Page 53 - Afrika Must Unite

38 AFRICA MUST UNITE

always been slave states. Though theoretically abolished in 1875,
slavery was still continued by various methods which a Portu­
guese law of 1899 put into definite legal shape. This law, which is
still in force in Angola, provides that ‘all natives5, that is to say,
all Africans, are subject to a ‘moral and legal obligation* to
acquire by labour the means of subsisting or ‘bettering their
social condition*. U nder this law every African male in Angola,
which is in practice interpreted as those above the apparent age
of ten years, may be obliged to show any time either that he has
worked for six months in the year previous or that he is working.
Employers who want forced labour indent to the Governor-
General for ‘a supply5, the term used indiscriminately of goods
and men. The Governor-General then allocates a calculated
num ber. Local administrators up and down the country are sent
orders to round up the numbers, which is done by threatening
the chiefs and headmen. W hen the required numbers have been
brought to the collecting centres, the District Officer enforces
a collective contract, which is entered into on behalf of the
workers by the chiefs and headmen who have produced the
specified numbers.
Less than half of the labour employed in Angola is officially
classified by the Portuguese authorities as contract labour, that
is, forced labour. Over half of it is theoretically voluntary labour,
but in practice the position of the voluntary labourer is not better
than that of the forced labourer.
The voluntary labourer cannot leave his job because if he does
he will become liable to be classed as ‘idle5 and therefore subject
to forced labour. His only chance of escape is by slipping out of
the Portuguese territory and attempting to obtain work in other
neighbouring states. Portuguese sources have estimated that in
the ten years previous to 1947 over one million people had left
the Portuguese colonies by way of clandestine emigration. But
not all the people can go, and those who are left behind often
bear the brunt for those who have gone. And they have no
medium through which they can make their grief known, their
sorrows heard; nowhere to turn for mitigation of their plight.
W hen others have been in the same position, there have been
those who have raised their voices for them. All over the world
we have heard cries for people who are reputed to exist in