Thread by @mininghistory

We have fourteen (?!) papers to get through on African occupational structures in our session. First up, Leigh Shaw-Taylor presents his overview paper showing continent-wide trends in labour structures in an astonishing time of less than two minutes. #WEHC2018

Next is @JohanFourieZA on the need to disaggregate occupational trends in South Africa by race and region, as aggregate trends do not show underlying economic shifts. #Mining employment is relatively small despite SA's status as a major mining economy. #WEHC2018

Now we have Filipa Ribeiro da Silva on #Mozambique. Rise of the colonial changes causes major changes in male occupational structures, but little change in the female occupational structure. This creates pronounced and persistent gender differences in the economy. #WEHC2018

Jutta Bolt on #Botswana: #Mining is driving economic growth but provides little employment. There is substantial change in the occupational structure though, as there is a rapid expansion of the tertiary sector and decline of agricultural employment. #WEHC2018

Bolt: tertiary employment in #Botswana is largely dependent on government spending. It is not clear whether robust growth rates can be sustained when diamonds run out. #WEHC2018

Rory Pilossof now showing that #Zimbabwe has experienced a surprising decline in agricultural employment and rising service sector employment over the last two decades, despite the country's economic turmoil. #WEHC2018

Erik Green: There is a problem calculating incomes in #Malawi because so much of the population engaged in labour migration, and are not captured properly in the statistics. Perhaps 20% of the adult population was outside the country in the 1970s. #WEHC2018

Session resumes with Ewout Frankema on #DRCongo, focusing on the surprisingly high levels of manufacturing during the colonial period. Sites of industrialisation were closely linked to the #mining industry. #WEHC2018

Frankema: #DRCongo is a kind of command economy in colonial period, with highly interventionist economic policies (from repression to paternalism). This results in a rapid shift of labour into waged employment. #WEHC2018

Stefania Galli discussing an unusually detailed source for c19th African economic history: 1831 census for Freetown, Sierra Leone. We can recreate a detailed picture of the port's economy. #WEHC2018

Marlous van Waijenburg: how do we measure forced labour, i.e. where the colonial state temporarily coerces labour from the agricultural sector to construction? #WEHC2018

Gareth Austin now presenting on occupational structure of Northern Nigeria. There was a large-scale re-allocation of labour from agriculture to services (mainly transport, so evidence of growing market integration) after independence. #WEHC2018