The colonial authorities perceived Upper Volta as the most important labour reservoir in French West Africa. Koudougou, the most populous administrative subdivision of what was Upper Volta during the colonial period, was probably also the most densely settled. Various types of colonial labour policies are examined. These include forced labour in its forms of annual ‘prestations’ and longer-term, large-scale recruiting for major public works, as well as military conscription and the use of the ‘2è portion’ in the public and private sectors. Based on archival research in West Africa, this study traces changes in the size of the labour force and the impact of the forced extraction of labour on the African populations. Finally, the wider significance of colonial labour policies is analysed.
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Cordell et al. (1982) studied this question.