INVISIBLE HANDS - THE POLITICAL-ECONOMY OF CHILD LABOR IN COLONIAL ZIMBABWE, 1890-1930

This article argues that the role of children as part of both the paid and unpaid labour force in colonial Zimbabwe was of greater significance than has been realised and that the subject has received far less attention than it deserves from historians. Thus child labour has been doubly 'invisible'. It was, like the labour of women, largely outside the official discourse on labour in the period under discussion (1890-1930) and also it remained largely unobserved by the analysts of the period The article discusses the reasons for children's presence in the labour force, linking it to the practices of both colonial and indigenous patriarchy, and to the economic needs of the time. It then outlines how they were employed, showing that in some sectors of the colonial economy in Rhodesia they were particularly usefuL It concludes by pointing to tensions that arose as officials found it difficult to reconcile the incompatibility of their youth and their usefulness to capital and the economy.