Ohio University Press Open Access Books. 94.
https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/94