Railways and labour migration to the rand mines
Constraints and Significance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4604397 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gordon Pirie (0000-0002-4828-0385, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 713-730 |
| Publication date | 1993-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03057079308708380 |
| OpenAlex | W2051784954 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 15 |
From the start of the twentieth century, southern African railways conveyed vast numbers of miners to and from the Rand gold mines in a fluid and contested political and economic setting. The need for a large, continually replenished and low‐cost workforce was met by tapping new and distant labour pools. Railways mobilised miners by offering relatively inexpensive, quick, long‐distance mass transport. They also curtailed desertion and exhaustion associated with walking. Yet the interests of state‐owned railways and mining capital were not completely harmonious. The contribution of trains to migrancy was limited by the geography of a railway network built for other purposes, by geopolitical restrictions on recruiting, by complex and discriminatory tariffs, and by the inefficiency and disunity of railway operations. In the 1930s the reach of railways was enhanced by flexible road transport; thereafter, non‐rail modes of transport operated by and for mine‐labour agencies, conveyed an increasing share of the stabilising mine workforce. Railways facilitated massive migrancy but might have been even more effective in a better orchestrated and narrower economy. Essential in the first twenty years of industrialised gold mining, railways first entrenched and then prolonged migrancy. Railways were also significant in that they did more than temporarily relocate inert labourers: migration by train was, in addition, a socially and symbolically charged episode
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| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,26 |
| Citation span | 1999 - 2025 (27) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |