Title Decolonization and African society the labor question in French and British Africa / Frederick Cooper

Published Cambridge, [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1996

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Description 1 online resource (xvii, 677 p. ) map Series African studies series ; 89 African studies series ; 89. Contents 1. Introduction -- Part I: The dangers of expansion and the dilemmas of reform -- Introduction -- 2. The labor question unposed -- 3. Reforming imperialism, 1935-1940 -- 4. Forced labor, strike movements, and the idea of development, 1940-1945 -- Conclusion: posing the labor question -- Part II: Imperial fantasies and colonial crises -- Introduction -- 5. Imperial plans -- 6. Crises -- Conclusion: modernity, backwardness, and the colonial state -- Part III: The imagining of a working class -- Introduction -- 7. The systematic approach: the French Code du Travail -- 8. Family wages and industrial relations in British Africa -- 9. Internationalists, intellectuals and the labor question -- Conclusion: labor and the modernizing state -- Part IV: Devolving power and abdicating responsibility -- Introduction -- 10. The burden of declining empire -- 11. Delinking colony and metropole: French Africa in the 1950's -- 12. Nation, international trade unionism, and race: anglophone Africa in the 1950's -- Conclusion: the social meaning of decolonization -- Conclusion -- 13. The wages of modernity and the price of sovereignty Summary This detailed and authoritative volume changes our conceptions of 'imperial' and 'African' history. Frederick Cooper gathers a vast range of archival sources in French and English to achieve a truly comparative study of colonial policy toward the recruitment, control, and institutionalization of African labor forces from the mid 1930's, when the labor question was first posed, to the late 1950's, when decolonization was well under way. Professor Cooper explores colonial conceptions of the African worker and shows how African trade union and political leaders used the new language of social change to claim equality and a share of power. This helped to persuade European officials that the 'modern' Africa they imagined was unaffordable. Britain and France could not reshape African society. As they left the continent, the question was how they had affected the ways in which Africans could reorganize society themselves Notes Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. 627-655) and index Notes English Subject Labor -- Africa -- History -- 20th century Labor movement -- Africa -- History -- 20th century Labor unions -- Africa -- History -- 20th century Labor laws and legislation -- Africa -- History -- 20th century Decolonization -- Africa -- History -- 20th century British colonies. Colonial influence. Decolonization. French colonies. Labor. Labor laws and legislation. Labor movement. Labor unions. SUBJECT France -- Colonies -- Africa. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh88007194 Great Britain -- Colonies -- Africa. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh86007182 Africa -- Colonial influence Subject Africa. Genre/Form History. Form Electronic book LC no. 95046203 ISBN 0521566002 9780521566001 0511584091 9780511584091

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