This article focuses on convict labour in the Namibian–Cape border region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It situates this form of unfree labour within broader trans-colonial discussions on the ‘labour question’ and compulsion after the abolition of slavery. The article demonstrates that convict labour was a flexible and steadily available labour force, which officials used on both sides of the Orange river to manage, in part, the fluctuating labour demands of public and private employers. While local Cape officials utilised it to meet recurring labour deficits at short notice, their German counterparts followed the long-term objective of ‘educating’ Africans to work by means of compulsion. At the same time, colonisers on this shared frontier of the Cape Colony and German South West Africa lamented the weak deterrent effects of convict labour as this potentially undermined their claimed authority and control over convicts as well as over African labour more broadly, partly unsettled by convicts’ own actions. Ultimately, this article argues that officials conceived of violence as a key measure to counter these subversive tendencies but that it had equivocal consequences that further complicated the ‘labour question’ on the ground. By analysing the debates on and (violent) practices of enforcing convict labour, the article also opens a window on to the contentious formation of settler colonialism on the ground.

本文重点介绍19世纪末20世纪初在纳米比亚-开普边境地区的定罪劳动。它把这种形式的自由劳动置于废除奴隶制之后的关于“劳动问题”和强迫的更广泛的跨殖民主义讨论中。该文章表明，定罪的劳动力是一种灵活且稳定的劳动力，在橘子河两岸，官员们都使用这种劳动力来部分管理公共和私人雇主不断变化的劳动力需求。开普敦当地官员在短时间内利用它来弥补经常出现的劳动力短缺，而德国同行则遵循了长期目标，即通过强迫手段来“教育”非洲人。同时，在这片海角殖民地和德国西南非洲的共同边界上的殖民者对定罪工人的弱威慑作用感到遗憾，因为这有可能削弱他们对定罪者以及更广泛的非洲劳工的权威和控制，部分原因是定罪者自己的行动无法解决。最终，本文认为，官员们将暴力视为应对这些颠覆性趋势的关键措施，但它产生的模棱两可的后果使实地的“劳工问题”更加复杂。通过分析有关执行定罪劳动的辩论和（暴力）做法，文章还为实地定居者殖民主义的有争议形成打开了一个窗口。被罪犯自己的行为部分解决。最终，本文认为，官员们将暴力视为应对这些颠覆性趋势的关键措施，但它产生的模棱两可的后果使实地的“劳工问题”更加复杂。通过分析有关执行定罪劳动的辩论和（暴力）做法，文章还为实地定居者殖民主义的有争议形成打开了一个窗口。被罪犯自己的行为部分解决。最终，本文认为，官员们将暴力视为应对这些颠覆性趋势的关键措施，但它产生的模棱两可的后果使实地的“劳工问题”更加复杂。通过分析有关执行定罪劳动的辩论和（暴力）做法，文章还为实地定居者殖民主义的有争议形成打开了一个窗口。