From the Amazon to the Congo Valley: A Comparative Study on the Violent Commodification of Labour During the Rubber Boom (1870s–1910s)

Abstract

This chapter presents a comparative historical analysis of the process of labour commodification during the rubber boom period in Western Amazonia and the Congo Free State. Its primary objective is to address the debate on the expansion of commodity frontiers and its social repercussions on native peoples. Therefore, we look at the changes and continuities in social and labour relations in both regions in regard to their colonial background and neo-colonial context, so as to demonstrate that the commodification of rubber prompted the commodification of indigenous workforce, by focusing on the practices of enslavement by debt and enslavement by tax. Ultimately, we hope to shed some light on the coloniality and violent repercussions that have underlaid the expansion of capitalism and globalisation in the Amazonian and Congo regions to this day.