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The Ban on “Tropical Natives” and the Promotion of Illegal Migration in Pre-Apartheid South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2018

Francis Musoni
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Abstract:

This article examines the historical as well as contemporary significance of South Africa’s 1913 ban on the recruitment of migrant workers from areas north of latitude 22 degrees south. This ill-conceived policy not only criminalized the employment of so-called “tropical natives” in South Africa but also triggered contestations, fueling illegal migration from the restricted areas. By 1933, when the ban was lifted, illegal migration from Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) had become a major site of contestations among policymakers, labor agents, business owners, and migrant workers in South Africa. While the dominant narrative in Southern Africa holds that illegal migration only became an issue of concern after the end of apartheid rule, this phenomenon has a much longer history in the subregion. Identifying factors that push people to move from one country to another and those that force or encourage travelers to cross international boundaries without following official channels facilitates the understanding of the complexities involved in cases of illegal migration wherever this practice exists. While low wages and other sources of insecurity in colonial Zimbabwe may indeed have compelled many people to consider moving to South Africa, such factors did not cause migrants to use unofficial channels in crossing the border. Rather, South Africa’s ban imposed numerous barriers, rendering it difficult for those seeking work to cross between the two countries through legal and/or formal channels.

Résumé:

Cet article étudie l’importance historique et contemporaine de l’interdiction de l’Afrique du Sud, en 1913, du recrutement de travailleurs migrants en provenance de régions situées au nord du 22 e degré de latitude sud. Cette politique mal conçue a non seulement criminalisé l’emploi des soi-disant « indigènes tropicaux » en Afrique du Sud, mais a également déclenché des conflits alimentant l’immigration clandestine depuis les zones d’accès restreint. En 1933, lorsque l’interdiction a été levée, l’immigration clandestine du Zimbabwe (alors la Rhodésie du Sud) devint un site important de conflits parmi les employeurs, les agents syndicaux, les propriétaires d’entreprises et les travailleurs immigrants en Afrique du Sud. Alors que le discours dominant en Afrique du Sud soutient que l’immigration clandestine ne soit pas devenu un sujet de préoccupation qu’après la fin du régime de l’apartheid, ce phénomène a une histoire beaucoup plus longue dans les sous-régions. Identifier les facteurs qui poussent les individus à se déplacer d’un pays à un autre et ceux qui forcent ou incitent les migrants à traverser les frontières internationales sans suivre les voies officielles, permet de comprendre la complexité impliquée dans les affaires de l’immigration clandestine et dans les endroits où cette pratique existe. Alors que les bas salaires et autres sources d’insécurité du Zimbabwe colonial peuvent en effet avoir contraint beaucoup d’individu à envisager d’adopter l’Afrique du Sud, ces facteurs n’ont pas encouragé les immigrants à utiliser les voies officielles pour franchir la frontière. Plutôt, l’interdiction imposée par l’Afrique du Sud a créée de nombreux obstacles et a rendu difficile, pour les chercheurs d’emploi, la traversée entre les deux pays par voies juridiques ou formelles.

Keywords

South AfricaZimbabweRhodesiaillegal migrationmigrant workers
Type
Forum on Crime and Punishment
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 156 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

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References

References

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National Archives of South Africa [NASA]Google Scholar
BNS 442 146/74 The Immigration Regulation Act (No.22) 1913.Google Scholar
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GNLB 123/1950/13/240 Emigration of Rhodesian Natives to the TransvaalGoogle Scholar
GNLB 122/950/13/D240 Employment of Tropical Natives on MinesGoogle Scholar
GNLB 30/3260/11/240 (Part 2) Temporary Removal of Restrictions on Natives Entering Union when Seeking WorkGoogle Scholar
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NTS 2062/112/280 (Part 1) Employment of Tropical NativesGoogle Scholar
NTS 2117/225 280 The Mozambique Convention: Clandestine Immigrants Policy InterpretationGoogle Scholar
NTS 2138/249/280 Recruitment of Native Labor by Labor Agents, WitwatersrandGoogle Scholar
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Murray, J. F. 1963. “History of the South African Institute of Medical Research.” South African Medical Journal (April): 389–95.Google Scholar
Murray, Martin J. 1995. “‘Blackbirding’ at ‘Crooks’ Corner’: Illicit Labour Recruiting in Northeastern Transvaal, 1910–1940.” Journal of Southern African Studies 21 (3): 373–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oucho, John O. 2006. “Cross-border Migration and Regional Initiatives in Managing Migration in Southern Africa.” In Migration in South and Southern Africa: Dynamics and Determinants, edited by Kok, Pieter, et al. Pretoria: Human Science Research Council.Google Scholar
Packard, Randall M. 1993. “The Invention of the ‘Tropical Worker’: Medical Research and the Quest for Central African Labor on the South African Gold Mines, 1903-36.” Journal of African History 34: 271–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paton, Bill. 1995. Labour Export Policy in the Development of Southern Africa. London: Macmillan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peberdy, Sally A. 2009. Selecting Immigrants: National Identity and South Africa’s Immigration Policies, 1910-2008. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.Google Scholar
Solomon, Hussein. 2003. Of Myths and Migration: Illegal Immigration into South Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa.Google Scholar
Toktas, Sule, and Selimoglu, Hande. 2012. “Smuggling and Trafficking in Turkey: An Analysis of EU–Turkey Cooperation in Combating Transnational Organized Crime.” Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 14 (1): 135–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tshabalala, Xolani. 2017. Hyenas of the Limpopo: The Social Politics of Undocumented Movement Across South Africa’s Border with Zimbabwe. Ph.D. diss., Linköping University.Google Scholar
British Library [BL]Google Scholar
C.S.D.252 Union of South Africa House of Assembly Debates, (8 November 1910; 10 February 1911; 14 May 1912; 8 May 1913; 14 May 1913)Google Scholar
National Archives of South Africa [NASA]Google Scholar
BNS 442 146/74 The Immigration Regulation Act (No.22) 1913.Google Scholar
GNLB 120/1950/13/240 Tropical Natives Evading the Depot at Louis TrichardtGoogle Scholar
GNLB 123/1950/13/240 Emigration of Rhodesian Natives to the TransvaalGoogle Scholar
GNLB 122/950/13/D240 Employment of Tropical Natives on MinesGoogle Scholar
GNLB 30/3260/11/240 (Part 2) Temporary Removal of Restrictions on Natives Entering Union when Seeking WorkGoogle Scholar
GNLB 30/3260/11/240 Immigrants Regulation Act 22 1913Google Scholar
NTS 2061/107/280 Rex vs W.P. de Villers: Illegal Recruiting of Tropical NativesGoogle Scholar
NTS 2062/112/280 (Part 2) Employment of Tropical NativesGoogle Scholar
NTS 2062/112/280 (Part 1) Employment of Tropical NativesGoogle Scholar
NTS 2117/225 280 The Mozambique Convention: Clandestine Immigrants Policy InterpretationGoogle Scholar
NTS 2138/249/280 Recruitment of Native Labor by Labor Agents, WitwatersrandGoogle Scholar
National Archives of Zimbabwe [NAZ]Google Scholar
N3/22/4 vol. 1 Employment of Southern Rhodesia Natives in the Union of South Africa (1914-1923).Google Scholar
N3/22/4 Chief Native Commissioner, Salisbury to Secretary, Department of the Administrator, Salisbury 11 October 1917Google Scholar
S138/203 Chief Native Commissioner, Salisbury to Secretary Rhodesia Chamber of Mines [not dated: circa 1925].Google Scholar
S480/83 Statement by Hon. H.U. Moffat (Minister of Mines and Public Works) Regarding Emigration of Rhodesian Natives into the Union, 16 November 1925Google Scholar
Andersson, Ruben. 2014. Illegality, Inc.: Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering Europe. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Betts, Alexander. 2013. Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacement. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolt, Maxim. 2015. Zimbabwe’s Migrants and South Africa’s Border Farms: The Roots of Impermanence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulpin, Thomas V. 1954. The Ivory Trail. Howard Timmins: Cape Town.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1995. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Gaidzanwa, Rudo. 1999. Voting with Their Feet: Migrant Zimbabwean Nurses and Doctors in the Era of Structural Adjustment. Uppsala: Nordiska Institute.Google Scholar
Griffiths, Ieuan. 1996. “Permeable Boundaries in Africa.” In African Boundaries: Barriers, Conduits and Opportunities, edited by Nugent, Paul, and Asiwaju, Anthony. New York: Pinter.Google Scholar
Guerette, Rob T., and Clarke, Ronald V.. 2005. “Border Enforcement, Organized Crime, and Deaths of Smuggled Migrants on the United States–Mexico Border.” European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 11 (2): 159–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harries, Patrick. 1994. Work, Culture and Identity: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c.1860–1910. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Lavenex, Sandra. 2001. “Migration and the EU’s New Eastern Border: Between Realism and Liberalism.” Journal of European Public Policy 8 (1): 24–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klotz, Audie. 2013. Migration and National Identity in South Africa, 1860–2010. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mavhunga, Clapperton C. 2007. “Navigating Boundaries of Urban/Rural Migration in Southern Zimbabwe, 1890s to 1920s.” In An African Agency and European Colonialism: Latitudes of Negotiation and Containment: Essays in Honor of A.S. Kanya-Forstner, edited by Kolapo, Femi J. and Akurang-Parr, Kwabena O.. Lanham: University of America Press.Google Scholar
McDonald David, A., and Crush, Jonathan, eds. 2002. Destinations Unknown: Perspectives on the Brain Drain. Pretoria: Africa Institute and SAMP.Google Scholar
Mechlinski, Timothy. 2010. “Towards an Approach to Borders and Mobility in Africa.” Journal of Borderlands Studies 25 (2): 94–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, J. F. 1963. “History of the South African Institute of Medical Research.” South African Medical Journal (April): 389–95.Google Scholar
Murray, Martin J. 1995. “‘Blackbirding’ at ‘Crooks’ Corner’: Illicit Labour Recruiting in Northeastern Transvaal, 1910–1940.” Journal of Southern African Studies 21 (3): 373–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oucho, John O. 2006. “Cross-border Migration and Regional Initiatives in Managing Migration in Southern Africa.” In Migration in South and Southern Africa: Dynamics and Determinants, edited by Kok, Pieter, et al. Pretoria: Human Science Research Council.Google Scholar
Packard, Randall M. 1993. “The Invention of the ‘Tropical Worker’: Medical Research and the Quest for Central African Labor on the South African Gold Mines, 1903-36.” Journal of African History 34: 271–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paton, Bill. 1995. Labour Export Policy in the Development of Southern Africa. London: Macmillan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peberdy, Sally A. 2009. Selecting Immigrants: National Identity and South Africa’s Immigration Policies, 1910-2008. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.Google Scholar
Solomon, Hussein. 2003. Of Myths and Migration: Illegal Immigration into South Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa.Google Scholar
Toktas, Sule, and Selimoglu, Hande. 2012. “Smuggling and Trafficking in Turkey: An Analysis of EU–Turkey Cooperation in Combating Transnational Organized Crime.” Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 14 (1): 135–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tshabalala, Xolani. 2017. Hyenas of the Limpopo: The Social Politics of Undocumented Movement Across South Africa’s Border with Zimbabwe. Ph.D. diss., Linköping University.Google Scholar