RECRUITING IN PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA OF NATIVES FOR THE MINES

Abstract

THE East Coast native, south of latitude 22° S. was first attracted to mining work offered on the Kimberley Diamond Fields, when many of them walked from Inhambane, Gaza, and Tongaland districts years before the Rand mines were discovered. These boys were a plucky lot, as they had to pass through countries inhabited by more or less hostile people, who often made them work for the privilege of passing through their territory. The old Boer farmers also found them quite a useful labour supply, and there was a man they all knew and sang about at their homes, whose name was Erasmus, living somewhere on the High Veld, whose bad temper and intimidation were one of the other dangers they were quite prepared to face in their usual happy-go-lucky way. These natives were not really drawn from fighting tribes, as the Zulus, Swazis and the Eastern Transvaal Basutos, as well as the Shangaans from the Limpopo River remained at their homes for military reasons, but on the death of Gungunyana, the Shangaans also started emigrating and engaged in mine work. All these tribes very soon came to be looked upon as some of the best native labour obtainable. Owing to their tribal custom of cicatrizing the body and face, and especially their noses, the M'chopis for many years were known as the nob-noses. It is interesting to note that this custom was very soon influenced by the emigration of the natives from their own country, as owing to the jeers and sarcasms that they had to put up with in the compounds, the young M'chopi refused to allow members of his family to have their faces andbodies cicatrized, so that they would be free of all the insolence their fathers had to endure when going to work.