Worker consciousness in black miners: Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1920

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C. van Onselen (1973). Worker consciousness in black miners: Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1920. Journal of African History.

Type	journal article
Scope	Comparative and methods
Method	archival narrative
Period studied	1900–1920
Regions	Southern Rhodesia, Southern Africa regional labour system, Witwatersrand, Mozambique, Nyasaland
Themes	mining migrant labour, unions strikes, resistance social movements, labour markets wages, origins segregation
Citation key	onselen1973

Argument

Van Onselen challenges the view that African workers in Southern Rhodesia lacked political or worker consciousness before the 1920s because there were no organisations like the ICU. He argues that consciousness should be sought in everyday strategies within the political economy rather than in formal organisation. Using the mining industry, he shows that black miners had a well-developed awareness of their exploited position from the start. They avoided or boycotted bad mines, deserted in order to reach the best labour market (the Rand), resisted through loafing and slow-downs, and struck over wages. Desertion and boycott are treated as forms of combination, and the shared compound experience is argued to cut across ethnicity.

Evidence and method

Colonial administration and Native Affairs reports (the 1910-11 Native Affairs Committee, Chief Native Commissioner correspondence, the 1906 Native Labour Enquiry Committee), mine company records and manager letters (Bonsor, Ayrshire, Surprise, Globe and Phoenix), Chamber of Mines evidence to the South African Native Affairs Commission 1903-5, mortality and desertion statistics, and secondary literature (Gann, Ranger, Hooker).

Findings

• Disease, not accidents, caused most black miner deaths, showing the cost of inadequate food and housing. (p. 5)

  in the twenty years under review, 2 000 black workers died from accidents, but in the same twenty-year period over 18 000 workers died from diseases in the compounds.

• The Bonsor mine suffered an effective boycott by local workers after high pneumonia mortality, and the mine was eventually closed. (p. 7)

  in a period of two months not a single African applied for work at the Bonsor, and the mine was forced to close for a short period.

• Workers selectively withheld labour from the exploitative Ayrshire mine despite drought, while Shona workers did work at better mines. (p. 9)

  Out of a labour force of over 300, only six — or a little more than 1 per cent — were drawn from the adjacent area, in spite of severe drought.

• Desertion was massive under forced recruitment by the Labour Board. (p. 10)

  of 8 429 workers 'engaged' by the Board between October 1900 and March 1901 no fewer than 2 160 deserted.

• Even in the 1918 influenza crisis desertion was rational and discriminating, depending on how managements treated workers. (p. 11)

  at the Falcon mine, 750 workers took the opportunity to desert, but at the Cam and Motor mine, where the management made considerable efforts on behalf of the workers, fewer than ten deserted.

• Desertion was a strategy for reaching the highest-paying market, the Witwatersrand, and workers chose mines such as the Jessie as staging points. (p. 13)

  the Jessie was the last stop of labourers in Rhodesia before they deserted and made their way to South Africa.

• Loafing and passive resistance were a major cost to management, which led to the ticket system and later legislation. (p. 15)

  the daily average of loafers reaches as high as 20 per cent. That is to say, that the employers have to keep 20"per cent more boys on their books

• R.N.L.B. labourers formed a cheap pool that undercut other workers' bargaining power, and were stigmatised as 'chibaro'. (p. 17)

  R.N.L.B. employees formed a pool of cheap la-bour which acted as insurance for the mining industry against wage de-mands by other black workers.

• A strike at Camperdown mine followed the 1901 wage cut and wage rates were restored after labour supply fell. (p. 17)

  all the natives struck work on account of the reduction of wages, and refused to start again until the Manager promised to pay the ordinary rates

• Contact with W.N.L.A. recruits passing through Rhodesia sparked a mutiny, showing workers compared wages across the regional system. (p. 19)

  they caused a mutiny in the compound of a large mine