Basotho and the Mines: a Social
History of Labour Migrancy in Lesotho and South Africa,
c1890-1940
Eddy Maloka
Published January 2004; Xii+260 pages; illus and tables.
Basotho
and the Mines
is the first major study of migrant labour in Lesotho,
dedicated to the period 1890 to 1940. It examines the position
of Basotho migrant workers in South Africa, Lesotho’s
dependency on migrant labour, and the social and cultural
consequences of sending so many men away to work. These issues
are placed within the framework of the history of colonialism
in Lesotho and South Africa and its impact on the current
geopolitics of the two interconnected nations. The study is
unique in that it provides an in-depth historical analysis of
migrant labour, combining aspects of political economy, and
cultural and social history. It is exhaustive in its coverage
and use of primary historical sources on labour migrancy in
colonial Lesotho.
Central
questions addressed include balancing structure and agency,
examining issues such as how Basotho migrants coped with death
and mourning in the mining compounds, the social history of
commercial beer-brewing and commercial sex in Lesotho, and the
relationship of all these factors to the system of
chieftainship, missionaries, and the British colonial
demonstration. The volume compels greater thinking about the
dynamics of agency, and the complex ways that Basotho men and
women coped with the impact of labour migrancy on their
country.
Eddy
Maloka is the Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Institute
of South Africa, and an associate member of the History
Department of the University of South Africa (UNISA). He has
also worked in the History Department at the University of
Cape Town, before joining government as an advisor to the
Premiers of Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces. He holds a
doctorate in History, and has published widely on development
issues in Africa, and the history of the liberation struggle
in Southern Africa. His recent publications include The South
African Communist Party in Exile, 1965-1990. He has also
published literary pieces, including a poetry anthology. He is
currently the Deputy President of the African Association of
Political Science (AAPS), and the President of the South
African Association of Political Science (SAAPS).
2004;
ISBN 2-86978-128-8 (pb) £14.95
/$20.95
Contents
Introduction
Part I: Migrants and Migrancy
-
Chapter 1: From Diamonds to Gold, c.1890–1930s
-
Chapter 2: Deepening Dependency
-
Chapter 3: The Journey to the Mines
Part II: Compounds as Home and Grave
-
Chapter 4: ‘Desecrating the
Sabbath’? Leisure in the Compound
-
Chapter 5: Missionaries, Converts and Miners
-
Chapter 6: Death, Dying and Mourning
-
Part III: Migrancy and Basotho Society
-
Chapter 7: Beershops and Brothels
-
Conclusion
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