Miners Big Hole

1 miners

1.1 housing
1.2 koata strategy
1.3 health
1.4 mine accidents
1.5 death

miners

the discovery of diamonds led high demand black labour . self-sufficiency , independence of african rural homestead questioned british government contributed acceleration of land dispossession, in 1870 s.this created large black migrant population in kimberley.

housing

the kimberley mines: miners

native locations created miners mining managers. these locations improved security , limited theft of diamonds.they had no natural water sources or proper waste disposal. origins , features of apartheid city structure can traced particular class, social , economic circumstances of rapid industrialisation in kimberley.

the koata strategy

the koata strategy coping strategy basotho miners used in order commence work despite fear , anxiety experienced. characterised abusiveness , unruliness. behavioural patterns included singing, whistling, shouting , insulting people, including women , train officials. form of behaviour reinforced pre-existing stereotypes , passed down generation generation. koata behaviour linked violence, oppression, hatred, exploitation , suffering. basotho working in mines compared rats while not miners seen jovial monkeys in control of destiny.

health

between 1897 , 1899, total of 7,853 patients admitted kimberley hospital. 5,368 of these patients black , admitted special designated wards, ie native surgical ward black miners , special ward black women , children. of these black patients, 1,144 died. mortality , morbidity of these miners caused tuberculosis, pneumonia, scurvy, diarrhoea, syphilis , mining accidents. these causes suggestive of poor socio-economic status, poor/crowded housing, high injury , violence rates in lives of miners.

mine accidents

the majority of mine accidents caused rockfalls , rockbursts, trucks , tramways, explosives, cages , ships transported workers, , ore between underground , surface. these conditions further exacerbated miner s lack of experience, fatigue , high speed in had carry out work in order increase profits. sosotho newspapers published letters miners describing accidents, names of deceased sotho miners, villages , chiefs of deceased miner, expressing condolences. miners responded mine accidents strike action, in refused work until cause of accident rectified or, more commonly, through koata strategy.

death

basotho men associated mining in big hole death , danger. here poem describes experience of miner:

death not choose; famine chooses.
i going mother quietly:
mother, take letter me,
i going debeers (mines).
scarify me qetella pele
[ finish first medicine],
so these multitudes should follow lead.
other men s villages not entered freely,
lad, day m going, mount ride away,
a woman of witchcraft hard @ work;
i saw going graveyard,
she puts on string skirt fastened knots,
she takes arm of corpse , waves it,
a mouthful of blood, spits air,
she says, men gone debeers.
they can come home dead mines.
to me, child of rakhali
i not dead; still live,
i wanderer of mines; sootho (coplan 1995: 33).

burials paupers occurred in glastone cemetery 1st of march 1883. many records burned in fires, however, surviving reports state between 24 june 1887 , 28 november 1892, 5000 black burials happened @ glastone cemetery. approximately 611 black burials occurred between february , june 1900, of these burials occurred without coffins, bodies merely wrapped in blankets. personal ornaments, including buttons, leather shoes, beads , bangles found in graves of unmarked graves. in 1897 cemetery closed , enlarged open non-blacks again in april 1902. bodies of miners viewed issue of waste disposal mines/city council , african rituals , mourning processes of no concern authorities. many basotho miners not pleased @ manner in dead treated.