They soon discovered that Cotetio was just one of many concessionary companies demanding African corvée labor. The local government demanded they work on roads, while the local gold and platinum mining concession demanded they work in the riverbeds. The competition among [Fascist] firms for African labor gave Africans the leverage to demand greater remuneration and better working conditions.¹⁶⁷ Responding with force, the [Fascists] began to coerce Africans—sometimes at gunpoint—to work.

But the local population, some of which had migrated for wage labor elsewhere in [this Fascist] empire, was simply insufficient to meet the workforce demands of [Fascist] companies.¹⁶⁸ In regions with labor shortages, the state began to gather formerly enslaved people—who had no property and no place to go—into so‐called “freedom villages,” where they were forced to work for [Fascist] enterprises.¹⁶⁹

(Emphasis added. Source.)