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Government Native Labour Bureau (GNLB/NLB) files

Literature › Primary sources

Kind state archives
Producer Government Native Labour Bureau / Director of Native Labour
Coverage 1909-1924
Works using it 12

Debates

Debate Works
The state and capital: instrumentalism, autonomy and fractions of capital 8
The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation 7
Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves 5
The job colour bar, white labour and its erosion 3
Worker consciousness, strikes and conflict on the mines and shop floor 2
Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry 1
Finance, capital flight, the 1985 debt crisis and banking 1
Farm labour: mechanisation, labour shedding, wages and labour control 1
Historiographical approaches 1

Works using this source

Work As cited Period How used
Bonner and Shapiro (1987) CAD, Government Native Labour Bureau file GNLB 303 402/18/98 1918-1919 Provides wage comparisons, juvenile labour, conferences on enforcing the 1911 Act, the deputation notes and Mining Commissioner statements.
Bradford (1990) Letters and statements of farmers (Medalie Bros, J J Dorian and Co., Seelig and Co.) in GNLB 123 1921-1923 Evidence on wages paid for 'boys', numbers employed by large farmers such as Medalie Bros, and rations and treatment.
Bradford (1990) Transvaal Archives, Government Native Labour Bureau files (GNLB 122, 123, 415, 416; 1950/13/240, 81/18, 81/19) 1920-1931 Establishes operations, desertions, lottery allocation and farmer purchases of immigrants at the Rhodesian Native Labour Depot in the 1920s.
Breckenridge (1995) TAD GNLB 251, 340/16/90(1) Export of Gold over Inland Borders: Question of Payment to Natives of Paper Currency, 1919-22 (affidavits, correspondence, meeting report of 3 Oct 1919) 1919-1922 Establishes the 1919-20 official debate on gold leakage, the replacement of gold by notes, and worker and compound protests against paper wages.
Duncan (1989) Government Native Labour Bureau file GNLB 291/18/78, Transvaal Archives Depot 1923 Supports the account of labour area reorganisation by the Public Services Commission in 1923.
Duncan (1990a) GNLB (Government Native Labour Bureau) files 291/18/78, 64/23/9, 69/23/154 1922-1924 Documents the PSC report on cutting the sub-department, Pritchard's role, and monthly returns of assaults on labourers.
Duncan (1990b) GNLB files (291/18/78 PSC report 1922 and DNL-SNA correspondence; 64/23/9 assault returns; 69/23/154) 1922-1924 Documents the 1923 PSC restructuring, Pritchard's retirement, and monthly returns of assaults on labourers.
Moodie (2005) TAD, NLB 111, 1376/13, McKenzie to Brett, 14 June 1913; NLB 111, 136/13/154 1913 Documents an assault charge against a skip man at Crown Reef after tropical workers were hoisted.
Moodie (2005) TAD, NLB 3, 313/09: court records 28 January 1913 and Native Affairs Department Commission Report 1909-1913 Evidence on gang contract piecework for lashing and tramming and disputes over sharing proceeds.
Murray (1995) CAD, Government Native Labour Bureau (GNLB) 123, 1950/13/D240 (also cited as 150/13/D240) 1913-1920 Native Commissioners' letters documenting 'body snatching' and the persistence of recruiting irregularities.
Pirie (1993) CAD, GNLB 32 (3465) and GNLB 89: SAR/GNLB correspondence on pass inspection and typhus depot 1911-1920 Shows how health and pass inspections slowed or broke migrant train journeys.
Pirie (1993) CAD, GNLB 8 (523/10) correspondence files on labour trains, 1911 (SAR General Manager, WNLA, labour agents' associations, GNLB circulars) 1911 Documents introduction of dedicated labour trains and the mining industry's and labour agents' objections to scheduling.
Pirie (1993) CAD, GNLB 89 (20/13/20), GNLB 59 (2239/12/20) and related files on Germiston/India Junction arrivals, delays and bombela detachments, 1915-1921 1915-1921 Provides evidence of train delays, night arrivals, accommodation costs and wagon detachments disrupting migrant traffic.
Pirie (1993) Central Archives Depot (Pretoria), GNLB 8 (523/10) and GNLB 89 (20/13/20): Registrar's Office transactions 1910; Director of Native Labour correspondence 1924 1910-1924 Source for the numbers of men railed from the eastern Cape in 1910 and to the goldfields around 1920, and their recruit/volunteer split.
Turrell (1986) Statement by Mozambican mineworkers 'Fokkies' and 'Forage' to the Union Government Native Labour Bureau (1915) 1915 Used (via Jeeves) as an illustrative anecdote of competitive recruiting and labour touting on the Rand.
Yudelman and Jeeves (1986a) NRC evidence to the Mining Industry Board 1922, TAD GNLB 339, 81/22/243 1922 Illustrates industry evidence to commissions that framed low-grade mine survival as essential.
Yudelman and Jeeves (1986b) Native Recruiting Corporation evidence to the Mining Industry Board, 1922 (TAD, GNLB 339, 81/22/243) 1922 Archival evidence of industry argumentation on low-grade mining before the Mining Industry Board.