A Century of Migrancy from Mpondoland

Bibliographic Data

ID2137745
AuthorsW Beinart (0000-0002-4531-6389, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume73
Issue3
Pages387-409
Publication date2014-09-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-0184 • E-ISSN: 1469-2872
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00020184.2014.962869
OpenAlexW2030713826
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited35

Migrant mineworkers from Mpondoland came into the news as the victims of the shootings at Marikana platinum mine in August 2012. Fourteen out of the 45 people who met their deaths over the two weeks of turmoil at Marikana came from this area and another 16 from other former Transkeian districts in the Eastern Cape province. Evidence suggests that workers from such rural communities, which have been sending long distance migrants to the mines for over a century, are still migrating in some numbers and were central in the strike. This article outlines changing patterns of migration over the long term and suggests that these did not entirely undermine agricultural production, at least till the later decades of the twentieth century. It aims to explore aspects of agency and identity from the perspective of workers who returned to the Mpondoland districts and to suggest how new solidarities and associations emerged from the interactions between changing rural and urban contexts. It also discusses some of the generational and gender tensions that reflected the circulation of earnings. Migrants from Mpondoland have been characterised in both historical literature and contemporary journalism as traditionalist and fiercely attached to their rural homes. It is important not to ethnicise a diverse segment of the South African workforce, and we need to allow for many different individual trajectories, as well as changes over time. However, I will suggest that a sense of collective identity has in part shaped their responses over the long term and seem to be evident, alongside unions, in new expressions of worker solidarity

Agency (philosophy · Earnings · Economic growth · Geography · Identity (music · Political science · Rural area · Social science · Sociology · Workforce · African history and culture studies · Gender Studies · History · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa · South African History and Culture