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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
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| Title: | Forging Permits and Failing Hopes: African Participation in the Gabonese Timber Industry, ca. 1920-1940 |
| Author: | Rich, Jeremy |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Periodical: | African Economic History |
| Volume: | 33 |
| Pages: | 149-173 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Gabon |
| Subjects: | wood industry forestry colonial administration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology Economics and Trade History and Exploration colonialism |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/4617608 |
| Abstract: | In the thinly populated Gabon estuary, there was a slow rise of unregulated timber commerce from 1890 to 1914. Government regulation of 'okoumé' production expanded after World War I. The monitoring of timber and villages by forestry agents and State-appointed chiefs developed in conjunction with a startling rise in lumber concessions and a flood of migrant workers into the estuary in the 1920s. The sudden formation of timber camps in the 1920s sparked competition over scarce manpower, access to trees, and control over land. State-appointed chiefs, Gabonese and West African businessmen, local and migrant labourers, and European timber firms struggled with one another to maximize their profits. Chiefs manipulated their State patronage to control labour and resources in great demand by timber firms. Gabonese and West African entrepreneurs tried to use their familiarity with colonial bureaucracy to their advantage. Ordinary Gabonese workers found African firms were willing to hire deserters who had broken their State-mandated contracts with European firms. Administrators and the newly formed colonial forestry service tried to regulate the frantic circulation of trees, workers and revenue that the chaotic timber trade created. Although officials claimed to be impartial, they greatly favoured European firms over their African rivals, and forbade most Gabonese people from legally harvesting the highly-valued 'okoumé' tree. It was no surprise that Gabonese workers and entrepreneurs flagrantly violated State mandates that curtailed their ability to turn a profit. However, Africans involved in the 'okoumé' industry did not cope well with the downfall of prices beginning in 1929. Though a few Gabonese timber firms survived, the bulk of lumber exports would stay under French ownership until well after independence. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
