Africa has been known for its cheap labour rather than competitive labour until this day. Regardless of Africans’ immense contribution to the development of world economy by providing their labour, they could not get a fair treatment and payment. Being at low skill level and having undeveloped social organization might have been ascribed to the prevailing poor wage among African labourers. Nevertheless, Africans have been underpaid even in works which do not require any intermediate or special skills. Thus, African labour is mercilessly exploited because of the strong link created between the owners of the capital (most of the time foreigners) and the corrupted African leaders. Ethiopia was no exception. This paper, therefore, tries to investigate how the strong link between foreign capital and the Imperial Government of Ethiopia was responsible for the misery of workers at Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate. It employed a qualitative approach where document analysis, observation and in-depth interview were used as tools to collect pertinent data. The findings show that the Imperial Government of Ethiopia and the Dutch Company, Handels Vereeniging Amsterdam (HVA) worked only to maximize their profit at the expense of Ethiopian labourers. Needless to say, the workers were segregated from all benefits and forced to live in a precarious life conditions.
| Published in | Social Sciences (Volume 11, Issue 5) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11 |
| Page(s) | 245-253 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Labour, Capital, Estate, Wage, Capo
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APA Style
Adane Kassie. (2022). African Labour and Foreign Capital: The Case of Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate in Ethiopia, 1951-1974. Social Sciences, 11(5), 245-253. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11
ACS Style
Adane Kassie. African Labour and Foreign Capital: The Case of Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate in Ethiopia, 1951-1974. Soc. Sci. 2022, 11(5), 245-253. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11,
author = {Adane Kassie},
title = {African Labour and Foreign Capital: The Case of Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate in Ethiopia, 1951-1974},
journal = {Social Sciences},
volume = {11},
number = {5},
pages = {245-253},
doi = {10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ss.20221105.11},
abstract = {Africa has been known for its cheap labour rather than competitive labour until this day. Regardless of Africans’ immense contribution to the development of world economy by providing their labour, they could not get a fair treatment and payment. Being at low skill level and having undeveloped social organization might have been ascribed to the prevailing poor wage among African labourers. Nevertheless, Africans have been underpaid even in works which do not require any intermediate or special skills. Thus, African labour is mercilessly exploited because of the strong link created between the owners of the capital (most of the time foreigners) and the corrupted African leaders. Ethiopia was no exception. This paper, therefore, tries to investigate how the strong link between foreign capital and the Imperial Government of Ethiopia was responsible for the misery of workers at Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate. It employed a qualitative approach where document analysis, observation and in-depth interview were used as tools to collect pertinent data. The findings show that the Imperial Government of Ethiopia and the Dutch Company, Handels Vereeniging Amsterdam (HVA) worked only to maximize their profit at the expense of Ethiopian labourers. Needless to say, the workers were segregated from all benefits and forced to live in a precarious life conditions.},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - African Labour and Foreign Capital: The Case of Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate in Ethiopia, 1951-1974 AU - Adane Kassie Y1 - 2022/09/05 PY - 2022 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11 T2 - Social Sciences JF - Social Sciences JO - Social Sciences SP - 245 EP - 253 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2326-988X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20221105.11 AB - Africa has been known for its cheap labour rather than competitive labour until this day. Regardless of Africans’ immense contribution to the development of world economy by providing their labour, they could not get a fair treatment and payment. Being at low skill level and having undeveloped social organization might have been ascribed to the prevailing poor wage among African labourers. Nevertheless, Africans have been underpaid even in works which do not require any intermediate or special skills. Thus, African labour is mercilessly exploited because of the strong link created between the owners of the capital (most of the time foreigners) and the corrupted African leaders. Ethiopia was no exception. This paper, therefore, tries to investigate how the strong link between foreign capital and the Imperial Government of Ethiopia was responsible for the misery of workers at Wonji-Shewa Sugar Estate. It employed a qualitative approach where document analysis, observation and in-depth interview were used as tools to collect pertinent data. The findings show that the Imperial Government of Ethiopia and the Dutch Company, Handels Vereeniging Amsterdam (HVA) worked only to maximize their profit at the expense of Ethiopian labourers. Needless to say, the workers were segregated from all benefits and forced to live in a precarious life conditions. VL - 11 IS - 5 ER -
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