Labour Emigration among the Moçambique Thonga: Comments on a Study by Marvin Harris

Abstract

Opening Paragraph Studies on the Bantu of south-east Africa by American anthropologists are rare. For this reason visits such as that of Dr. Marvin Harris of Columbia University to Moçambique should be welcomed. However, on reading his paper on the political and cultural factors of the migratory labour of the Thonga his data seem incomplete and the inferences therefrom not altogether correct. He chose a social process of extreme complexity, and for it to be completely understood it is necessary to undertake more research on its correlations and implications, and to observe it in a broader perspective, taking into account geographical, historical, ecological, cultural, political, and economic peculiarities of this whole region of Africa. In the following comments I shall try not to become involved in moral or political issues but to observe the migratory process as objectively as possible.

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