ABSTRACT
In 1884 Germany had declared a protectorate over Demararaland and Namaqualand in South-West Africa and had also been showing interest in Tanganyika. The flow of labour into and between the territories of the Federation has been profoundly affected by the degree of economic development in each. The economic development in South Central Africa has only been possible through the availability of a large reservoir of cheap labour. Southern Rhodesia, in fact, had itself become a centre of employment at the beginning of the century so that in 1903 the British South Africa Company had set up a Native Labour Bureau to obtain labour for the farms and mines in Southern Rhodesia. The distribution of labour in industries and in regions either in terms of distance from the point of inflow, or in terms of local opportunities, is nothing more than an expression of this.
