The Limits of Law in the Mandated Territories: Becoming Manamba and the Struggles of Sisal Plantation Workers in Tanganyika

This article examines the limits of legal regulation of sisal plantation workers in the Mandated Territories of Tanganyika 1923-1958. By focusing on the making of the 1923 Labour Ordinance and its subsequent amendments I demonstrate the tension and conflict between colonial desires to control and manage labouring subjects, while simultaneously ensuring a regular flow of labouring bodies to plantations. The failures confronted on a daily basis in managing migrant labour - that originated not only from diverse provinces within the territories but also from across the boundaries of empire - rendered the limits of legal codes visible and necessitated their constant revisiting. Migrating men and women capitalissed on the ambiguity of the laws, the multiplicity of regulating agents, and a dense social network among migrant workers in challenging the laws as well as the racial and gendered assumptions about 'native' subjects that were embedded in the laws and the practice of their implementation.