Francisco Papel and the colonial justice: Contract labour and colonialism in the city of Bolama

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, the colonial administration established the Secretaria dos Negócios Indígenas (Secretariat for Indigenous Affairs) in its colonies to manage African labour. In Portuguese Guinea, the institution also adjudicated disputes  between employers and servants, thereby generating a significant body of administrative and judicial case files. These records reveal key aspects of the contractual labour relations to which local populations were subjected. They also show how workers turned to the colonial justice system to claim labour rights. Situated at the intersection of legal history and labour history, this article analyses these case files in order to understand workers’ agency and their responses to the compulsory labour imposed by the colonial administration. The analysis highlights how workers sought to redefine their labour relations through the strategic use of the colonial judiciary, topics still underexplored in the historiography of Portuguese Africa.