The colonial gap: An analysis of income distribution in the Port of Dakar, 1911–1940

ABSTRACT

This study presents new empirical evidence on the structure of income of African workers in the Port of Dakar between 1911 and 1940. It provides a systematic series of public wages earned by the African and European workforce in a colonial seaport. This series includes income structure by skill tier of public employees and labourers employed at the port. Did wage structure evolve according to relative increases in human capital accumulation in this major colonial seaport? In this investigation, I use data collected from the annual budgets of the port to seek explanations for the structural differences in income in three consecutive decades between 1911 and 1940. I found that the skill premium between highly skilled and unskilled African workers was 3.8 on average during the period analysed. Moreover, the skill premium between mid-skilled and unskilled workers is estimated to be 2.7. Furthermore, top and senior European staff (less than 10% of the staff) accounted for 36% of the overall income. I provide quantitative evidence on how colonial allowances were the key element that contributed to the increasing income gap between European and African workers in similar job categories.

KEYWORDS:

• Colonialism
• wages
• Port of Dakar
• human capital

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge funding from the Research Institute of Text Analysis and Applications (ULPGC) and the Spanish Research Council-sponsored project PGC2018-095821-B-100. I also thank Gareth Austin, Stephen Broadberry, Verónica Cañal, Gabrielle Cappelli, Dácil Juif, Apostolos Delis, Alfonso Herranz, Laura Maravall, Luisa Muñoz, Jari Ojala, Juan Manuel Santana, Miguel Suárez, Federico Tadei and Stig Tenold, and members, audience and participants in the African Economic History Network (Barcelona, 2019), the World Economic History Congress (Boston, 2018) and the European Labour History Network Conference (Amsterdam, 2019) for valuable comments, contributions and suggestions on early versions of this article. I thank the three anonymous referees for their comments. The same goes for Jessica Vechbanyongratana (Reviewing Editor). All their suggestions clearly improved the original manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Archives Nationales du Sénégal (ANS) 408 (132), Projet de Règlement de la main d´œuvre portuaire et l’organisation du travail portuaire à Dakar. Note du Gouvernement Général de l’Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF), 28 September 1918. Translated from the original (in French).

2 ANS 2G30 (152). Rapport annuel sur l´emploi de l´outillage mécanique. Port de Commerce de Dakar. 1930.

3 ANS 2G36-25. Direction des affaires politiques. Rapport politique annuel du Rapport politique annuel du Gouvernement Général de l´Afrique Occidentale Française (GGAOF), 1936. ANS 2G39/28, Inspection du Travail. Rapport Annuel 1939.

4 ANS K306 (26). Note de la Direction Général de Travaux Publics de l´AOF au Directeur Général des Affaires Politiques, Économiques et Administratives de l’AOF, 11 October 1943. See also ANS K90 (26) on dock workforce management during World War II.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación [Grant Number PGC2018-095821-B-100]; and the Instituto Universitario de Análisis y Aplicaciones Textuales (ULPGC) [Grant Number Fondos Sede].