UNIVERSITY OF ESWATINI

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

NAME: SIGCINILE VILAKATI

STUDENT ID: 159523 PART TIME
PROGRAMME: BA HUMANITIES
COURSE NAME: ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
SINCE 1900
COURSE CODE: HIS412
DUE DATE: 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

QUESTION: GIVE A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF

LABOUR MIGRATION IN THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN BETWEEN THE
1870s AND 1920s. SUPPORT YOUR RESPONSE WITH FOUR SCHOLARS
VIEWS.
The discovery of large diamond and gold deposits at the end of the 19th century initiated

economic development as well as the rise of wage employment in Southern Africa which would

cause most people in Southern Africa to migrate to enter wage employment in response to the

pull and push economic, political and social factors that existed at the time. The following essay

is a critical analysis of of the causes of labour migration in Southern Africa between the period of

the 1870s and 1920s supported by scholarly views.

It is worth noting that the migration of labour in Southern Africa was dominated by male

migrants as the existing labour markets provided opportunities for men. Firstly, towards the end

of the 19century (1896-7) there was an outbreak of highly contagious diseases such as rinderpest

as well as hoof-and-mouth diseases which would kill in large numbers livestock in southern

Africa more especially cattle1. According to Pule Phoofolo in the years between 1896 and 1898,

the entire African subcontinent was wracked by the rinderpest, an epidemic affecting cattle. The

disastrous course of the rinderpest in Africa began in Eritrea in the first few months of 1887, and

it shared central Asian origins with the cholera and the majority of other global epidemics 2. It

appears that it was transported there by sick Indian cattle that Italians imported in an effort to

support their campaign against Somalia. On account of that, this would negatively affect the

cattle-keeping peasants in Southern Africa as the loss of large numbers of cattle caused

considerable social and economic difficulties in southern African communities, since cattle was

central to the lives and diverse cultures of southern Africans around this period 3 . This would,

therefore cause the migration of the Southern Africans to seek wage employment in order to

1
C. Van Onselen, Reactions to Rinderpest in Southern Africa 1896–9, (Cambridge University Press, 2009), pg.34.
2
Pule Phoofolo, Epidemics and Revolutions: The Rinderpest Epidemic in Late Nineteenth-Century
Southern Africa, Past & Present, Feb., 1993, No. 138 (Feb., 1993), pg. 117.
3
Francis Wilson, International Migration in Southern Africa, (Winter, 1976), pg. 462.
cater for the loss cattle; The black people would migrate to areas like Kimberly and

Witwatersrand hoping to find work and better prospects to cater for these losses.

Contagious diseases were not the only factor that would affect the livestock of African peasants

which would force them to migrate for wage employment; natural disasters were also prone in

the 20th century Southern Africa. Natural disasters such as droughts such as the one of 1895-97

that affected large areas of the subcontinent, such as present-day KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho,

Malawi, and the Botswana with which Nash assets that the impact was extreme, because it also

coincided with other disasters, including locust outbreaks and, in 1896, the cattle plague

epidemic which killed more than 5.2 million cattle south of the Zambesi and hindered

agricultural productions in most part of Southern Africa 4. In a reaction to these losses the African

peasants would opt to migrate to wage employment in neighbouring areas like mining sectors or

white farms to get wages and cope with the loss of cattle and agricultural decline.

Labour migration came after the imposition of colonial rule in Southern Africa, Nash poses that

most of the colonies saw the introduction of new systems such as tax systems with which the

state had also introduced these series of tax laws designed to force many African agriculturalists

off their land and create the beginnings of a semi-proletariat society. These taxes included a head

tax on male adults, hut tax and poll tax and there was, in addition, the hated hut tax which

weighed particularly heavily on those who were polygamous 5. This assertion is supported by

Schapera who possess that labour migration was caused by the pressures to accumulate the

finances to pay for these charges that were newly imposed by colonial masters .As a result ,

Southern Africans would opt to migrate to maybe South Africa to engage in wage labour, as it

4
David J. Nash, Narratives of 19th century drought in southern Africa in different historical source types, 1999, pg13.
5
EDITOR A. ADUBOAHEN, general history of Africa vii Africa under colonial domination 1880-1935, (HEINEMANN- CALIFORNIA-
UNESCO,1985), pg.697.
was the only the economic activity ideal at the time for South Africans to get money to pay for

these charges that demanded money such as taxes especially in most of the British colonies

which was very hard to dodge ,because in areas such as Botswana and Lesotho the colonial states

used the chiefs collect these taxes6.

Around the period between 1870s and the 1920s, Southern Africa saw the coming of European

missionaries who came about with the introduction of western medicine technology, formal

education and as well as a religion. These would initiate the rise of discretionary needs becoming

day to day necessities. Africans were now forced to have money to pay for these discretionary

needs such the formal education, western medicine and clothing with which prior to the coming

of Europeans they were able to survive. This would cause more people migrating for wage

employment unorder to accumulate money and provide for these needs7.

It was also caused by declining economic opportunities or poor resources in Southern which had

been prior used to cater for the social and economic needs for Africans. For example, in colonial

Southern Africa, Africans lost their land through primitive accumulation and land legislations for

example Swazis lost 2/3 of their land and South Africans lost 7/8 of their land. It should be taken

into account that in Southern Africa land lied at the heart of social, political and economic life;

Hilda Kuper supports this assertion with the context of pre-colonial Swaziland that ‘in pre-

colonial Swaziland to the Swazi cattle and land was their life, their bank, and the property which

established them’8. As a result, the loss of important resources such as land and cattle meant the

African peasants were now unable to produce for their families hence, they were forced to

6
Schapera, Migrant Labour and tribal life, (London 1947), pg. 152.
7
Stephen Ocheni, Analysis of Colonialism and Its Impact in Africa, London: Longman, 2012, pg.47.
8
Hilda Kuper, African law: adaptation and development,1965, pg.95.
migrate for wage employment to get wages for taking care of their families, since peasant

productions was now declining.

Moreover, the colonial states in most parts in Southern Africa were systematically developing

the white settler economy at the expense of peasants agricultural production, this would have an

effect to the migration of labour ,because many Southern African societies were not allowed by

the colonial state to produce certain crops and in some societies such as colonial Mozambique

the Natives were propelled into producing particular crops and were not free to produce what

they wanted, but only to produce what the colonizer wanted and on the conditions determined by

colonists9. Thus, Finn implies that, hindering their peasant economic production as a response,

they had to migrate to South Africa or other neighbouring places to cater for their families and

ensure food security. Another factor was that the colonial masters also favoured settler farming

also through marketing policies which also were more favourable to capitalist farming than to

peasant farming; for example in the case of colonial Swaziland as a result, this would also force

the Swazi peasants to seek to join in wage labour in the white farms or mines than to work hard

on peasant farming which was hindered in all possible ways in colonial Southern Africa10.

There was the gender dimension which was also a major dynamic for the migration of labour in

Southern Africa: patriarchal practices were widespread in Southern Africa, however cattle

around the time were decimated, yet Southern African men were still expected to pay the bride

prices for their women. This then meant that in order to have money and provide for the bride

price and other patriarchal practices pressured men to migrate into wage employment to earn

money to pay the lobola11. With Women living in patriarchal societies, they also migrated to

9
Tarp, Finn, Agrarian Transformation in Mozambique, 1984, pg. 9.
10
Hamilton Sipho Simelane, The State, Landlords, and the Squatter Problem in Post-Colonial Swaziland, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd,
2002), pg. 329.
11
Simelane & Crush, (2004) Swaziland Moves; Perceptions and Patterns of Migration, pg. 29.
wage employment although in fewer cases when escaping from the oppressions of the patriarchal

practices such as in the case of pre-colonial Swaziland there were traditions like arranged

marriages (kwendzisa) and inheriting brother’s widow (kungenwa) which was resented by most

women as a result they would escape from their homes to the city12.

The labour migration was also caused by social pressures; Jonathan Crush poses that most males

in Southern Africa entered into labour migration, since it was now regarded as norm that African

males were bound to migrate to South Africa and even the girls normalised choosing males who

have migrated compared to those who have not13. In most societies in Southern Africa men

would be prompted to go to work in farms acquired by the settlers, or in the mines in South

Africa not only to get wages but because of the direct or indirect influence on by peers, or other

males in the societies who were labours either in the farms or the mines.

In conclusion, this essay outlines and gives a critical analysis of the causes of labour migration

Southern Africa between the 1870s and the 1920s. From this essay it may be concluded that the

labour migration was caused by economic and political forces and imbalances that existed in

Southern Africa between the 1870s and 1920s which pulled and pushed Africans into migrating

for wage labour in the mines or plantations.

Bibliography

12
Hamilton Sipho Simelane, The State, Chiefs and the Control of Female Migration in Colonial Swaziland, c. 1930S-
1950S, (Cambridge University Press, 2004), pg. 116.
13
Crush, Jonathan. Struggle for Swazi Labour, 1890-1920. Jamaica: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987.pg 46.
Boahen, Adu, General history of Africa vii Africa under colonial domination 1880-1935,

(HEINEMANN- CALIFORNIA- UNESCO,1985).

Crush, Jonathan. Struggle for Swazi Labour, 1890-1920. Jamaica: McGill-Queen's University

Press, 1987.

Kuper Hilda, African law: adaptation and development,1965.

Nash, D, Narratives of 19th century drought in southern Africa in different historical source

types,1999.

Ochen, Stephen, Analysis of Colonialism and Its Impact in Africa, London: Longman,2012.

Pule Phoofolo, Epidemics and Revolutions: The Rinderpest Epidemic in Late Nineteenth-

Century Southern Africa, Past & Present, Feb., 1993, No. 138, Feb., 1993.

Schapera, Migrant Labour and tribal life, London,1978.

Simelane & Crush, Swaziland Moves; Perceptions and Patterns of Migration,2004.

Simelane, Hamilton Sipho, The State, Chiefs and the Control of Female Migration in Colonial

Swaziland, c. 1930S-1950S, (Cambridge University Press), 2004.

Wilson, Francis, International Migration in Southern Africa, (Winter), 1976.