A Long Way Home : Migrant Worker Worlds 1800-2014
... But it also has the perverse uniqueness in the extent to which urbanisation, industrialisation and rural transformation were moulded by migrant labour. Migrancy and racism fed off each other and for a century and more shaped the lives and deaths of millions of people (Delius, Phillips & Rankin-Smith 2014). Until the 1960s the migrant labour system was taken for granted by many South Africans and had attracted a modest body of scholarship with social anthropologists responsible for many of the most substantial contributions. ...
... The tragic events at Marikana have placed the issue of migrant labour high on the political agenda once again. In 2014 the Wits Art Museum (WAM) acted on a long-standing ambition to focus on the worlds of migrant workers and mounted an exhibition and produced a book which set out to illuminate the lives, experiences, identity and creativity of migrant workers (Delius, Phillips & Rankin-Smith 2014). This Special Issue has also grown out of these initiatives. ...
... From 1500 an economy already stimulated by an ancient gold trade was further galvanised by the growing demand for, and value of, ivory at the coast and the influx of imported goods of which beads and cloth were the most significant. This was a world of travel, cultural exchange and economic innovation (Delius, Phillips & Rankin-Smith 2014). It was also increasingly a region of competition, conflict and warfare. ...
... 38 This exhibition was pioneering in bringing together artworks, photography, archival documents music and other forms of expression, made by artists and migrant workers from the southern African region, in order to explore the social and cultural effects of migrant labour in Southern Africa. For more on the exhibition and the issues it explored see Delius, Phillips, and Rankin-Smith (2014). Sleep or rest is impossible on stern, glass-strewn bed. ...
... The complexities of the migrant labour system and labour relations in South Africa are beyond the scope of this thesis. For more on this history, and the art that has been produced about and by migrant labourers, seeDelius, Phillips, and Rankin-Smith (2014).135 Moving outside of South Africa, brooms may have additional significance. ...
The use of found objects is evident in a range of contemporary artmaking practices. The use of found objects can, however, no longer be understood as a rupture from tradition as they were in the early decades of the twentieth century when they were first used by Picasso and later by Duchamp, because found objects have become part of a longer genealogy in art making. A new approach is needed in order to understand the significance of the use of found objects in contemporary art. This study explores the significance of the use of found objects in selected contemporary South African artworks in order to move beyond an understanding of the use of found objects as the anti-art gestures like those of the historical and neo-avant-gardes. I propose that a shift in focus, from the idea of the found objects as anti-art, to an exploration of the changing ontological status of the found object as it moves through different social fields is one such new approach. Chapter three explores the meanings that objects accrue in everyday practices, while chapter four focussed on the difference between artworks and more quotidian objects. Pursuing the question of the manner in which the ontological status of the object shifts as it enters into and becomes part of the field of exhibition, chapter five considers the ways in which meanings are constructed for objects in the field of exhibition through the conventions of display. I explore the ways in which artists make use of or invert these conventions as a means of challenging the field of exhibition. Acknowledging that the objects are also active agents within this process, in chapter six I explore the manner in which the materiality of found objects contributes to the meaning of the artworks, and by extension, I consider what new possibilities of meaning a focus on the materiality yields. In the final chapter, I use the concept of the everyday to draw the themes that have emerged throughout this study together. I conclude by situating the contemporary South African art practices within the genealogy of the avant-garde.
... Although only 3.3 per cent of national population are foreign born (Statistics SA 2012;Statistics South Africa 2015), reflecting the global norm, the southern African region has a long history of migration, specifically labour migration. And the current reliance of the South African economy on migrants in various sectors, for example, the mining, agricultural, and hospitality sectors (Budlender 2014;Kiwanuka et al. 2015), as well as in the informal economy (Peberdy 2000), echoes dynamics that existed during the precolonial, colonial, and apartheid eras (Bolt 2013;Delius et al. 2014;Fine 2014;Peberdy 2009). However, the state's management of migration, particularly in recent years, suggests a lack of understanding of the phenomenon's structural conditions. ...
... South Africa has a long history of migration, due both to its geopolitical standing within the region and to the state's preference for migrant labour (Budlender 2014;Delius et al. 2014;Wilson 1972), as well as a long history of trying to restrict the mobility of its citizens and those hoping to enter the country. One of the first pieces of national legislation which the Union of South Africa (founded 1910) passed was the 1913 Immigration Regulation Act. ...
Migration is currently the cause of much concern and panic, and a subject of research interest both globally and in South Africa. Extensive research has been done to try to understand the experience of migration from the migrants’ perspective, as well as the experiences of the sending and receiving communities and states. However, in South Africa in particular, limited research has been done on the immigration industry, which has developed in response to this phenomenon. South Africa has recently undergone changes in its immigration regulations, witnessed a fragmenting migrant labour regime and seen the restructuring of its civil service. This has led to changes in the ways in which South Africa manages immigration, and consequently changes for immigrants and immigration intermediaries—individuals who work within the immigration industry and, for a fee, help immigrants with various parts of the immigration process. Based on original qualitative research with immigration intermediaries, this chapter reconsiders the concept of immigration industry with respect to fragmentation, changing political priorities and xenophobia. While South Africa has tried to emulate countries like Canada and Germany in the (re)formulation of its immigration policy, the state has failed to imitate the increasing regulation of the immigration industry that is seen in these same contexts. Against the backdrop of these changes, the industry itself is struggling to make sense of its role while the need for its services increases in the changing and increasingly complex bureaucracy which immigrants face in South Africa. This chapter addresses the gap in the literature around immigration industries and the role that they play, particularly in the absence of oversight or regulation. If states are serious about managing or regulating immigration, and if, as researchers, we are serious about understanding the constraints and opportunities which immigrants face in their migratory journeys, an improved understanding of the role that these industries play is vital.
This article interrogates the term “periphery” by examining the forms of urbanisation unfolding in the Gauteng City‐Region (GCR) of South Africa. Among the urbanisation processes identified, it focuses on two, situating them among debates on informality and defining new vocabularies of urbanisation. Aligned with discussions of peripherality as a social phenomenon, the article first depicts how some marginalised groups of people using transversal means carve out “toeholds” near urban centralities and opportunities. Second, it conveys how peripherality is also a geographical phenomenon, describing “aspirational” mass housing for the lower‐middle class on urban peripheries that can generate unexpected forms of precarity. The article concludes that toehold urbanisation and aspirational urbanisation drive peripheralisation in the GCR, and considers the implications of these concepts for critical geography and urban studies.
Diturupa is a cultural commemoration that happens annually on the 26th of December in Maka-panstad. It is primarily based on military drilling and parades done by soldiers. It incorporates Setswana traditional elements from the locality of Makapanstad amongst the Bakgatlha Ba Mo-setlha community. This study is a critical analysis of how Diturupa shapes the identity and ethnic-ity of Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha community in Makapanstad. Diturupa has been sustainable for the past hundred years as a community based initiative rooted in custom and rituals linked to a diverse identity. Diturupa is linked to the SS Mendi tragedy where black South African soldiers lost their lives. It is also a commemoration of those who fought in World War I and World War II. Diturupa represents an inclusive commemoration rooted in a spirit of diversity, creativity, and togetherness. It is rooted in respect for chieftaincy and bringing the community together in the festive season. Diturupa has a rich material culture starting with the kilt (Scotch), kettle drums, Tempedi and soldier uniforms that are worn on the 26th of December.
Post-democratic South Africa continues to experience migrancy to large urban centres such as Johannesburg. One understudied group of migrants are women from the KwaBhaca region in the Eastern Cape. Many amaBhaca women are entrapped in Johannesburg because of the exorbitant costs required to return home, and they are increasingly isolated from their ‘home’ communities. Some women have formed dance groups that perform mamtiseni to mitigate the effects of urban entrapment. Through the life histories of these women and the performances by two mamtiseni dance groups, we can see how the dance has aided these women in navigating their everyday lives. Mamtiseni is used to build and strengthen networks, preserve a sense of ‘Bhaca’ community and culture, socialise the youth, reshape the urban space, and represent home in a foreign space. This study adds to the limited amaBhaca historiography and contributes to an understanding of how marginalised migrants use performance to shape and reinforce identity.
In recent years, “the youth” have captured (or perhaps recaptured) public attention in South Africa. This paper reflects on South Africa’s experience of generational conflict and places it in the broader context of South African history. After attempting to define “youth,” this paper makes two key points. First, far from being a recent development, generational tension has been a continuous feature of Southern African history since at least the late nineteenth century. Second, organized political mobilization is not the way this tension usually manifests itself. Mass youth politics is a specific phenomenon, which needs to be explained historically rather than assumed. The paper focuses on three historical examples to illustrate this: early migrant labor in South Africa, the formation of urban youth gangs, and the sustained youth uprising from 1976 until the early 1990s. It concludes with a tentative attempt to draw some parallels between that phase of rebellion and recent student upheavals.
South African social science’s close relationship with politics and policy have long provided a source of vitality and intellectual direction. Although one of the field’s greatest strengths, intimacy with socio-political and economic transformations engenders solipsism and stagnation. Ironically, it also compromises scholars’ political autonomy and intellectual ethics by blinding analysts to the emerging socio-political formations which will shape the country’s future. As demands for decolonisation and academic transformation continue, the pressures for political alignment will only grow. Drawing on over a decade of inquiry into the formal and informal governance of human mobility into and within South Africa, this article reveals the contours of such isolation and conceptual complacency. From this we can find direction for satisfying the “dual imperative:” contributing to progressive policy while maintaining scholarly autonomy. While not disengaging from politics, we must work to destabilise the language of it even where it means potential isolation from officials, peers, and personal profits. Doing so can protect social science’s autonomy while opening new opportunities for understanding the world in which we live and new tools for challenging those who seek to describe, theorise and change it. Doing otherwise risks converting the South African academic project into a policy think tank or self-referential echo chamber.
The degree to which the development of migrancy as a way of life for men in South Africa affected the ways in which people fashioned their identity through dress constitutes the core of this article. The history of the development and adaptation of particular forms of dress is traced, with variations considered, following Mikhail Bakhtin (Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986), as speech/dress acts within specific speech/ dress genres. Black miners are shown to have adopted a tripartite set of identities in colonial and apartheid times; these are, as Achille Mbembe (On the Postcolony. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2015) argues, interlocking rather than chronologically separate and sequenced. They included the “traditional”, associated with rural homes; the specifically ethnic, associated with performative mine spectacles; and the modern, manifested in the urbane returnee to the “homeland”. These three interchangeable identities traverse a period from the late 1800s to the present. Focusing (but not exclusively) on mid-twentieth-century miners from the eastern seaboard of South Africa and their beadwork—often considered as one of the main markers of ethnicity—it is argued that these dress genres, interwoven and changing, are part of their fashioning of a modern masculine identity. The archive used here is largely photographic, and so visual analysis and historical contextualisation are the methodological tools employed.
Ernest Cole’s photographs reveal the contradictions and paradoxes of apartheid South Africa. At a very young age, and with little formal instruction Cole instinctively produced a significant documentary photo-book titled House of Bondage (1967). This article makes a close reading of some of Ernest Cole’s photographs in relation to the historical circumstances of apartheid and how they can be perceived through the lens of hindsight in postapartheid South Africa. The work offers a potent argument for the power of perception to uncover overlooked moments of the period. As an African, Cole’s photographs construct a narrative of apartheid from the position of an “invisible” black insider. In so doing, they tellingly reveal how he used the system of apartheid to his own advantage in his photographic practice. His photographs ask us to consider his modus operandi and the courage it took to make them at that time, offering the opportunity to behold moments that cut across gaps of space and time.
Johannesburg is home to a diverse migrant population and a range of urban health challenges. Locally informed and implemented responses to migration and health that are sensitive to the particular needs of diverse migrant groups are urgently required. In the absence of a coordinated response to migration and health in the city, the Johannesburg Migrant Health Forum (MHF) – an unfunded informal working group of civil society actors – was established in 2008. We assess the impact, contributions and challenges of the MHF on the development of local-level responses to migration and urban health in Johannesburg to date. In this Commentary, we draw on data from participant observation in MHF meetings and activities, a review of core MHF documents, and semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 MHF members.
The MHF is contributing to the development of local-level migration and health responses in Johannesburg in three key ways: (1) tracking poor quality or denial of public services to migrants; (2) diverse organisational membership linking the policy process with community experiences; and (3) improving service delivery to migrant clients through participation of diverse service providers and civil society organisations in the Forum. Our findings indicate that the MHF has a vital role to play in supporting the development of appropriate local responses to migration and health in a context of continued – and increasing – migration, and against the backdrop of rising anti-immigrant sentiments.
South Africa was once notorious for an extreme system of racial inequality known as apartheid. It is still a world leader in economic inequality, but the racial situation is confused. In the meantime something like apartheid has become universal. The Southern African regional economy has some features that point to a more humane alternative to unequal society, to a “human economy”. The world needs a new free trade movement that would begin to dismantle the institutions of national privilege and insist on movement as a human right.
This historiographical overview examines the literature on women migrants in South Africa, arguing that it is important to consider domestic struggles and their impact on women's urban experiences within and beyond the workplace in order to understand the unfolding of the migrant labour system in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Looking at writing on pre-1994 migrancy, it highlights women's experiences in the workplace, in the residential spaces they occupy, and in their associational life. We also draw out some of the major trends in the post-1994 period, focusing in particular on scholarship that considers HIV/AIDS. Migrant women, we argue, are neither simply home-based nor town-linked; rather their experiences and struggles provide the means to accommodate both while also transforming these polarities.
This article is about changing patterns of collective identities among Rand-based migrants from Zebediela between the 1930s and 1970s. Based on archival and oral sources, the article shows how, in the face of a hostile and alienating urban environment, these migrants promoted a sense of group identity from the bottom up by clustering around people from their home areas and establishing organisations that looked after their interests. During the 1940s and 1950s, these migrants formed groupings not on the basis of ethnicity but on the basis of a shared geographical place of origin or home, i.e. the area of Zebediela, as well as on the basis of allegiance to chieftaincy back home. However, these localised collective identities would soon give way to broader ethnic affiliations in the following decades the moment the state started using ethnic differences to determine the allocation of resources to different groups. The central argument of this article is that whilst prior to the 1950s the kinds of collective identities developed by migrants found expression in the formation of region-based associations that looked after their immediate interests in cities as well as in the countryside, by the 1960s and 1970s many of these migrants had been drawn into a larger, more ambitious and explicitly ethnic organisation that agitated for a separate ‘homeland’ for all Ndebele people in South Africa.
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