Under the auspices of the International Institute of Social History and the International Labour Organization (ILO), international researchers and officials gathered in Addis Ababa on 5 November, and an initiative was launched to promote a general labour history of Africa.
'Labour is a major entry point into African history, but there is so little documented research on African labour studies', as one of the participants put it.
The project entitled "General Labour History of Africa" aims to fill this gap by:
- the creation of a comprehensive, user-friendly multi-volume labour history on Africa
- bringing together scholars from different disciplines with labour advocates to engage on debates and research on workers’ conditions, labour relations and everyday lives of working people
- the collecting and preservation of labour heritage and history of the African people
Among the participants: Prof. Endreas Eshete (Former President of Addis Ababa University), Prof. G. Ugo Nwokeji ( African Studies, University of California, Berkeley), Prof. Hanan Sabea (Anthropology, American University of Cairo), Ms Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon (Chief Regional Programming Unit of the ILO Regional Office for Africa), Mr Firmin Matoko (Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office with the African Union) and Dr Stefano Bellucci (Head of the Africa Desk of the IISH in Amsterdam).
More Information:
Stefano Belluci - sbe [at] iisg.nl
http://socialhistory.org/en/news/labour-africa