Todd Cleveland, assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, is no stranger to the world of African diamond mining. A year before publishing this monograph on colonial labour relations in the Angolan diamond mining district of Lunda, he wrote a more general account of the history of diamond mining in Africa, Stones of Contention. One chapter of that book was entitled “The Experiences of African Workers on Colonial-era Mines” and is a preview of what he developed more thoroughly in the subsequent Diamonds in the Rough.
In 1917, five years after the discovery of diamonds in Angola, a Portuguese colony, the diamond company of Angola (Diamang) got founded. The company’s near-independent control over the sizeable diamondiferous territory named Lunda allowed it to develop its approach to labour. Cleveland’s book is not so much about the mining of diamonds of Angola but instead deals with the nature of labour relationships on Angola’s diamond mines during the colonial period. Its analysis deals with the question of how the particularities of these relationships have contributed to an atmosphere of non-violence and professionalism, as opposed to many other mining regimes in colonial Africa.
Cleveland’s central argument is one of reciprocity. This atmosphere was not only brought about by a top-down paternalism by Diamang offering their labourers complements to wages such as housing, healthcare and family relocation, but also by a growing professionalism from Diamang’s Angolan workers, who adopted strategies to better their social and professional contexts at Diamang while executing their duties as an exemplary workforce. The reciprocity is excellently researched using varied source material; on the one hand, Cleveland relies on colonial legislation and other archival material such as reports and correspondence. He has also been able to interview former workers about their experiences. It is the inclusion of this oral source that makes the book stand out.
The monograph has seven chapters, including a shorter introductory one. The author addresses the topic in steps, rather than in a chronological manner; as such, he discusses the political and economic context of Angola’s diamond district, the recruitment process of workers, which was partially forced (“contratado” system) and partially relied on voluntary workers who often came from villages nearer to the mines (“voluntários”). He also discusses the labour itself, including the growingly professional approach of workers towards their tasks, the diversification of jobs, the work done by accompanying wives and children. A separate chapter is devoted to the strategies adopted by workers to improve their condition, which included redistribution of rations, issuing of complaints, feigning injury or illness, refusing to work, and the stealing of diamonds. The decline in high-risk strategies such as desertion or theft is indicative of the growing professionalism amongst workers. A sixth chapter deals with social life after work ended, and a final chapter addresses the journey back home for workers who had finished their contracts, including the collection of back pay, and a possible re-entry on a new voluntary contract.
These seven chapters fully cover the experience of Diamang’s labour force, both off as well as on the mines, and the company’s paternalistic approach towards them. The reliance on interviews from former employees makes the book stand out in its effort to move beyond a colonial history based on written sources, but the lack of theorizing about how to use oral sources might have led to a problem with assessing these sources. It can, for instance, be questioned to what extent the Angolan war of independence and the subsequent civil war have influenced memories about the Diamang era. This lack of methodological context sometimes gives the oral sources an anecdotal air, particularly as at times the author points to very different experiences of different individuals to show that history is not always as single-mindedly as historians would like it to be. While the author deserves lauding for bringing such nuance to his narrative, it has, at times, rendered his argument about paternalism and professionalism less potent, which is a pity, because the oral sources are good enough to support his claims.
While Cleveland’s analysis is revealing of a different type of working relationship during colonial times, one that was able, thanks to the willingness of both the mining company and the African workers, to move beyond a world of pure antagonism, one might wonder whether Cleveland’s analysis is not too optimistic. He hints at several difficulties, mainly when workers were not dealing with Diamang, but the Portuguese colonial authorities. The latter was more involved in the labour recruitment process, especially when forced. Initially, as discussed in the second chapter, individuals could be forced to travel long-distance, forced to enter a mining workforce against their wills. On the return journeys of workers, they had to collect wages, which were sometimes embezzled by local chiefs (“sobas”) or colonial authorities. While Cleveland also discusses incidents of violence and sexual advances on the mines, he also makes it clear these were more due to misbehaving individuals, who could, at times, get punished by Diamang. Perhaps the title, Diamonds in the Rough, should serve as a reminder that, despite efforts by Diamang to better the lives of their African workers, and strategic efforts by the workers themselves to get what they felt they were owed, a forced mining labour regime was still a brutal and harsh environment to live and work in.
While Cleveland analyses valid arguments that explain the context of the diamondiferous region of Lunda (even during the years of the war for independence), he should perhaps explicitly have addressed the meaning of the peaceful environment of Angola’s diamond mining as it relates to notions of Portuguese colonial exceptionalism. Inspired by Gilberto Freyre’s idea of Lusotropicalism, and ideas about a Portuguese inclination to adapt have led to a Portuguese nationalist and naïve, to say the least, historiography in which the Portuguese colonial empire stood out for its peaceful race relations, particularly in comparison to colonial societies such as British South Africa. A similar antagonism is readily detectable in the difference between the mining environment of Lunda, where workers who lived as single men were neighbours of families, and where ethnic strife did not exist, and the violent and more oppressed atmosphere of the compounds harbouring workers on the South African and Rhodesian mines. While Cleveland does not utilise the case of Lunda to confirm Portugal’s colonial exceptionalism, it would have been highly relevant to see this book take a position about this broader debate.
This lack of engagement with a broader historical debate or wider comparative framework is present at other times in the book. As it is not so much about diamond mining, it fails to draw historical parallels with Portugal’s long history of diamond mining. The Brazilian diamond district in the eighteenth century, for instance, was, equally as Lunda, governed almost like a “state within the state”, by a monopolistic company. It is possible that the Brazilian example inspired Portugal’s decision to grant such controlling power to Diamang over Lunda, but such historical parallels do not figure in this book. Similarly, the level of comparison with other mining labour systems remains limited. It should be admitted, though, that Cleveland himself has already done an excellent comparative job with the prior Stones of Contention book. These are perhaps the only shortcomings in an otherwise superbly researched and written account of an important story in twentieth-century colonial history, with present-day repercussions. Diamang has become extinct, but its successor, the national company of Endiama, still prides itself on its website with its motivation to strengthen relationships with “administrative and traditional authorities” and their willingness to contribute to “community development”. Todd Cleveland has convincingly shown that both these aspects were crucial characteristics of colonial-era Diamang’s paternalistic strategy towards their labouring personnel.
