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South Africa c.1900

People lived mostly in rural communities where they stayed in small clusters of huts -- separate huts for the man of the household and for each of his wives and their children. Most native Africans practised farming, spending their days ploughing and herding sheep and cattle. In most respects, the native Africans lived as their ancestors had for the past 20 generations and more. Polygamy was practised -- men commonly took more than one wife -- as long as the man could afford to support his whole family.

However, in other important ways things had changed dramatically. During the 300 years following the arrival of Europeans, Africans were gradually pushed from traditional lands into increasingly smaller "reserves". At the turn of the century, Africans, who made up nearly 80 percent of South Africa's population, were living in reserves that made up only about 7 percent of the land.

Another major change was the beginning of South Africa's migrant labour system. When both gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa, the natives were largely unimpressed and unconcerned. Although Africans had lost control of the country, many were still subsistence farmers, relying on agriculture to survive, hence there was no reason for them to work in the mines which were quickly set up to exploit the valuable resources. Setting up a profitable mining industry required two things: large amounts of capital to buy equipment and equally large amounts of cheap labour to operate the equipment. With money soon flowing in from foreign investors eager for big profits, the only thing that was missing was cheap labour. To solve this problem, the government passed laws to force the natives to supply their labour. By raising the hut tax to an amount which compelled natives to seek work and making the tax payable in coins only (instead of produce, as before), more and more people were forced off the land. With much of the labour-force now absent from the fields, crop yields fell and families became poorer and less self-sufficient.

Continue What the Africans did then