Paper short abstract:

The presentation will show how the British administration used the indirect rule system in the Gold Coast’s Northern Territories to regulate labour. The role of local authorities in labour recruitment is a central aspect in the analysis.

Paper long abstract:

The 1930s witnessed the international standardization of labour standards in the 'Forced Labour Convention' and the 'Recruiting of Indigenous Workers Convention'. The Gold Coast's colonial administration's answer to meet the balancing act of satisfying the regulations of the conventions and the industry's labour demand lied within using the indirect rule system as a loophole. The presentation will show how the colonial government reacted with legislative and administrative means to the conventions to create a labour system in which chiefs played a central role.

Whereas this system was created mainly in the 1930s, the 1940s and the 1950s witnessed constitutional reforms which will be analysed from the labour perspective. The presentation will show which aspects of labour were administratively the colonial government's task and which were put in the hands of the local authorities and to what means. Legislation in the Gold Coast did not only meet the demands of the labour conventions, but also legally institutionalised methods of labour recruitment and established 'local responsibility' for labour questions. This legal and administrative side of labour in the history of the Gold Coast has been underemphasised in research.

Although making some general statements, the focus is on the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, which was the main domestic supplier of unskilled mine labour. Within the colonial period, the history of the Northern Territories was distinct on the administrative and economic level and the presentation will show in how far it was determined by the 'labour question'.