Mining in South Africa and the Genesis of Aparthied

MINING IN SOUTH AFRICA & THE GENESIS OF APARTHEID: 1871-1948

South Africa’s prosperity was built on the wealth dragged out of the ground by mine workers: the first volume of three runs up to the defeat of the mineworkers’ strike in 1946 and the election of the first Nationalist Party government.

Key Features include information on the early days of the industry from slavery to compound labour, an explanation of the coercive forces that drove workers to the mines and of the creation of a permanent supply of cheap black labour and a survey of strikes and protests from the 1920’s to 1946.

Contents: Introduction, Credentials, Part One: Years of Destruction: The Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Early Twentieth Century. The first Black Mineworkers, The Evolution of Black Labour Reserves, Closing the Options, Appendix I, The Genesis of Racism in the Mines, Black Compounds but White Suburbs in Kimberley, The Investment in Gold, Lies, Trickery and Deception, New Sources of Cheap Labour, Part Two: The Traps, The Poverty Trap, The Legal Trap, The Land Trap, Part Three: Survival and Protest 1912-1948, In the Grip of a Monopoly, The Compound System, The Defiance of Compound Restrictions, The 1920 Mineworkers’ Strike, The Changing Political Climate, The African Mine Workers’ Union, The Mineworkers’ Case in Public, The Decision to Strike, The 1946 Mineworkers’ Strike, Appendix II, Subject Index, Name Index.