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Author Isaacman, Allen F

Title Cotton is the mother of poverty : peasants, work, and rural struggle in colonial Mozambique, 1938-1961 / Allen Isaacman
Published Portsmouth, N.H. : Heinemann ; Cape Town : David Philip ; London : James Currey, ©1996

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 272 pages) : illustrations, maps
Series Social history of Africa
ACLS Fellows' Publications
Social history of Africa.
Contents Pt. I. The Setting. 1. Introduction. 2. The Antecedents and Formation of Mozambican Cotton Regime, 1800-1938 -- Pt. II. Cotton and Rural Labor, 1938-1951. 3. Cotton, Colonialism, and Work. 4. Variations in the Cotton Regime. 5. Peasants at Work: Marketing and Ginning -- Pt. III. The Era of Reform, 1951-1961. 6. Reforming the System: Rationalizing the Labor Process -- Pt. IV. Long-Term Consequences, 1938-1961. 7. Cotton and Food Insecurity. 8. Cotton and Rural Differentiation. 9. Coping with the Demands of Cotton. 10. Cotton, the Labor Process, and Rural Protest -- Appendix A Concessionary Companies in Mozambique, 1950s -- Appendix B Cotton Production Statistics, Select Southern Circumscriptions, 1940s -- Appendix C Marketed Products, Macomia Circumscription, 1946-1959 -- Appendix D Marketed Products, Nampula Circumscription, 1943-1959 -- Appendix E Marketed Products, Morrumbala Circumscription, 1943-1959 -- Appendix F Marketed Products, Mogovolas Circumscription, 1943-1959
Summary "Portuguese officials forced nearly a million African peasants to grow cotton in colonial Mozambique under a regime of coercion, brutality, and terror. The colonial state sought to control almost every aspect of peasant life: growers were told not only what they should produce, but where they should live, how they should organize their labor, and with whom they should trade. A privileged few managed to prosper under the cotton regime, but the great majority were impoverished, as cotton cultivation earned them next to nothing and exposed them to hardship and famine. This book explores the lives of Mozambique's cotton producers - their pain and suffering, their coping strategies, and their struggles to survive. Because the study is concerned above all else with the lived experiences of cotton growers, their stories figure prominently; the documentation for this book includes more than 160 interviews - with former cotton growers and their families, but also with African police and overseers, and with Portuguese settlers, merchants, missionaries, and officials. The producers' own stories provide evidence of agency, proactive struggle, and creative adaptation under difficult circumstances."--Jacket
Analysis Cotton Production
Mozambique
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Print version
digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Cotton growing -- Mozambique -- History -- 20th century
Peasants -- Mozambique -- History -- 20th century
Cotton growing
Peasants
Rural conditions
Baumwollanbau
Katoenproductie.
Plattelandsbevolking.
Sociaal-economische situatie.
Koloniale periode.
Paysannerie -- Mozambique -- Histoire -- 20e siècle.
Cotonniers -- Cultures -- Mozambique -- 20e siècle.
SUBJECT Mozambique -- Rural conditions
Subject Mozambique
Moçambique
Mozambique -- Conditions rurales.
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 95014471
Other Titles Peasants, work, and rural struggle in colonial Mozambique, 1938-1961