BOTSWANA: THE history of labour migration in Botswana can be linked to the discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa in the late 19th century.
South Africa needed cheap labour, and men from neighbouring territories were pulled into the workforce as unskilled or semi-skilled workers in mines, factories, kitchens and farms.
Mine recruitment agencies like the Native Recruiting Corporation and the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association began expanding recruitment networks in Botswana in the 1930s.
Men in Botswana – a British protectorate and largely rural economy at the time – were open to labour migration for several reasons. They had to pay taxes to the colonial administration, and for that they needed cash.
Some needed to pay traditional bride price in cattle, acquire ploughs for agricultural production, or educate their children. Drought pushed some farmers to look for other work.
So, men were forced leave their families and migrate to work in South Africa or Southern Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe). They would return home only about once a year.
This left women as primary caregivers in their families, in a society with a patriarchal culture, where men are normally in charge. As a Tswana phrase puts it: “Mosadi ke ngwana wa monna – A woman is a man’s child.”
Families experienced a variety of challenges and changes as a result, and their responses to the circumstances varied.
Previous studies have examined the effects of men’s absence, but there hasn’t been much historical research on the impact on women and families of their return. As a women’s historian I was interested in this aspect.
I interviewed 33 rural women in Botswana’s northeast and central disricts whose husbands had been away between 1970 and 2015 to ask them how this had affected them. From what they told me, it became apparent that most marriages did not work out for the best.
Their stories and perspectives add to what’s known about the economic and social impact of labour migration in the southern African region.
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Labour migration and the disruption of families Previous research has found that labour migration damaged families in the countries that provided workers.
The tightly knit cooperative, social and economic unit became economically dependent on migrants’ income. Although it improved people’s lives economically, labour migration separated husbands and wives for long periods.
In Tswana society, marriage is typically seen as a husband and wife living together to raise children and make decisions. However, for women married to migrant workers, the situation was quite different.
They spent much time apart; they only spent time together when the husband came home to visit, was on leave, or was between jobs. It also shifted women’s social and economic status – and traditional gender roles.
Even though the absent husband retained power over strategic family decisions, male migration improved the position of women, who became, in practice, heads of the house.
However, miners returned home when retired, retrenched or injured. Many also came back to Botswana following Botswana’s independence in 1966 and the discovery of diamonds in the country in 1967.