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Kimberley's Model Compounds*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Rob Turrell
Rob Turrell
Affiliation:
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London
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Extract

The compound system that was to become a striking feature of most mining enterprises in Southern and Central Africa was first introduced in the diamond mines at Kimberley. In the period of open mining (1871–1884), Africans lived in open compounds, which gave them the freedom to spend their leisure time where they pleased. In the period of underground mining (beginning in 1885), Africans were isolated from the surrounding town in closed compounds. The closed compounds of the De Beers Consolidated Company were soon regarded as models of social welfare and aspects of their system were copied at other mining centres in Africa. However, this article questions this model for the period before 1903, when there was a complete reconstruction of the compound system and a great improvement in living conditions. Before 1903 the health and mortality record of Kimberley's closed compounds was as bad, in some cases worse, than its imitators to the north in a comparable period of development. In the period of open mining African miners died of sanitation-related diseases. However, when they were forced to live in closed compounds, lung diseases, and in particular pneumonia, which was directly attributable to overcrowded accommodation, poor diet and inadequate protection against major changes in temperature, became the greatest killer on the diamond fields. It is argued here that closed compounds were more models of labour control than of social welfare before 1903. The role and functions of the De Beers convict station are compared with the advantages mining companies derived from closed compounds. Managerial ideology about compound philanthropy is called in question, and it is shown how the closed compound system contributed towards the creation of a disciplined work force, part of which was permanently resident in Kimberley.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 59 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 The South African Mines, Commerce and Industries, 25 April 1903, 14.

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7 BPP, Cd 2025, Correspondence Relating to Conditions … in the Transvaal Mines, enclosure I in no. 12, Memorandum from the Native Affairs Department, 31 March 1904, 62.

8 South African Parliamentary Papers, U.G. 34–1914, 161. I am grateful to Neil Andersson for bringing these statistics to my attention.

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30 The 1888 figure is calculated from a Kimberley (excluding Beaconsfield) population of 28,000 (12,000 Europeans and 16,000 Others). See R. V. Turrell, ‘Capital, Class and Monopoly’, appendix II, tables 9 and 34.

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32 CPP, Commission on Convicts and Gaols, G2–'88, First Report, ii.

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35 ‘Report on the sanitary condition of Kimberley’ (cited in n.29).

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41 CAD, LND 1/369, Craven to Commissioner of Crown Lands, 16 Oct. 1891, L550.

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43 University of Cape Town, Judge Papers B 47, Commission of Enquiry into the De Beers Disaster, 4 Aug. 1888.

44 CAD, NA 411, Barnes to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, 13 July 1896.

45 CPP, Commission on Convicts and Gaols, G2–'88, First Report, ii.

46 CAD, NA 411, Barnes to Under Secretary for Native Affairs, 13 July 1896.

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49 Data for Table I are derived from Statistical Registers of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1897–1905). In addition to compound dwellers there were 8,000 Africans who lived in the locations in the early 1890s. A decade later, the location population had increased to 16,000 and as many Africans were employed in the townships as in the mines. The death rate of the total African population was well below that of the African mine work force (CPP, Blue Book on Native Affairs, G7–'92, 17, 18).

50 CPP, Commission on Convicts and Gaols, G2–'88, evidence of F. R. Thompson, Q. 186.

51 CAD, CO 3454, no. 244, F. S. P. Stow telegram to Graham, 4 Oct. 1884, Wright telegram to Graham, 11 Oct. 1884, Colonial Under Secretary to Judge, 12 Jan. 1886; CO 3556, no. 51, Judge to Colonial Under Secretary, 4 Oct. 1887; CPP, Commission on Convicts and Gaols, G2–'88, First Report, iv.

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57 CAD, CO 3556, no. 28, Judge to Colonial Under Secretary, 19 July 1887, CO 6410, no. 23, Scott to High Sheriff, Cape Town, 18 April 1889.

58 Some 8,708 persons were convicted each year between July 1884 and June 1887 and sent to the Kimberley gaol. Of these 3,096 were convicted each year for pass offences. Double this number were arrested for this offence each year. (CPP, Commission on Convicts and Gaols, G2–'88, First Report, ii.)

59 In 1887 there was an average of 2,238 convicts in the Cape Colony, of whom 870 were imprisoned in Kimberley (Cape Hansard, 1888, 58, 59).

60 CPP, Labour Commission, G3–'94, evidence of R. G. Scott, Q. 17446.

61 CAD, CO, no. 51, Scott to Law Department, 22 April 1890.

62 Ibid.

63 Cape Hansard (1892), 10.

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65 Statistical Registers of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1890–1905.

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67 ‘Convict Strike’, Daily Independent, 9 August 1884; CAD, CO 3454, no. 227, Colonial Under Secretary telegram to Judge, 18 Nov. 1884; CO 3556, no. 70 Bradshaw to Judge, 6 Dec. 1887.

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77 CPP, Commission … into the Diamond Trade Acts, G3-'88, evidence of J. Gifford, Q. 2222.

78 Ibid., evidence of F. R. Thompson, Q. 180; CPP, Commission on Convicts and Gaols, G2–'88, evidence of F. R. Thompson, Q. 186.

79 South Africa's first legislated industrial colour bar was introduced with the development of systematic underground mining in Kimberley. In December 1885 discrimination with respect to blasting was formally promulgated under the Rules and Regulations of the 1883 Mining Act. In every case blasting was to be ‘carried on under the supervision of a European experienced in blasting’ and ‘no persons under eighteen years of age and no native is to be permitted to manipulate explosives or prepare the same for blasting or other purposes’. (South African Library, Kimberley Central DMC, General Regulations, ‘Special Rules for Regulating Blasting Operations in the Kimberley Mine’, 27 February 1886, 26.) Four years later the regulations stated bluntly: ‘No native shall work or be allowed to work in any mine, whether in open or underground working, excepting under the responsible charge of some particular white man as his master or “baas”.’ (CAD, LND 1/285, General Rules and Regulations for the Working of Diamond Mines, I July 1889, fo. 1563.)

80 CAD, LND 1/346, Captain Erskine to Chairman of De Beers Consolidated, 29 May 1890.

81 CAD, NA 455, J. G. Leary to Under Secretary of Native Affairs, 7 Oct. 1889.

82 CAD, NA 455, J. Davis Allen (Manager of the Anglo-African DMC) to J. G. Leary, 2 Sept. 1889.

83 CPP, Blue Book on Native Affairs, G8–'95, 20.

84 CAD, NA 411, Barnes to Secretary of Native Affairs, 13 July 1896.

85 CAD, NA 455, J.G. Leary to General Manager, De Beers consolidated, 12 Feb. 1891.

86 CPP, Commission … into the Diamond Trade Acts, G3-'88, evidence of F. R. Thompson, Q. 104.

87 CPP, Commission on Liquor Lotus, G1–'90, 1039–1043.

88 CPP, Commission … into the Diamond Trade Acts, G3-'88, evidence of A. Davis, Q. 2846.

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