De Escravos a “Serviçais”, de “Serviçais” a “Contratados”: Omissões, perceções e equívocos na história do trabalho africano na Angola colonial

A reflexion on historical research on labour in Angola under Portuguese rule, this article aims to contribute to an African labour history agenda exploring the great amount of sources available. It points out to the problematic use of categories like “slave” and “worker” for very different spaces, times and cultural contexts. Starting with a quick overview of the slow transition from slavery to free work in Angola (from the nineteenth century to the 1960s), this article highlights the importance, violence and persistence of forced work. However, it also stresses the fact that most of productive and service activities in colonial Angola were not using forced labour. Research on African labour under colonial rule has emphasized certain categories and approaches while others were left in the shadow, so this article calls for more attention to the experiences of peasants (namely women), fishermen, petty traders, migrant workers and others still at the margins of the historical work on African labour in colonial Angola