Zambezia (1977), 5 (i).LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRY*M. F. C. BOURDILLONDepartment of Sociology, University of RhodesiaTHE RESEARCH on which this paper is basal is focused on the rural communityrather than on labour migration as such. During a period of just under twoyears (1969-1971) spent in field research in the social anthropology of theEastern Korekore in the north-east corner of Rhodesia, I observed that, incommon with many other Central African peasant communities, nearly halfof the adult male population (those over the age of sixteen from occupiedhomesteads) were away from home in or seeking wage employment.' Theseabsentees form an essential part of the rural community and all male ruralpeasants are expected to spend some time away from home. The scope of thepresent study is determined by the intention to complement my earlier re-search;2 consequently I am dealing with a small sample of migrants from acommunity which is educationally and economically backward when com-pared with peoples nearer the centre of Rhodesia.Working from the family genealogies of the home community, I wasable to draw up a list of men at work away from home. Between September1972 and January 1973, 58 of these absentees were interviewed following aprepared questionnaire, and supplemented in a number of cases by furtherinformal interviews. The sample was not random: it had a bias away fromyounger people with short labour histories (though they were not ignored:the average age of the sample was 36,6 as opposed to 33,1 for all absentees)and was also biased by a preference for interviewing people well known tothe research assistant and their contacts in order to avoid suspicion and obtainmaximum co-operation. Nevertheless, as Table I shows, it correspondedroughly with the employment pattern of the community as a whole:* An earlier draft of this paper was presented to the Congress of the Association forSociology in Southern Africa at Rorna, Lesotho, in July 1973. The research was financedby a grant from the Research Board of the University of Rhodesia.' See G. L. Chavunduka, 'Rural and urban life', Zambezia (1975-6), 4, ii, 69, n.l.z M. F. C. Bourdillon, 'Some Aspects of the Religion of the Eastern Korekore'(Oxford Univ., unpubl. D.Phil, thesis, 1972).ILABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYTable IDISTRIBUTION OF KOREKORE LABOUR MIGRANTS BYTYPES OF EMPLOYMENTLocally Employed in Roadand Tsetse Control TeamsEmployed or Seeking Employmenton Farms aEmployed or Seeking Employmentin Domestic ServiceOtherwise Engaged in TownsSampleN=58-102919_175033TotalCommunity%4225222{Living in Greater Salisbury)(37)(64)(64)Comparing this distribution of the eastern Korekore labour migrants indifferent forms of employment (Table I) with African employment in Rho-desia as a whole (Table II), we see that the Korekore community standsroughly in the middle income group, above those engaged largely in agricul-ture and forestry (including a large number of immigrants from outside thecountry) and below those communities earning more income particularly fromcommercial and industrial employment.The 58 informants had in their careers occupied a total of 233 positionsof employment. Eliminating those positions not yet occupied for five yearsand not yet terminated, the informants occupied any particular position foran average of 3,7 years (see Table VI, below) which makes it clear that weare dealing primarily with casual migrant labour.a The majority of the farm workers were in the areas nearest home which have beeninvolved in the military troubles in the north-east of Rhodesia. Research in this areabecame impracticable after the middle of December and the numbers interviewed hadto be curtailed.M. F. C. BOURDILLONTable I!AFRICAN EMPLOYMENT IN RHODESIA FOR 1972*AgricultureDomestic ServiceOtherTOTAL_Number EmployedThousands338,2120,1389,9848,043,915,650,6100,0Annual IncomeTotal$ Million45,633,3203,1282,0Average$135276521333The principal reason for leaving the rural home and seeking wage em-ployment is economic. Informants were asked their reasons for seeking wageemployment with respect to each position they had occupied and on all butthree occasions gave as their reason a need for money, the exceptions beingthree cases in each of which a person sought wage employment away fromhome in order to escape pending trouble at home.3 Few informants gave speci-fic reasons for wanting money, and some when pressed said that they wantedit for the general needs of their families,6 which suggests that time spent earn-ing cash wages has become a customary part of the economy of the ruralarea, whether or not particular needs should arise.In a few cases specific reasons for needing money were given. One wasthat money was needed to buy food in time of famine. Because of the isola-tion of this area (100 km from Mount Darwin and over 250 km by roadfrom Salisbury), transport costs reduce considerably the incentive to growsurplus grain for sale except in the case of those in the vicinity of the missionboarding school.7 Besides, the low rainfall and poor soils in this area makes* This Table is calculated from the provisional figures in Rhodesia, Monthly Digestof Statistics: April 1973 (Salisbury, Central Statistical Office), Tables 14, 16. Informa-tion on migrants' income proved to be incomplete or unreliable; they are assumed tocorrespond roughly with the averages given in this table.s See J. van Velsen, The Politics of Kinship (Manchester, Manchester Univ. Press,1964), 67f, where it is pointed out that among the Lakeside Tonga migration to thelabour centres is recognized as the only escape from an impossible situation at home.e Since informants were not regularly pressed for more specific reasons, numbersare not significant.7 Even this meagre market is now threatened by the withdrawal of the missionariesfrom education which under government pressure is being put into the hands of ruralcouncils.4 LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYit difficult to produce a sizeable surplus even in a good year.8 Thus theonly means open to most household heads to compensate for a bad harvestis to buy meal with money earned in wage employment.Marriage payments are cited as another reason for needing money. Inpre-colonial times, only a token bride-price payment was customary in thisarea9 and marriage normally involved instead a number of years spent bythe husband in the service of his father-in-law. Now, partly as a result ofthe association of these people with the Korekore in Rhodesia rather thanthe Tavara in Mozambique10 marriage procedures have moved towardsthe more common Shona custom of substantial bride-price payments: a youngman wishing to get married must pay the girl's father a sum of money rarelyless than Rh$60 and usually considerably more, depending on the length ofservice he renders, the payments in kind (principally a number of head ofcattle usually, but not always, from the family herd of the groom) and thecircumstances of the negotiations (not infrequently a family in dire needmarries off a young girl for a relatively small sum in cash in order to meetimmediate necessity). Whatever the exact payment, a man must earn an ap-preciable sum in wage employment in order to fulfil his marriage obligations.Marriage custom in the rural area has altered to the extent that a periodspent away from home in wage employment is expected of every young man.Another expense in the rural area is education. Although in this back-ward area little over half the boys and fewer girls receive any schooling, itis the desire of most family heads to educate at least some of their childrento improve the job opportunities of their sons and to increase potential bride-price payments for their daughters. When the oldest sons have been throughschool, particularly if they have acquired some secondary education, theyare expected to contribute towards the education of the younger siblings."Other expenses which demand cash earnings are clothes for all thefamily, taxation, agricultural equipment, cattle and various 'luxury' goodssuch as bicycles, radios and furniture, all of which make it necessary for aman to earn a cash income for some period in his life. Rural life has changeds The soils are mostly very shallow sandy loams and the average rainfall is between500 and 650 mms, below the minimum required for the applicability of the HendersonResearch Station project showing the feasibility of economic farming in Tribal TrustLands; see M. G. W. Rodel, 'An important role seen for cultivated pastures in tribalagriculture', Modern Farming (1969), 6, i. 9-29.a The accounts of old men are confirmed by early reports that bride-price paymentsin this area amounted to a fowl or a piece of cloth as a token to the father-in-law; seeNational Archives of Rhodesia. N/9/4/11 (Chief Native Commissioner : Reports :Monthly : Jan.-Mar. 1902), Monthly Report, North Mazoe, Feb. 1902.i° M. F. C. Bourdillon, 'The peoples of Darwin : An ethnographic survey of theMount Darwin District', NAD A (1969-73). 10, iii, 113.i! Note the case cited in the Appendix I, Cl. Sister Mary Aquina, 'The socialbackground of agriculture in Chilimanzi Reserve'. Human Problems in British CentralAfrica : The Rhodes-Livingstone Journal (1946), 36, 27 cites a case among the southernShona in which two close relatives alternated working in town. One was paying for thetraining of his younger brother and was able to stop when the latter became a schoolteacher and was able to support the family.M. F. C. BOURD1LJ.ON 5to the extent that a husband cannot fulfil what is expected of him unless hehas a cash income.12 A few families are deliberately organized so that thereare always some members away earning cash incomes and there is alsosomeone looking after the rural home (see, for example, Appendix I), butmost family heads appear to work on an ad hoc basis, going to seek worksimply when the need arises.13It should be noticed that the economic pressures from the rural areasforce men to seek wage employment even when such employment is scarce:this is partly because wage employment is seen as a necessity which mustoverride possible difficulties. But it is also true that people tend to judge theirchances of finding employment on their own past experience and that oftheir close relatives rather than on rumours that employment is hard to find;I frequently came across men who when warned that employment was hardto find in Salisbury replied that they would have no difficulty because theyvvere prepared to do any work however menial.14 A man who fails to findemployment is presumed to have been lazy or idle in his search for work ortoo proud to perform the menial tasks available, all traits commonly held tobe peculiar to the younger generation. A man who leaves home at some ex-pense to his family must be desperate before he will return without havingearned a penny. The pressures to find wage employment work independentlyof conditions in the employment centres.A few individuals, such as professional diviners or blacksmiths or musi-cians, can earn an adequate cash income within the rural community, andthere are very limited possibilities of wage employment locally. But the vastmajority of men have to seek wage employment outside the rural area, andeven the rural specialists usually make one or more wage-earning journeysbefore they are able to establish a regular home income. Families in the ruralareas can also make money by helping to plough and weed the fields ofabsentees and by the sale of millet beer and foods of various kinds especiallyto those who were away during the previous cultivating season. Nevertheless,'2 Compare this with the Chilimanzi people who through labour migration haveraised their standard of .living above the subsistence level but still consider themselvespoor in the light of their knowledge of European standards, ibid., 34.13 \V. Watson, Tribal Cohesion in a Money Economy (Manchester, ManchesterUniv. Press, 1958). 226f, where it is suggested that the Mambwe kinship system of patri-local residence and virilocal marriage allows for co-operation between labour migrants andtheir relatives in the home villages and for trips to be organized so that men are al-ways at home. He contrasts this with the Bemba whose uxorilocal marriage system separ-ates kinsmen, resulting in a more individual approach to labour migration and the occa-sional debilitating lack of men for agricultural work; see also A. I. Richards, Land, Labourand Diet in Northern Rhodesia (London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1939). 404f., and M. Read,'Migrant labour in Africa and its effects on tribal life', International Labour Review(1942), 45, 624 where the patrilineal Ngoni are contrasted with the matrilineal Cewa.Van Velsen, The Politics of Kinship, 71, remarks that the matrilineal Lakeside Tongaof Malawi try to organize their trips abroad so that there is always one man left tomind the affairs of the hamlet, showing that the degree of organization is not simply afunction of the kinship type.'4 In spite of this, some have been forced to return home in recent years aftermonths of looking for employment in Salisbury.0 LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYfamily arrangements and the economy of the community as a whole are struc-tured around the acknowledged necessity of a proportion of male absenteesaway earning cash to bring into the rural area.The 58 migrants were asked about cash and goods sent to the rural homeand their replies were checked against lists given by members of the homecommunity of what they had received from absentees, but the lack of corres-pondence between information from these two sources together with a wide-spread inability to estimate a plausible budget of expenditure renders thismaterial largely unreliable.15 Nevertheless in the case of fifteen migrants (28 percent), there was agreement between the migrant and the rural communitythat nothing had been sent home in the previous twelve months although allhad been away for over a year and three had wives at their rural homes;furthermore in 14 cases there was sufficient agreement between rural inform-ants and the migrants to suggest that their information was reliable:Table 111GOODS SENT TO RURAL HOMEFor Wives and Children(including School Fees)For Parents and Siblings[ For Marriage PaymentsTo Increase Own Herd ofCattleNo. ofPersonsT2 *233Goods Sent Home inPrevious 12 Months|Cash, $24081168!Goods toValue, $18313* Two of the fourteen had their wives with them.Table III illustrates the degree of help those in the rural area may receivefrom labour absentees apart from the savings that a migrant may bring homewhen he terminates his employment. The twelve reliable informants withwives in the rural areas sent home the equivalent of $605, or 22,4 per centof their total annual cash earnings, of which $423, 15,7 per cent of cashearnings, was destined for their wives and families.Table IV emphasizes the prevalence of economic considerations in theminds of the labour migrants notwithstanding certain other attractions ofworking in the urban areas. The fact that 88 per cent of informants livingis It appears that the absentees tended to distort information to make themselvesappear generous to those at home, while the latter preferred to show how poor was theirplight at home.M. F. C. BOURDILLON 7in the towns say that they prefer to be in town does not necessarily meanthat they enjoy town life: most give as their reason that they want to workfor their families while they are still young enough to be able to earn money.Table IVRESIDENCEA. PREFER TO LIVE WHILE STILL YOUNGAt Rural HomeElsewhereTOTALThose Livingin TownsN64248%1288100Those Livingon FarmsN7310%7030100B. REASONS FOR PREFERENCEEconomicOther Reasons1 "1 No Reason GivenI ŁTOTALTownsN36 *13 *348%75276100FarmsN10-_10%100--100* Four informants gave both economic and other reasons.The importance of economic needs in the rural areas is further emphasizedin the marked preference for improving the rural home rather than adoptinga higher urban standard of living (Table V).In spite of the emphasis on economic reasons for seeking wage employ-ment, the migrants are aware of comforts provided in their place of workwhich are absent from the spartan life of their rural home. It is a commonbelief that at home people age much more quickly on account of the intenseheat of the low-lying country, the inadequate diet especially in the months8 LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYjust prior to the first rains, and the poor and sometimes limited waterThe superior living conditions are to be found only in the urban areas:are noticeably less happy about working on the farms (see Table IVTable VPREFERRED AREA OF EXPENDITUREsupply,peopleabove).Money Would Be Spent at theRural HomeMoney Would Be Spent ElsewhereNo ResponseTownsN* Seven in towns and one on a farm said they would spend both on their ruralhomes and at their place of work.Housing conditions on the farms are similar to those in the rural areas,and most farm workers complain that the rations of food supplied by theiremployers are inadequate to meet their needs. The salaries of farm employeesare considerably lower than elsewhere (see Table II) and farm labourersregularly complained about how little they were able to save from theirearnings: one man asserted that he wanted to return home to work his ownfields but was not earning enough to save for the necessary fares. The farmsdo have the advantage that employment on them is easy to find but thisdoes not compensate for the unattractive conditions of service that theyoffer.16 A further attraction of the farms is that accommodation for wives andchildren is readily available: nine of the ten farm employees had theirfamilies with them as opposed to 36 per cent of married men employed else-where. Yet this adds to the cost of living since the fields at home get neglected,and men with families on the farms complain of the lack of educationalfacilities for their children. The low proportion of positions occupied on thefarms (Table VI) indicates the preference for employment elsewhere:'e M. P. Todaro, 'Income expectations, rural-urban migration and employment inAfrica', International Labour Review (1971), 104, 387-413, argues convincingly the longterm economic rationality of seeking employment in the cities where wages are relativelyhigh even though in the short term the wage-seeker may spend a considerable periodout of work.M. F. C. BOURDILLONTable VIEMPLOYMENT OF INFORMANTSA. POSITIONSPositions OccupiedPercentage of TotalFarms4419Total Time Spent (Years)Percentage of Total241,831DomesticService13257Other358,346186,424Total233100786.5101B. TERMINATION*In Under 2 YearsIn 2 to 5 YearsIn 5 to 10 YearsIn 10 to 20 YearsIn Over 20 Yearsj Average Length ofI Employment (Years)13148525,659376422,922135-33,86419973,7* Excludes those positions which have neither been occupied for five years nor beenterminated.Table VI also examines length of employment in different fields. Thegreater average length of service on farms can be accounted for by twofactors: firstly, the lower earnings mean that it takes longer to save a givensum of cash and, secondly, it is easier to live a normal family life on thefarms making possible long continuous periods of employment.Only 21 (36 per cent) of the informants have at some time in theircareers occupied positions on farms and only 10 (17 per cent) have occupiedpositions in small towns (outside the two big cities of Salisbury and Bulawayo).A few of these (8, i.e. 14 per cent) started their careers with relatives onfarms or in small towns and later moved into the big cities never again toseek employment in the country districts.It is clear that the big cities offer attractions not found in the countrydistricts. Yet even when a person does leave a farm or a small town to move10LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYultimately to employment in the cities, there is often an intermediate periodspent at home which further suggests that but for the economic factors hometies are strongest:Table VIIVACATION OF POSITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT OUTSIDE THE BIGTOWNSNTotal Number of Positions Outside Salisbury andBulawayo Occupied in the Past by InformantsPositions Vacated in order to Return HomePositions Vacated for Other Reasons andResulting in a Return to Reside at Home\7Positions Vacated in order to Transfer from Countryto Town or from Small Town to Salisbury*Other Positions Vacated1037172422* All informants who transferred their employment directly from a small to alarge employment centre stated the transfer as their reason for vacating their originalpositions.To speak of the attractions of the cities is not to support the 'brightlights' theory that people move into them simply to enjoy the amenities theyoffer. In fact only a minority of informants enjoy the facilities of entertain-ment peculiar to the towns (see Table VIII). To some extent this can beexplained by the fact that those in domestic service have little time to enjoyorganized recreations since they rarely have a full day off at weekends andmost of them work in the evenings. Whatever the reason, the majority ofmigrants rely for their entertainment on weekend drinking with their relativesand friends from home, bringing their rural recreation into the urban en-vironment.Table VIIIUSE OF ENTERTAINMENT FACILITIES IN TOWNSNumber Resident in TownsNumber Making Use of Non-TraditionalEntertainment Facilities*Number Enjoying no Non-TraditionalEntertainmentDomesticServantsN28622%2179OtherN201010I%5050* The most common of these is watching football.M. F. C. BOURDILJ_ONI!The argument so far has been that Eastern Korekore men leave theirhomes to seek wage employment primarily for economic reasons, and thatrural life has changed to accommodate the necessity for absentee wage em-ployment. I shall now show that the rural society networks are extended tothe places of employment and that the society into which the migrant enters athis place of work derives largely from his rural home,'7 Although the newenvironment incorporates wider society including Europeans and Africansfrom other areas and backgrounds, the initial social network which receivedthe migrant comes from his rural home and most migrants continue to findtheir principal social contacts within this network as long as they are awayfrom home.Table IXINITIAL RESIDENCEA. AFTER FIRST LEAVING HOMEWith Close Kin fWith Other Relativeor AffineWith Friend from HomeOtherN951Farms~r -Towns60337NTOTAL"151002016213951413100t Includes father, father's brother, brother, father's brother's son, brother's son, son:i.e. of the traditionally ideal residential extended family.* Four of the 58 informants were brought up with their parents in Salisbury.i7 Although some of the migrants have some of the characteristics of 'incapsulation'(see U. P. Mayer, Townsmen or Tribesmen (Gape Town, Oxford Univ. Press, 1961)),I do not apply this term to the Eastern Korekore migrants since I have found noevidence of any ideal of keeping aloof from other townsmen.12 LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYB. AFTER LEAVING HOME FOR PRESENT EMPLOYMENT;!!With Close KinWith Other Relativeor AffineWith Friend from HomeOtherTOTAL*N23-16Farms%3350-17*~100TownsN21113742F%5026717100* A further four informants have made only one wage-seeking journey and twogave no response,A young man on his first trip away from home is introduced into the waysof the wider world by relatives who initially house him and support him:on subsequent journeys, the migrant may have other contacts and may havearranged a position for himself prior to leaving home, but there is still apreference for relying on the support of relatives if there is to be any delayin finding employment (see Table IX).The informants were also asked to list the people they most frequentlyvisit and their regular drinking companions (to a maximum of five names),the results of which are shown in Table X. It is clear that the migrants relylargely on the kinship structure they know to provide them with a social placein the strange mass society which they enter when they seek wage employment.M. F. C. BOURD1LJ.ONTable XSOCIAL CONTACTS13A. PEOPLE VISITEDRelativesFriends from HomeOthersTOTALTownsTotal No.of PersonsVisited1532025PositiveResponsesN45151448%913129100FarmsTotal No.of PersonsVisited1844PositiveResponsesN84410%804040100B. DRINKING COMPANIONSRelativesFriends from HomeOthersTOTAL*TownsTotal No.DrinkingCompanions922037PositiveResponsesN29141638%762724100FarmsTotal No.DrinkingCompanions1556PositiveResponsesN755Q785656100* Ten in town and one on a farm do not drink.This social network of relatives and friends provides channels of com-munication through which news from home spreads to all members of theabsentee community: it is rare to find in the rainy season a migrant inSalisbury who has not heard of the rain and crop situation in his rural areawithin the previous fortnight and news of important events, such as the deathof a chief, reaches most in the towns within a fortnight. The networks ofrelatives and friends in the places of work also provide relatives at home withnews of their absent men. Postal services to the rural areas are slow and some-times unreliable, literacy is by no means universal among the Eastern Kore-kore, and often the postal addresses of absentees are not known to those at14LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYhome: addresses were given for 53 per cent of absentees, but the difficultyexperienced in contacting these suggests that at least 10 per cent of the ad-dresses are inadequate or wrong, and some were directions for finding theplace of work rather than the postal addresses. Persons in town can be con-tacted through a messenger, a verbal message or a letter delivered by hand,all of which may have to pass through a chain of relatives and friends beforethe wanted man can be reached: thirty-two of my fifty-eight informants werereached in this way.Table XI emphasized the importance of some kind of network if migrantsare to keep in touch with their home community. Visits between the ruralhome and the place of work are so rare that a migrant living away from anyother member of the home community could expect personal contact withthe home community on an average of just over once a year.Table XICONTACTS WITH THE RURAL HOMEMean Residence at Place of Workin Last 3 Years*Visits to Rural Home in Last3 YearsVisits from Rural Home in Last3 Years2,5 years73 = 0,50 per person per year90 Š 0,62 per person per year i* Total months spent residing at rural home prior to employment or between twoperiods of employment within the last three years is 346=6,0 per person.Thus the rural social networks spread to the places of employment andbecome an important factor in the social lives of migrants while they areaway. A consequence of this is that although the reason for seeking wageemployment is economic necessity, the choice of places of employment isdetermined by social rather than economic factors.As Tables XII and XIII indicate, this applies particularly to farm work andto a lesser extent to domestic service, where the social security of relativesand friends to some extent compensates for low incomes. As people moveinto better paid employment, they move away from dependence on the ruralsocial network.M. F. C. BOURDILJJDNTable XIIREASON FOR CHOICE OF PLACE OF WORKFarm15Followed RelativeReplaced RelativeFollowed Friend from HomeReplaced Friend from HomeFollowed Friend from Townor Other Place of WorkGood WagesIn DesperationOther ReasonsNo Reason GivenN = 57 %9362441526316511427264TOTAL** Total of all positions of employment held by the 58 informants. In 9 cases, morethan one reason was given.Table XIIIMETHOD OF OBTAINING EMPLOYMENTOwn EffortsThrough a RelativeThrough a Friendfrom HomeOtherTOTALN15263-44Farm34597-100Domestic ServiceN %366418!413227481411100.. . _N23132157Other%4023_3710016LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYIn the lower-paid occupations those who do not choose their place ofwork in order to be sure of the company of relatives from home often obtaintheir positions of employment through relatives or friends: a common practiceis to replace a relative in domestic service when the relative wishes to ter-minate his employment and return to his rural home. In 15 of the 22 casesin which no reason for the choice of place of work is given, the person hadobtained his position through relatives or friends from home or at leasthad contacts from home living in the vicinity, suggesting that these personstook for granted the necessity of the rural network even in the place of work.In fact over two thirds of informants have relatives in the vicinity of theirwork residence and many others have friends from their home communitynear them-To summarize, the extension of the rural social networks to the places ofwage employment thus provides a structure giving each migrant his socialposition within the new environment. The structure can also provide themigrant with the contacts necessary for finding wage employment. When thesocial network operates in a large city such as Salisbury where a largenumber of migrants are present, it enables the migrants to keep in closecontact with their home communities; and the larger the number of migrantspresent, the closer the contact. Since it is so important to reside where thereare family contacts, the precedents of previous migrations by members ofthe community are likely to influence the choice of locality of employmentmore strongly than any attractions town planners may create for new areas.Home contacts appear to attract some people into fields where income isparticularly low, or at least to offer some compensation for low income.Notice that the reliance on kin in places of work goes beyond the im-mediate extended family to the extent that a man can claim hospitality fromdistant relatives and thus acquires a certain independence in his choice ofwhich kinship ties he wishes to make effective (Table IX). This is not neces-sarily something new: strict adherence to the ideal of the residential extendedfamily has probably never been universal among the Eastern Korekore, andthere has probably always been some freedom over which kinship ties are tobe maintained. Nevertheless when migrants gather far from their home thedivisions within the home communities are likelv to be obscured.18. Thereis Thus the division between 'school' and 'red' Xhosa, which is maintained in EastLondon (Mayer, Townsmen or Tribesmen) breaks down in Cape Town far from theXhosa homelands, (M. Wilson, 'The coherence of groups', in J. F. Holleman et al. (eds),Problems of Transition (Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of Natal Press, 1964). Notice also thatthe 'home-boy' ties on the Copperbelt stretch beyond those who are important in therural area thus differing from the social relations of Xhosa migrants in East Londonwhich is so near to the Xhosa homeland. P. Harries-Jones, ' "Home-boy" ties and politicalorganization in a Copperbelt township', in J. C. Mitchell (ed.), Social Networks inUrban Situations (Manchester, Manchester Univ. Press, 1969), 340. Of course, distanceis not the only determinant of the looseness of the home networks in an urban situation;note for example the freedom of choice of kin in Kampala among local Ganda as con-trasted with the rigid adherence to the principles of agnatic kinship among the immigrantLuo. D. Parkin, Neighbours and Nationals in an African City Ward (Berkeley, Univ.of California Press, 1969).M. F. C. BOURDILJ_ON17is some evidence from the rural community to suggest that circulatory labourmigration is affecting the kinship structure of the home community.In the rural area, old men sometimes complain of the break-up of theirextended families. They blame widespread travel for this: they point out thatafter a woman has been away with her husband at work she is no longerwilling to live in her husband's family home where she is subject to her in-laws. A survey in the rural area revealed that only 48 out of 236 householdheads (20 per cent) lived in a homestead with a senior agnate, and another35 (15 per cent) lived in a close proximity to a senior agnate. The break-down by age of this survey (Table XIV) is interesting:Table XIVRURAL RESIDENT HOUSEHOLD HEADS*Age20-3536-50Over 50All AgesSharing HomesteadTotal 1 with Senior AgnateNo. I N '%Living in CloseProximity toSenior AgnateN ' %2370T9018329262741639149Total Sharingor CloseN %153012285731* Absentee heads of rural households are not included in this Table since in themajority of cases their ages are hard to assess.Even in ancient times a man with married children was expected tofound his own homestead on the death of his father, and so it is not surprisingto find that most men over the age of fifty live away from senior agnates.One would expect this independence to correlate with age: as men growolder, the generation above them die off and more and more set up independ-ent homesteads. In fact we find that the proportion of middle-aged mensharing a homestead with a senior agnate is as high as the proportion ofyoung men, a fact which supports the view of the old men that the situationis changing.My suggestion is that the networks from the rural areas are extendedto the places of work and modified to meet the new requirements that existthere. In particular, the sparcity of kinsmen as opposed to outsiders requiresa reinforcing of kinship in general and a blurring of the internal structure ofthe groups of kinsmen. This modification is brought back to the rural home:the returning migrant has become more independent of his immediate ex-tended family and has more freedom with regard to his associations withinthe home community.18LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYThis growing independence is reinforced by the entrance of labourmigrants into the cash economy. In the past, a young man relied on his fatherfor fields, and as payments of bride-price cattle came in a man dependedon the family herd for his marriage payments. Corporate activity for heavywork in the fields and homestead depended on the co-operation of the kinshipgroup. Now a man old enough to earn money in wage employment is res-ponsible for his own expenses, and when he does earn money he acquires acertain economic independence from his kinsmen. Indeed those intent onimproving their living standards through earning and saving find the hard-earned wealth quickly dissipated by the demands of kinsmen and some youngmen state they prefer to live away from kinsmen for this reason.So although the rural social networks are extended to places of wageemployment, labour migration weakens the kinship structure of the homecommunity.Informants were also asked where they would like to live in old age,and a breakdown of their replies is shown in Table XV. The vast majoritywish to return to the tribal area where they can subsist on the produce ofthe land and where they will have little need of a cash income once theirchildren have grown up and they have become exempt from tax. Where aman has land he has a security which the system of casual labour cannotsupply. Migrants also gave as reasons for preferring their rural homes inold age the presence of relatives and friends in the rural area to help in timesof need and the fact that there they need work for no-one but themselves.The majority of migrants clearly see the rural area they have left as thehome they can safely return to in old age.Table XVRESIDENCE IN OLD AGEA. PREFFERENCEAt Rural HomeElsewhereTownsN %439010Farms 'N %10100B. REASONS OF THOSE PREFERRING RURAL HOMEEconomicNo Reason GivenOther Reasons in Additionto Economic OnesTownsN %421(9)982(21)FarmsN %91(4)9010(40)M. F. C. BOURDILUDN 19Apart from returning in old age, migrants frequently return home forperiods of various lengths between spells of work, well illustrated by the casehistories given in the Appendix. These periods at home are often occasionedby contingent factors:Table XVIREASONS FOR LEAVING PAST POSITIONS OF EMPLOYMENTWanted to go HomeTired of WorkWanted to Get MarriedOther Business at HomeSUB TOTALWages InsufficientUnsatisfactory Condition ofEmploymentComplaints against or Quarrelwith EmployerRedundantWanted Change of Work or PlaceOtherSUB TOTALNo Reason GivenTOTALNo.715y63734101019271611624177% ofTotal853211966111596514100Occasions WhichResulted in at least3 Months at Home%ofN Value"71395341855614957121031008710083925350505256495058The first group of reasons arise from the fact that these are casualmigrant labourers with a rural home far from the place of work where theycan lead in the communities they know a relaxed life based on a subsistenceeconomy. Even when employees leave their employment for other reasons,as likely as not they return home for a prolonged period. In more than half20LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYthe cases in which a person spent more than three months at home, thereturn was occasioned by contingent reasons.Table XVII is based on multiple responses to the question: 'If youwere in the government, what would you change?' All but one of the in-formants wanted African wages to be raised, and the answers generally showthe dissatisfaction of migrants with their new life in their places of work:Table XVIIFIELDS OF DISSATISFACTIONRaise African WagesAnswers to Effect aReduced Cost of livingIncrease Rations of FoodAllow Wives to Live withTheir Husbands inEuropean SuburbsReduce Working Flours forAfricansAllow Domestic Servantsthe Weekends offOther Answers concerningConditions ofEmploymentImprove or IncreaseAfrican AccommodationProvide more EducationalFacilities for AfricansConcern for Unemploymentand UnemployedOtherFarmWorkersN=1010-617-4--%100_60-10-70-40-_DomesticServantsN = 28281-19921261310%1004-68327572141!36OtherN-20197_121213595-*9535-51051065254525Those providing entirely for themselves in the townships noticed howmuch they have to spend on bus fares and the rising costs of food, whilethose on the farms noticed only that they had to spend to supplement rationsof food provided by employers. Domestic servants in the European suburbscomplained of the lack of family life and the long hours they have to work.Farm workers wanted paid leave and objected to receiving their salary onlyM. F. C. BOURDlLjLON21after every five weeks. Some who had their families with them complainedof the lack of educational facilities for their children. Only two personsexpressed concern for the development of their rural area and the repliesshow a surprising19 lack of interest in the broader community (only eightsaid they would abolish the colour bar) or even in the plight of fellow un-skilled workers in different situations. Clearly the responses expressedprimarily the complaints of the informants about their own immediatecircumstances.Equally clearly, dissatisfaction with their wages is prominent in theminds of migrants, and it is in this light that we should see low wages asthe most common reason given for terminating a position of employment(Table XVI). A person who claimed to have terminated his employmentbecause of the low salary he received did not necessarily move into a morehighly paid position: more often than not, such persons returned to theirrural home.The situation is illustrated by the case of one man who had beenworking for the same employer for over three years when he was joined byhis elder brother. During this time he had been promoted from being a'garden boy' earning Rh$8,00 to the position of cook at Rh$ 12,00 per month,in both cases with a limited allowance for subsistence. From his employer'saccount he appeared satisfied with his position until his brother was em-ployed as a gardener. The elder brother was very dissatisfied with his salary,the hours of work and the treatment given by the employer to the domesticservants. Some months later, both decided to leave saying that they wereno longer prepared to work for such low wages: they picked a quarrel inorder to be dismissed with a month's salary in lieu of notice and returnedhome in time to plough their fields as the first rains began to fall. The elderbrother had been away from home only since reaping the previous harvest,and both intended to return to seek wage employment after the following har-vest. Clearly the low salaries and the conditions of service predisposed theyounger brother to leave, but his situation when he left was better than it hadbeen earlier in his time of employment. It was not until the elder brother ex-pressed his dissatisfaction and the time arrived when he could profitably beemployed at home that he decided to terminate his employment and returnto the rural area. So the reason given for terminating employment is notnecessarily the immediate cause.Nevertheless, Tables XVI and XVII again emphasize the prominenceof economic factors in the minds of migrant labourers. Domestic servantsespecially are very conscious of the long hours which prohibit formal re-creation and of the absence of wives and normal family life; these hardships'9 This is surprising only in the light of an apparent awareness of political issuesin the home community. This material is reminiscent of 'amoral famLlism' according towhich members of an economically under-privileged community maximize the material,short-term advantage of the nuclear family; see E. C. Banfield, The Moral Basis of aBackward Society (New York, The Free Press, 1958).22LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYare rarely given as reason for terminating employment although the brevityof the average term of employment in domestic service suggests that theseare relevant factors in determining how quickly a migrant returns home (seeTable XI), a suggestion which is reinforced by the correlation betweenlonger terms of employment and the presence of a wife. The longer termsof service on the farms suggest that low salaries are not as relevant to aTable XVIIILENGTH OF EMPLOYMENT AND THE PRESENCE OF A WIFEEmployee not MarriedWife Resident at Rural HomeWife Resident at Placeof WorkTOTALPositions Held forat least 3 YearsN %,74369132562100Positions Vacated in-less than 3 YearsN %556015130424612100person's decision to terminate his employment as the replies of the migrantswould indicate. We can conclude only that the economic situation both inthe rural home and at the place of work is prominent in the minds of cir-culatory migrants and a reason for the insecurity which necessitates circulat-ory migration.The labour histories of persons even within a single family show suchmarked differences (see, for example cases cited in the Appendix) that it isdifficult to fit them into any general pattern. One can explain the rapid labourturnover and the high rate of return to the rural areas in terms of the poorsocial and economic conditions of the labourers, but since wage labour isnecessary to the rural Africans in spite of these conditions the time whenany individual leaves his employment is likely to depend on personal andincidental factors.20So far we have been considering circulatory labour migration in whichthe migrants are essentially rural peasants who must spend some time inwage employment to supplement their meagre agricultural economy. Thereare also some migrants who live in the cities and intend never to return to20 This is not to deny the validity of producing an ideal model of a labour careeras in J. G. Mitchell, 'Structural plurality, urbanization and labour circulation in Rho-desia' in J. A. Jackson, (ed.), Migration {Cambridge, University Press, 1969), 179.I simply point out that deviations from it are exceedingly frequent.M. F. C. BOURDIULON23the rural areas: such persons can be said to have been urbanized.21 We haveseen that most of the informants wish to return in old age to the securityand ease of their rural homes. Of the 58 informants, however, there were fivewho expressed no desire to return to their rural homes.One of these was an old man who had been away from home continuallyfor over 50 years before he retired. He had a house in a township in Bulawayoand said that even if he wanted to, it would be difficult to move all hisaccumulated goods to his rural home. He manages to raise a small incomeby various means in the township, enough, he claims, to live on. He sayshe will never go back to the rural area he came from where the rain is oftenscarce, the crops are often poor and the food and environment are conduciveto poor health and rapid aging. Although his relatives in the rural areadisapprove of his attitude and regard him as something of a renegade, hemaintains social contact with relatives temporarily living in his vicinity andand he is aware of what is happening at their home: for a number of years-,however, he has received no visits from his rural relatives nor has he visitedthem in the country.A second person committed to town life is a man who was in the armyfor over 20 years and has retired on a pension- He now has a house in atownship in Salisbury, He maintains that he and his family have becomeaccustomed to a high standard of living and hygiene and would find it difficultto live in the rural area from which he came. He has twice visited his ruralhome in the last three years (once to visit his parents after being away formany years and once for his father's funeral); he receives regular visits fromrelatives from home and maintains his place in the urban social network ofrelatives and friends; he contributes to the support of his close relatives inthe rural area; but he insists that he wants to remain in town until he dies.The remaining informants who had no desire to return to their ruralhomeland were three of the four who were born and brought up away fromthe rural homes of their parents. One of these wished to settle in old age in amore developed Tribal Trust Land near Salisbury, and the other two wanted toremain permanently in the city. All of these maintain some contact with theirrelatives and all have visited the rural homes of their parents. Neverthelessthe majority of their social contacts are friends, neighbours and co-workersrather than relatives or others from the rural areas. They also make moreuse of city entertainments and social amenities than do the circulatorymigrants from Korekore country.These people are urban Africans committed to life away from the ruralarea which was the home of their ancestors. Their outlook and way of lifeis essentially urban even though they maintain ties of kinship with ruralrelations (just as European immigrants to Rhodesia, or even second andz» I use the word 'urbanized' in the sense that an urbanized African is one who isno longer impelled by the pulls of the rural home, U. P. Mayer, 'Labour migrancy andthe social network', in Holleman, J. F. et al. (eds), Problems of Transition, 25.24LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYthird generation Rhodesians, can be Rhodesian with the committments andrights that this involves while they maintain ties with relatives in Europe).Urban stabilization does not necessarily result in severing all ties with therural areas.There are also marginal cases. One example is found in the case ofHanga, the head of an extended family consisting of his own householdand those of his four married sons (see Appendix II. Hanga is an old managed about seventy who since starting work just over 50 years ago has spenta total of 42 years away from home mostly as a farm worker. In 1955 hetook his family away from home and has remained away for the last eighteenyears. He says he would like to live at home but has no means of raisingmoney there and wants to retire only when he is too old to work: then, hewould like to live at home where there is little work to do and one does nothave to pay for food. In 1970 and 1971 he purchased four cattle through hisson's wife at home to start a herd there.Yet there are indications of an antipathy towards the home community.He has been away for a long time and for over 20 years has chosen places ofwork away from all his kinsmen (though he still associates with two friendsfrom his home area). He has paid brief visits to his rural home in recentyears: he said that he went home in order to visit his children, but in fact thevisits followed the deaths of a number of grandchildren. Some say that thedeaths were caused by an avenging spirit, the appeasement of which is Hanga'sresponsibility; other members of the family deny this explanation.In the four months prior to the interview, Hanga had received two visitsfrom a daughter (the mother of one of the deceased grandchildren) and twofrom a son (who had not yet lost any children): Hanga said they came simplyto see him, but it is likely that the avenging spirit was the real reason forthe visits and the principal subject of conversation. He has, however, donenothing to appease the spirit, which is the cause of some bitterness. The factthat an avenging spirit is said to be involved suggests tensions within thefamily and also demands of the payment of heavy compensation in order toappease the spirit. In the year prior to the interview the family had no adultmale resident in the area although two of Hanga's sons maintained ruralhomesteads under the care of their wives. After the death of her threechildren one of these women joined her husband at his place of work; he isplanning to move with two brother's and a brother's son to another chiefdom,ostensibly to be nearer to a hospital, stores and buses, but further suggestingtensions in the family. It seems that in spite of Hanga's express desire toreturn home there are factors which make him extremely reluctant to do so.Plotnicov analyses the cases of certain residents of Jos, a Nigerian town,who in their own minds were committed to retiring in old age to positionsof prestige in their rural homes and yet in some cases were unlikely ever todo so. Reasons for this include a failure to achieve the economic successesexpected of them and difficulties in fitting back into the home community.222z L. Plotnicov, Strangers to the CityUniv. of Pittsburgh Press, 1967).Urban Man in Jos, Nigeria (Pittsburgh,M. F. C. BOURDILLON25It appears that Hanga is in a similar situation: although he lauds the easylife of the rural area, he is likely to stay on the European farm where he isnow working as long as he is allowed to live there.Another atypical case is that of Makenzi (see Appendix I, Diagram 1,B3). After two short posts early in his career he took up a position in domesticservice which he has held for thirty-three years. During this period he waspromoted from being a domestic gardener earning 75 cents a month to theposition of cook earning Rh$2Q,00 a month, though he still complains thathis salary is low compared with what he would receive in industry and com-ments that it was easier to meet his requirements when his salary was onlyRh$3,00 in the 1940s when the cost of living was lower. He has a rentedhouse in Harare township which he obtained through his employers afterhe was married. His last visit home was for his mother's funeral in 1969; hereceives occasional visits from his rural relatives though they prefer whenseeking work to stay in the suburbs.He married in 1945 a girl he met in town (only 10 others of the 58informants married girls from outside their rural area) and paid a littlemore in bride-price than he would have done at home. His children were allborn and brought up away from his rural home, though his eldest son spent acouple of years there as a child and his third son spent six years at homeattending school. In old age he wants to return to his rural home rather thanremain in town, but he would prefer if he had enough money to build him-self a house on a purchase area farm rather than return to the backwardand undeveloped area of his birth. As in the case of Hanga, but for differentreasons, his commitment to his rural home appears not to be whole-hearted-CONCLUSIONThere is an indefinite number of possible variations on labour migrant'scareer. At one end of the continuum are those who find casual work when theneed arises (see, for example. Appendix I, Diagram 1, B2) and who neverventure out of the society of their home community. There are those whospend longer and more regular periods in employment, and who break outinto the heterogeneous communities at their places of work while maintainingtheir positions in the home social network. At the other end of the continuumare those who break their commitment to the rural home and settle per-manently elsewhere.Garbett argues that a person with a high social position in the homecommunity is more likely to reside there,23 and I did come across the son ofan aged chief who left profitable semi-skilled employment in order to helphis father run the chiefdom. Nevertheless in my material (unlike Garbetfs)23 G. K. Garbett. 'Prestige, status and power in a modern Valley Korekore chiefdom,Rhodesia', Africa (1967), 37, 307-26.26LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYthere is no significant difference between the proportion of male absenteesamong members of the chiefly lineage and that among commoners. Evenvillage headmanship was often insufficient to draw a man back from hisabsentee wage employment: the labour careers of the two senior sons ofthe family of Mowedza (Appendix I) illustrate the fact that seniority at homedoes not necessarily result in less time spent away. It is true that personswith high education in higher-paid and more permanent types of employmentstay away from home continuously. But apart from this my material asyet provides no clear patterns and no obvious social determinants of thetype of career any particular migrant may follow. The career an individualfollows depends largely on personal and contingent factors: a man's desirefor travel, his aptitude for wage employment, his agricultural successes, hiscurrent relations with his kin or with his employer, his luck in coming acrosssuitable employment.The majority of the informants for the present study fall well into therurally orientated end of the continuum: the periods away from home inwage employment are seen simply as part of the expected life cycle of a ruralmale. The Eastern Korekore contrast markedly with the majority living in theAfrican urban townships who are breaking away from the extended familykinship system and who become less reliant on the kinsmen for help.24 Forsocial purposes, the networks of these rurally-orientated circulatory migrantsare those of the rural communities adjusted for the purpose of the migrants,resulting in a consequent adjustment to the structure of the rural community.The rural and urban aspects of the lives of circulatory migrants can thus beseen as a structured continuum.25Appendix ITHE MOWEDZA FAMILY"Seven homesteads are clustered together in the rural home, namely those ofthe brothers Bl, B2, B4, B5, B6 and B7, and of B8, the only male agnaticcousin from the same house of the grandfather. B3 does not keep a ruralhomestead.Bl. Peter was born around 1910 and first went to work at the age of about18 with a matrilateral relative, and was employed in Salisbury as a domestic24 P. Stopforth, Two Aspects of Social Change, Highfield African Township, Salis-bury (Salisbury, Univ. of Rhodesia, Dep. of Sociology Occasional Paper No. 7, 1972),231., 64f. I applied the same questionnaire on reliance as did Stopforth: the result was a98 per cent reliance on kin among the Korekore migrants as contrasted with 45,5 percent in Stopforth's urban survey.25 See discussion on Mayer, 'Labour migrancy and the social network'.2 6 All names are fictitious.M. F. C. BOURDILJLON27Bi19601970CiBz -Z-.B3 zLC3C4C5B4B5BeB7Be bLegenda : away from rural homein employmentchange in employment positionservant for about ten years. He returned home to get married, but returnedto town to work for a few months during the following dry season. Afterthat he worked intermittently for up to three years at a time, always as adomestic servant in Salisbury, On all occasions he worked in the vicinityof relatives and friends from home and on four occasions obtained his em-ployment through a relative or close affine. He educated his eldest son Paul(Cl) as a school teacher now employed in another rural area: the secondson (C2) is now living with Paul who is providing for his education. Shortlyafter Paul obtained his first teaching post in 1971, Peter (the father) retiredfrom employment but returned to town in January of 1973 in order to tryto raise money to buy food to compensate for the failure of the crops duringthe 1972-3 drought. He now has three wives, all local to his rural home: hehas never had a wife with him at work.B2. Bias! was born about 1935 and entered domestic service for three shortperiods and one longer period before he was married in his early thirties. Hehas since worked occasionally for shorter periods always in domestic service.Twice he obtained employment through a relative and at no other time washe working in the vicinity of relatives, though only twice were there nofriends from home in the vicinity of his work. He has two local wives who28LABOUR MIGRANTS FROM KOREKORE COUNTRYhave always remained in the rural home. Biasi has a small irregular incomeas a blacksmith in the rural area.B3. Makenza's history is given in the text.B4. Goso started work when he was a boy, following a close agnate toa small town where he worked as a child's male nurse for a year and on anearby farm for another year- After this he occupied a number of domesticposts in Salisbury, changing employers because of low wages, because theemployer was harsh, because he wanted to become a cook, because wageswere low (when he returned home briefly to marry his first wife) and finallyleft Salisbury for a longer period because he had been away from home for solong. He has since married two more local wives and all three live at therural home when he goes for further stints in domestic service. On only oneoccasion has he worked where there were no contacts from home in thevicinity: he obtained seven of his ten posts through the influence of relativesand two through the influence of contacts made in Salisbury.B5 and 6. These two brothers have had longer and continuous spells of em-ployment in domestic service in Salisbury (though the elder moved with hisemployer to a small town for some years). Both maintain rural homesteadswhere their wives and children are resident.B7. Michael differs from his brothers in that he received six years of schoolingsoon after a mission school was established in his home area and also in thathe has earned the higher salaries provided by the commercial sector whilelodging with his brothers in the European suburbs. His first spell of workwas specifically to save for bride-price payments, and after this he returnedhome for over five years. He returned to town to raise money to bring uphis children and acquired one post through the influence of a distant relative,and a second better paid position by his own initiative. Recently he has be-come a self-employed painter which is more lucrative but less reliable thanregular wage employment.B8. In spite of his relatively junior position Tiki is the current kraal headwho keeps the tax register entrusted to him by his senior cousins; thesemaintain that the duties of the kraal head are too cumbersome for the smallincome they provide. Tiki started work on a farm with his father's youngerbrother, and then after a short break moved to domestic service with the helpof a matrilateral relative. After two further brief spells of work he returnedhome to marry a local girl and then worked continuously for thirteen years,presumably to pay off his bride-price; during this period his wife lived at therural home. He has in the last ten years spent only one brief spell of ninemonths in wage employment.Cl. See Bl.C3, 4 and 5. See text. These three have been employed only in the com-mercial sector. They all lived with their father in Harare township until theeldest (C3) moved out into one of the hostels.The six brothers who live together in the rural home (Bl, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7)maintain close ties with one another. When I visited the rural home in 1970,I was informed that they took turns to work in town: there were always threeM. F. C. BOURD1LLON29at home to look after the homestead and three away earning money for theschool fees of all the children and for clothes for their own wives and children.In practice, Diagram 1 shows that the duties are not shared equally. Further-more, in the latter half of 1964 all six were away at work and from 1967 to1969 all but two were at home. The brothers do help each other financially,but this appears to be informal and to depend on the needs of the moment;Biasi (B2) often requires and receives financial help.Appendix IITHE HANGA FAMILYI I I2 3 419301940BiIB2B3B4Ci1950 1960hŠi LJl L.I...I L.I..1970'IJ U InŠJ >.A. Hanga was born soon after the turn of the century and started workingon a farm with his elder brother at the age of eighteen. After working for afew years he returned home to get married. He left his wife at home whenhe next travelled to work as a domestic servant in Salisbury but had her withhim on two subsequent periods on farms. His wife died and he marriedanother in the 1940s but travelled alone on his next two wage journeys toplaces away from all associates from the rural home. In 1944 when he was50 years old he left home with his family to work continuously on farms eversince. For further details, see text.There is nothing unusual in the broken work careers of his sons andgrandson, all of whom started to work in their early twenties. It is noticeablethat the eldest son has been away continuously for the past twelve years,though since he married a second wife in the middle 1960s he has kept bothwives at home. He has always worked for firms in the towns and now has twoyounger brothers (B3 and 4) with him in a small town 90 km from Salisbury.