'Your petitioners are in mortal terror': The violent world of Chinese mineworkers in South Africa, 1904-1910

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 31, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 531-546

  Kynoch, Gary ^a  

^a DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; IMMIGRANT POPULATION; MINING; SOCIAL HISTORY; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

AFRICA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; SOUTH AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; WORLD;

EID: 25444506399     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070500202162     Document Type: Article

References (95)

1. The Witwatersrand (also Rand or Reef) refers to the belt of gold mines and urban settlements running some 100 km from east to west with Johannesburg at its centre.
2. P. Richardson, Chinese Mine Labour in the Transvaal (London, Macmillan Press, 1982), p. 189.
3. Although a minimum of seventeen Chinese labourers were shot and killed while reportedly breaking into white farmhouses and stores, Chinese workers in South Africa were never the targets of pogroms as were their compatriots in the United States. See R. Daniels, Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850 (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1988). Chinese mineworkers in South Africa were protected by the Labour Importation Ordinance, which restricted them to unskilled labour on the gold mines. Imported labourers were barred from skilled occupations, forbidden to hold trading licences of any kind and denied the right to lease or own property. These restrictions, combined with their physical isolation on the mine compounds, may account for the lack of mob violence directed against indentured workers in South Africa.
4. For example, some 200 people were killed in the Rand Revolt of 1922 and a dozen African mineworkers lost their lives in the 1946 strike. For faction fights, see D. Moodie, Going for Gold: Men, Mines and Migration (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994).
5. For underground violence between white supervisors and black workers, see K. Breckenridge, 'The Allure of Violence: Men, Race and Masculinity on the South African Goldmines, 1900-1950', Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS), 24, 4 (1998).
6. For criminal gangs, see C. van Onselen, Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand, 1886-1914, Vol. 2 New Nineveh (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1982);
7. K. Breckenridge, 'Migrancy, Crime and Faction Fighting: The Role of the Isitshozi in the Development of Ethnic Organisations in the Compounds', JSAS, 16, 1 (1990);
8. G. Kynoch, 'Marashea on the Mines: Economic, Social and Criminal Networks on the South African Gold Fields, 1947-1999', JSAS, 26, 1 (2000).
9. For conflicts between Chinese workers and management, see G. Kynoch, 'Controlling the Coolies: Chinese Mineworkers and the Struggle for Labour in South Africa, 1904-1910', International Journal of African Historical Studies, 36, 2/3 (2003).
10. Central Archives Depot (CAD), Pretoria [All archival materials referenced in this article are housed in the CAD], GOV 209, CON 33/05, Memorandum regarding the steps which ought to be taken in order to place the working of the Foreign Labour Department on a proper footing. Superintendent Jamieson, 7 August 1905;
11. 1914 Buckle Commission report (Native Grievances Inquiry), NGI, para. 474, cited in Moodie, Going for Gold, p. 76.
12. Moodie, Going for Gold, pp. 182, 190.
13. One police report mentions that an arranged confrontation instigated by a gambling dispute between Chinese workers from different mines was pre-empted by confining the would-be combatants to their respective compounds. FLD 54, 6179, Chief Detective Inspector, CID. to the Secretary, FLD, 18 September 1906.
14. See GOV 165, GEN 279/05, Riots and Disturbances amongst Chinese Labourers. Report by the Superintendent of the Foreign Labour Department, 20 April 1905;
15. GOV 872, p/s 37/12/0, Acting Superintendent FLD to Lieutenant-Governor, Pretoria, 8 May 1905;
16. FLD 19, AG 10/05, Disturbance at the Van Ryn Gold Mines & Estate Limited, 14 May 1905.
17. FLD and mine officials speculated that labour unrest and violence were fomented by a shadowy group of 'undesirables' and 'bad characters' consisting of 'ex-boxers and members of secret societies', but were rarely able to substantiate these claims. During one raid, 'various documents and insignia were discovered which proved beyond a doubt that a Secret Society was being organised... as a branch of the "Ko Lo Hui" a wellknown Society in North China'. GOV 165, GEN 279/05, Riots and disturbances amongst Chinese labourers, Report by the Superintendent, FLD, Period November 23 1904 to March 25 1905.
18. P. Richardson, 'Coolies, Peasants and Proletarians: The Origins of Chinese Indentured Labour in South Africa, 1904-1907', in S. Marks and P. Richardson (eds), International Labour Migration: Historical Perspectives (London, Maurice Temple Smith Limited, 1984).
19. FLD 24, 2706, Walter Bagot, General Manager, Chamber of Mines Labour Importation Agency (CMLIA) to the Superintendent, FLD, 8 March 1906.
20. EC 86, 82/06, Lord Selborne to the Colonial Office, 29 January 1905. FLD 20, AG52/05, FLD Superintendent Jamieson to the High Commissioner, Johannesburg, 19 August 1905.
21. Richardson, 'Coolies, Peasants and Proletarians', p. 177.
22. FLD 20, AG52/05, FLD Superintendent Jamieson to the High Commissioner, Johannesburg, 19 August 1905.
23. Some mining officials complained that the FLD's role in disciplining workers struck 'at the root of all control by the mine management, which should have full authority over the interior arrangements on the mines'. GOV 990, PS 37/17/06, Confidential Report of mine managers appointed by the Transvaal Chamber of Mines to consider means to be adopted for securing the better control of coolies on mines (hereafter Report of Mine Managers), 28 May 1906.
24. EC 86, 82/06, Lord Selborne to the Colonial Office, 29 January 1906.
25. FLD 101, 13/53, Returns for District Medical Officer of Health, Witwatersrand. Until May 1907, deaths were listed under specific headings, categorised as 'natural causes' and 'other'. These figures indicate the monthly death toll from mining accidents, murder, dysentery, tuberculosis and so on. Beginning in June 1907, individual deaths were recorded with each man's name, the mine on which he worked and the cause of death all listed. The final compilation of murders, suicides, executions, those killed during 'outrages' and opium deaths is based on my own calculations.
26. GOV 1076, PS 37/9/07, A. W. Baker to the Attorney-General, 31 January 1907; LD 1383, AG 5803/06, Secretary to the Law Department, undated memo: Use of Opium by Chinese Indentured Labourers;
27. Yen Ching-hwang, A Social History of the Chinese in Singapore and Malaya, 1800-1911 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 226.
28. Although riots were usually sparked by protests against unfair labour practices, they also provided a cover for settling scores within the compound population.
29. Heavy gambling was not uncommon in Chinese migrant communities throughout the labour diaspora. See W. Look Lai, Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993);
30. J. Breman, Taming the Coolie Beast: Plantation Society and the Colonial Order in Southeast Asia (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989);
31. A. Chan, Gold Mountain: The Chinese in the New World (Vancouver, New Star Books, 1983);
32. Daniels, Asian America;
33. J. Morton, In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia (Vancouver, J.J. Douglas Ltd., 1974);
34. Yen, A Social History of the Chinese.
35. FLD 217, 57/4, M. Wilkinson to the Secretary FLD, 30 October 1906.
36. FLD 22, AG 161/05, Notification addressed to all Chinese working on the Transvaal Gold Mines, 7 November 1905.
37. FLD 217, 57/4, Notification addressed to all Chinese Labourers on the Witwatersrand Gold Mines, 6 October 1906.
38. FLD 168, 34/00, H. Crocker, Travelling Inspector to Superintendent, FLD, 16 November 1907.
39. GOV 209, CON 33/05 Governor Selborne to Colonial Office, 7 August 1905.
40. FLD 54, 6/68, Captain H. F. Trew, District Commandant, Pretoria District to the Chief Staff Officer, S.A.C. Johannesburg, 16 November 1905.
41. GOV 209, CON 33/05, Memorandum regarding the steps that ought to be taken in order to place the working of the Foreign Labour department on a proper footing, 7 August 1905.
42. Report of the Special Committee Appointed to Consider and Report on the Present Conditions in Regard to Control of Chinese Indentured Labourers on the Mine Premises of the Witwatersrand Area, May 1906 (hereafter, Special Committee), Addenda to Report, pp. 23-4.
43. FLD 22, AG 115/05, Suggested notes for compiling a reply to the Secretary of State's telegram No. 2 of January 16, 1906.
44. EC 86, 82/06, Governor Selborne to Colonial Office, London, 29 January 1905.
45. FLD 236, 73/12, Governor Selborne to Colonial Office, London, 17 December 1906.
46. I b i d.
47. FLD 236, 73/32, The petition of Nos. 690, 841, 693, 923, 832,933 and 850 of the New Heriot G.M. Co., on behalf of the labourers of that Mine, to H.E. the Superintendent, FLD, 9 April 1907.
48. FLD 236, 73/12, Inspector Myers to Secretary, FLD, 10 December 1906.
49. FLD 240, 76/6, Undated, Anonymous Petition. For other accounts of police involvement in coercive sex, see LD 1000, AG 398/05, Superintendent FLD to Attorney-General, Pretoria, 24 January 1905.
50. African miners sometimes fought with overbearing African 'boss boys' and expressed resentment against African mine police, but these relationships were not characterised by the same animosity and violence as on the Chinese compounds. See Breckenridge, 'The Allure of Violence'.
51. GOV 159, GEN 894/04, Governor Milner to Lyttelton, Colonial Office, enclosures from FLD, 12 December 1904.
52. GOV 165, GEN 279/05, Riots and disturbances amongst Chinese labourers, Report by the Superintendent, FLD, Period November 23, 1904 to March 25, 1905.
53. GOV 872, PS 37/12/05, Report on the Disturbance at Rose Deep Limited, 16 June 1905.
54. LD 1543, Acting Commissioner, Transvaal Town Police to Secretary of the Law Department, Pretoria, 28 December 1907.
55. FLD 22, AG 115/05, Lord Selborne to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 18 December 1905.
56. FLD 179, 36/31, Superintendent FLD to Secretary, Chamber of Mines, 30 July 1906.
57. Special Committee, p. 8.
58. FLD 179, 36/30, Edward Way, General Manager, Kleinfontein Mine to the Secretary, Kleinfontein Group Central Administration, 23 October 1905.
59. FLD 50, 6/1, Governor, Johannesburg to Secretary of State, London, 2 July 1906.
60. Special Committee, pp. 14-15.
61. For the connection between gambling debts and murder, see also FLD 168, 34/00, H. Crocker, Travelling Inspector to Superintendent, FLD, 16 November 1907.
62. FLD 168, 34/00, Report by Major McAndrew, Inspector, FLD, April 1907.
63. FLD 51, 6/11, Undated translation of the petition of Hong Fen-Lin Government Passport No. 57711, New Heriot G.M. Co. Limited to Superintendent, Foreign Labour Department, Johannesburg.
64. Africans working on the diamond fields in Kimberley were housed in closed compounds and subjected to intense surveillance, but these men were free to return home following the completion of contracts that were measured in months instead of years. See W. Worger, South Africa's City of Diamonds: Mine Workers and Monopoly Capitalism in Kimberley, 1867-1895, (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1987), pp. 288-9.
65. Moreover, as noted by P. Harries, Work, Culture and Identity: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c.1860-1910 (Portsmouth, Heinemann, 1994), p. 68, the diamond fields 'had to attract men from competing areas of employment... and, to do this, management and labor had to negotiate conditions that were acceptable to both parties'. In this competitive environment, mine owners learned to limit the worst abuses and offer sufficient wages to induce experienced black miners to re-contract. With their workers bound by three-year indentures, employers of Chinese labour had no such concerns.
66. Available records indicate that the heterosexual options for Chinese mineworkers were quite limited. Although they were said to 'pay their attentions to the loose women of the nearest location', it was illegal for Chinese men to have sex with white prostitutes. One unfortunate who was convicted of 'unlawful carnal connection' was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour and ten strokes. The same report notes that some 200 to 300 Chinese mineworkers were lined up at a makeshift brothel to avail themselves of the services of one white and one coloured prostitute. FLD 15, 147/56, Superintendent FLD to the Acting Lieut.-Governor, Pretoria, 7 January, 1905;
67. GOV 1076, PS 37/17/07, Report of the Attorney-General's Office, Pretoria, 2 May 1907.
68. GOV 1076, PS 37/9/07, A.W. Baker to the Attorney General, 31 January 1907.
69. FLD 21, AG 100/05, Lord Selborne to Alfred Lyttelton, Colonial Office, London, 18 September 1905.
70. See also M. Yap and D. Leong Man, Colour, Confusion and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa (Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 1996), p. 112.
71. FLD 19, AG 34/05, General Manager, North Randfontein, G.M. Co. Ltd. to Superintendent, FLD, 22 August 1905.
72. FLD 24, 25/06, Geo. Roy, Chief Compound Manager to C. Horst, Manager, New Kleinfontein Co., 25 January 1906.
73. FLD 20, AG52/05, Superintendent FLD to High Commissioner, Johannesburg, 19 August 1905.
74. FLD 202, file 45/56, FLD Inspector Fairfax to FLD Superintendent, 28 February 1907;
75. FLD Chief Inspector Purdon to FLD Superintendent, 1 March 1907.
76. Yen, A Social History of the Chinese, pp. 240, 243.
77. FLD 168, 34/00, Travelling Inspector Crocker to FLD Superintendent Jamieson, 16 November 1907.
78. FLD 54, 6/68, Captain H.F. Trew, District Commandant Pretoria District to the Chief Staff Officer, S.A.C. Johannesburg, 16 November 1905.
79. LD 1121, AG 3795/05, Report by Resident Magistrate, Pretoria to the Secretary of the Law Department, 20 August 1905.
80. GOV 990, PS 37/17/06, Return of Outrages Committed by Chinese Labourers in the Transvaal Town Police Area; Return of Outrages Committed by Chinese Labourers in the districts of the Transvaal outside the Town Police Area, 1 June 1905-28 February 1906. Africans and Indians may have been fatally victimised after the end date of this report, but the murder of whites is unlikely to have gone unrecorded. There were 107 outrages listed for the Transvaal Town Police Area, ranging from an incident where 'A Coolie snatched a sovereign from a Native' to a white proprietor who was killed when his store was dynamited. Outside the Transvaal Town Police Area, the severity of the 29 outrages extended from the theft of pumpkins to the murder of a white farmer.
81. LTG 166, Governor, Transvaal to Secretary of State, 18 September 1905;
82. FLD 23, AG 168/05, Secretary to the Law Department to the Secretary to the Treasury, 22 January 1906.
83. LD 1121, AG 3795/05, Report by Resident Magistrate, Pretoria to the Secretary of the Law Department, 20 August 1905.
84. FLD 24, 26/06, Private letter written to Charles Moss by his sister Fanny, January 1906.
85. LD 1564, AG 259/08, Commissioner of Police, Johannesburg to Secretary to the Law Department, Pretoria, 25 January 1908.
86. LTG 166, Governor, Transvaal to Secretary of State, 18 September 1905;
87. FLD 25, AG 147/81, Commissioner of Police, Johannesburg to Secretary to the Law Department, Pretoria, 13 March 1906.
88. FLD 24, 27/06, FLD Superintendent Jamieson to Attorney General, Pretoria, 16 February 1906.
89. FLD 25, AG147/81, Commissioner of Police to Secretary to the Law Department, 13 March 1906.
90. LD 855, AG4401/04, FLD Superintendent Jamieson to Secretary of the Law Department, Pretoria, 5 September 1905.
91. FLD 52, 6/77, FLD Superintendent Jamieson to Attorney-General, Pretoria, 14 December 1905.
92. FLD 25, AG 57/06, Secretary to the Law Department to the President, Chamber of Mines, 6 March 1906.
93. FLD 22, AG 158/05, Superintendent FLD to Attorney-General, Pretoria, 26 October 1905. To be fair, Jamieson also thought that the presence of Chinese labourers at the execution 'might afford the poor creatures some small measure of consolation to quit this life with a knowledge that there was present at least one friendly or familiar face to which they could bid a tacit farewell, instead of being dispatched amid a crowd of unsympathetic strangers'.
94. GOV 990, PS 37/17/06, Notification Addressed to all Chinese Indentured Labourers on the Witwatersrand Gold Mines, 25 June 1906.
95. Daily Mail, 25 September 1905, cited in Yap and Leong Man, Colour, Confusion and Concessions, p. 128.