Home History 322 lecture list Wallace G. Mills Hist. 322 1 Peoples of S. Africa

Peoples of South Africa

San (Bushmen)
 - the San were hunters and food-gatherers. In this economy, exploitation (in the economic sense) consists in harvesting and using animals and plants produced by the environment (hunting animals and collecting fruits, berries, roots etc.). Humans do not manipulate, control or enhance what is produced.

- this approach produces a living which is meagre and precarious; in this economy there are few means to build up reserves of food, and the people are vulnerable to natural phenomena (droughts, fire, disappearance of game, etc.). Life is often characterised by sharp fluctuations— scarcity and windfalls. If a large animal is killed, then people gorge themselves until it is gone as they can’t keep meat.

- because the land is not exploited intensively, people need relatively large areas of land and population densities are low. Groups tend to be small (often just families); this was exaggerated by the fact that in recent times the San were pushed into inhospitable areas and were even more spread out.

- political systems are simple, more or less a real or analogous family groups. The groups do have relations with other similar groups (there is a need to arrange marriages), but these relations are not too extensive or continuous.

- while the technology they employ is very limited (stone age—i.e., non-metallic), the San have very extensive and sophisticated botanical and zoological knowledge of everything in their environment. This knowledge is not categorised according to ‘scientific’ norms, but more according to use and value in survival. While they did not have metal weapons, their knowledge of poisons and use of bows and arrows meant that the San could provide significant resistance.

- the San were the cave painters in South Africa; they used similar themes and materials as were used by cave painters in the Sahara dating back about 30,000 years.
Khoikhoi (Hottentots)
 - the Khoikhoi were pastoralists (cattle-keepers); they had some metals (copper and alloys). While they may have acquired these in trade (there is evidence of dispersion of metals from central Africa), there are also evidences of smelting in a number of areas of the northwestern Cape and Namibia.

- pastoralism, with its use of domesticated animals, gave more control over food supply and the more intensive exploitation allowed denser population and larger political/judicial systems; e.g., such people may have some sort of chief to settle disputes etc. Pastoralists need to move periodically to change pasture although they usually do so in particular areas and in defined patterns (i.e., back and forth between summer and winter pastures). As a result, the political and judicial systems often did not function continuously throughout the year because all the people may not move together and there may be different arrangements for each area. The annual migrations would bring people together for part of the year; then they would disperse to other grazing grounds for the remainder of the year. Thus, the degree of control and the level of cohesion were limited; ‘chiefs’ may be more arbitrators and mediators rather than rulers.

- the Khoikhoi were vulnerable to loss of cattle because their way of life and livelihood depended on this; yet cattle were practically the only commodity which they could trade for European goods. As dependencies on these foreign goods grew, loss of cattle left few economic choices except to become labourers for the white settlers.

- the Khoikhoi were even more vulnerable to diseases (especially smallpox) introduced by whites and they were shattered socially and politically by a series of epidemics which often spread far inland beyond actual penetration by whites.
Khoisan—there is some controversy over the use of this term to encompass both groups
 (1) Some (an example) argue that what differentiates the groups is culture and economy; that both came from the same basic origins (i.e., all had once been hunter/gatherers but at some point in the past, some had acquired cattle and evolved distinct culture and economy). There was some drifting back and forth between the 2 groups—Khoikhoi who lost cattle might have to revert to hunting/gathering. On the other hand, San might become herders for Khoikhoi and merge with them.

(2) Others (an example) see the two groups as being more distinct from each other; they point to big linguistic (although some linguists feel that the ‘clicks’ had their origins in San languages) and religious differences to argue that there could not have been too much passing back and forth. We know that the process of absorption of the Khoikhoi by the Xhosa gives lots of linguistic and religious clues as evidence. It is not so easy for people to go back to hunting/gathering and survive, especially in harsh conditions. Moreover, there is economic conflict—cattle displace game upon which hunters depend. We know that this conflict was intense after the coming of the whites (ongoing attempts at extermination of the San), but it almost certainly existed earlier too (although Khoikhoi lacked the means—guns and horses—to attempt extermination).
Africans (Bantu-speaking peoples)
 - Africans (this site wants to use the term "Ntu speaking"; this is because the root word is Ntu with the 'Ba' prefix signifying a plural--umNtu means 'a person' while baNtu means 'people' or 'the people'; this root word is found in a very large number of Bantu languages and that is why the name originated) practiced both agriculture and cattle-keeping. Agriculture involves more intensive exploitation of land; now people control the plants that grow and choose those which produce the largest amount of food; also, because some of this (grain) can be stored, agriculturalists can build up reserves to tide themselves over the lean times. Women do most of the agricultural work while men look after the cattle.

- the much more intensive exploitation and control of the food supply enabled much denser populations, more settled societies, and much more tightly organised social and political systems. However, there was a tendency to subdivide as the size of societies grew larger. Chiefs were regarded as ‘fathers of the people’ and as scale got too big and chiefs got more remote, a relative of the chief might be in a position to attract followers and a division would occur. The organisation of chiefly households (with polygyny) tended to facilitate this process.

- Africans possessed iron-age technology—not only iron tools, but also pottery making. Iron was not very plentiful and was used only for spear points, axes, some utensils, etc.

- there were several distinct linguistic/cultural groupings in South Africa:
Are Bantu-speaking Africans relative newcomers to S. A.?
 - it was asserted by the National Party Government (and eagerly accepted by many whites) that Africans were migrating southward and were first crossing the Limpopo River at almost the same time as whites were landing at the Cape in 1652. This, of course, was very political, as it further argued that Africans were as much newcomers as whites and had no greater claim to the country than whites. This claim was not true.

- the claim was based upon some oral traditions of southward migrations among the Nguni peoples (especially among the Zulu) that were collected in the 19th C. These oral traditions were based on fact, but were incorrectly interpreted as the migrations had taken place earlier—at least a couple of centuries earlier.

- however, other Africans had been in South Africa much earlier. Iron-age archeological sites have been found in the Orange Free State and transvaal which date as early as the 6th-8th C in the Christian era. Although identification as Bantu-speaking people cannot be positively certain, neither of the other peoples have ever been shown to have any connection with iron. Possession of iron tools is usually given as a major explanation for the very rapid spread of the Bantu-speaking peoples over such vast areas of Africa.

- moreover, Nguni people were well established along the coast of present day Natal and much, perhaps all, of the Transkei during the 16th C. We know this because several parties of shipwrecked Europeans made the journey northward along the coast to Lourenco Marques where the Portuguese had established a fort and settlement. Also, given the relative slowness of their migration southwestwards during the 17th-19th C, they must have been there quite some time. [Here is one account of how and when the indigenous groups arrived in South Africa.]
What about relations between these indigenous peoples?
 - this too has been the subject of a good deal of misrepresentation. It has been asserted that before the coming of the whites, continuous war and bloodshed was the endemic condition. This too was political because it not only asserted that white intrusion and conquest was beneficial to the indigenous people, but their stay and white minority rule were necessary to prevent a reversion to the violent, chaotic condition again.

- the picture of constant turmoil and bloodshed before the whites came is contradicted by the reports of Europeans who were shipwrecked; they were often amazed at the peaceful nature of life in the areas through which they traversed. travelers were usually treated hospitably, even if watched closely. A couple of cases where violence broke out happened because whites objected to Africans taking metals. Africans tended to expect ‘presents’ from those to whom they were extending hospitality and metals were especially prized. But many other survivors were provided with food and shelter with no return when they had little.

- the types of economic activity practiced by the different groups did conflict. Cattle-keeping of both Khoikhoi and Africans tended to drive away the game upon which the San depended.

- the fact that by the time of the arrival of whites, the San and Khoikhoi remained only in the southwestern tip of the continent supports the conclusion that they had been displaced and/or absorbed by the Bantu-speaking Africans. The latter seems the more likely process as it was definitely happening in the eastern Cape area in the early 19th C. Whole Khoikhoi clans were taken over by Xhosa chiefly leaders and incorporated. The Ngqunekwebe clan, which was made up mostly of Khoikhoi with a Xhosa chief and a few aristocrats, had been formed in the late 18th C. The cultural process was not simply a one-way street as the Xhosa borrowed the ‘clicks’ and incorporated them into the Xhosa language.

- also, Africans had considerable respect for the rights of others, especially because of the supernatural forces, ‘spirits,’ concerned. Thus, they almost always made payments, exchanged wives, and made sacrifices to the ancestors who were buried there in order to appease local spirits and supernatural forces.

- among Africans themselves, there was almost always a certain amount of jostling especially when a chieftaincy was in the process of subdividing. Then the weaker section had to move away; if there was a question of which side was weaker, then fighting would ensue to determine this.

- but war was traditionally a rather tame process—mostly, cattle-raiding; however, as cattle were the major form of wealth, loss of cattle weakened a group. Thus, a group that was losing more cattle than they were getting would move away. Until the end of the 18th C, there seems to have been some room to move away.

- even fighting itself did not usually involve substantial loss of life. Traditional fighting, involving throwing spears back and forth between 2 rows of warriors, usually was not prolonged. The outcome was believed to depend on supernatural forces. Once a few people on one side or the other were hit, the side taking the casualties would decide that it was not a good day for them and would leave the field to the enemy with the intention to resume on another, more auspicious day.

- however, the situation changed very dramatically late in the 18th C. Methods of warfare were revolutionized and became much more bloody. There was a series of wide-ranging wars with fierce fighting and enormous losses of life. It has been compared to the French and Napoleonic wars in Europe about the same time.

- thus the claim that whites brought peace to a continent in a condition of constant bloodshed and turmoil is overblown and much of it rubbish.
Non-indigenous Peoples in South Africa
 White Europeans—ancestors of the Afrikaners
 - although passing ships had sometimes stopped to leave messages on table Mountain, to take on water and to trade for fresh meat, no settlement had been established during the first 150 years of circumnavigation of southern Africa; the goal had been to the east Indies.

- in 1652, the VOC (Dutch East India Co.) established a small revitaling station for its ships at a midpoint between Europe and its extensive holdings in the east. This would allow ships to carry more of profitable cargoes. The scope of the settlement was intended to remain small—simply to provide fresh food and water; they also intended to trade with local Khoikhoi for meat (this had been done occasionally in the past). [Cape Town Heritage has a great many pages on History; here is the index to the VOC period. However, you might want to bookmark it because it covers many eras up to the present.]

- the full name was Vereenigde Nederlandsche Ge-Octroyyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or United Netherlands Chartered East India Company; it had been created in 1602 by amalgamating several competing companies. However, the company made liberal use of the acronym, VOC, in referring to itself. Please note that European chartered companies in the 17th C (including the English East India Company and the Hudson's Bay Company) were much more than commercial companies. They were given all the powers of government in their spheres overseas. They could make laws, set up courts to enforce them, raise taxes, build and maintain armies and navies, declare and prosecute wars, etc. often with little or no control by the government back home. This was the favourite way to build empires. This means that the VOC was the government.

- van Riebeck arrived with VOC employees (called servants) and some slaves (will return to the slaves shortly).

- VOC servants (they signed on for long terms, often 20 years) were recruited from various parts of Europe, especially Germany; they were very rough (often described as ‘scum’), often criminals needing to make a getaway. Others were seeking adventure. Except for officers, servants did not have families as most servants were single males; a consequence was that the VOC found it impossible to keep the servants out of the female slave quarters and from the beginning began to get a mixed population as a result of sexual liaisons of whites with slave women.

- within a couple of decades of the founding Cape town, it was decided to ‘privatize’ the production of food in order to reduce the costs of the station to the VOC (it was always a financial drain on the VOC). Thus, many of the servants were released from their contracts to join the ‘free burghers’ (a few had already been created by those who decided to stay after the expiration of their contracts). The Company began to emphasise families; a number of the early wives came from freed slave women or the mixed daughters of the slave women.

- also, the Company encouraged immigrant families from the Netherlands, but only a few came. These sources did establish a white settler population within 30 years; in fact by the 1680s, settlement had begun to spread across the Cape Flats to Stellenbosch and Paarl in the Hottentots Holland Mountains—40-80 miles east of Cape town.

- as a result of slaughter and persecution in France (in 1685 the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed toleration of Protestantism, was revoked), a number of Huguenot refugees (French Protestants) who had made their way to the Netherlands migrated to the Cape 1688-90—about 200 families in all. They were deliberately settled intermixed with the other Dutch-speaking white settlers with the intention of assimilating them. This policy was very successful within a generation or two, but it does explain why there are a number of obviously French surnames among their Afrikaner descendants. The fact that they were Calvinist presbyterians like the Dutch greatly assisted the process.

- during the next century, white immigration was very limited, mostly white males who left VOC employment or were on ships that called and who decided to stay. Thus, the growth in the population during the 18th C was mostly the result of natural growth (they married young—men 18-20 and women 15-18—and had large families).
British immigrants
 - the British invaded in 1795 (to deny the Cape to the French), left briefly 1803-06 as part of the brief peace with Napoleon, reoccupied in 1806 with the intention to stay and purchased the colony from the Netherlands in 1815.

- initially, immigration was limited—some missionary families and some shipping and trading interests; others arrived with the military and decided to stay in South Africa.

- in the wake of the depression following the French wars and high levels of unemployment in Britain, many people were putting forward emigration schemes to relieve the pressure. The British Government was persuaded to provide financial assistance and land for settlers going to S. Africa.

- as a result, in 1820, approximately 4,000 people (another 1,000 or so arrived in the next couple of years to bring the total to about 5,000) were settled; they became known as the 1820 Settlers (they also became in S. Africa venerated the way United Empire Loyalists were in Canada).

- during the next several decades, small numbers of settlers seeking health or better opportunities made their way to South Africa. In the 1850s, a group of German legionnaires in the British Army were given land and settled in the eastern part of the Cape as part of their retirement package. Altogether, there was no large influx of white immigrants until the discovery of diamonds; thus most population growth was by natural increase.

- the discovery of diamonds in 1868 and then the opening of the gold fields in the 1890s brought a flood of white immigrants from all over the world. In the first half of the 20th C, S. Africa continued to get immigrants from Britain and Europe as it was especially attractive to working class immigrants; they got higher wages and almost aristocratic lifestyles (e.g., servants) compared to what they could expect in Europe.

- since the 1950s, some S. African whites have been emigrating from S. Africa so emigration has tended to counterbalance immigration and the net effect has been small.
Slaves
 - initially, most slaves were Asians from the far east (Ceylon and Indonesia); some were literate and/or skilled tradesmen. About 1/3 were women.

- within a short time as agriculture began to expand, more labour was needed (and whites quickly began to shun manual labour). This ‘labour’ problem became more severe after the ‘privatization’ and the free burghers began complaining about inadequate labour. Thus, the VOC began to import African slaves from farther north where the slave trades were already established—Angola, Mozambique (only a small amount), Madagascar and East Africa. This continued throughout the late 17th and 18th Cs.

- slaves did not reproduce themselves (always more men than women among other reasons) and disease kept taking them off; while all segments of the population suffered from epidemics, slave mortality was always considerably higher than among whites. Khoikhoi may have suffered even worse mortality than the slaves, from small pox especially.

- in 1807, the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire so no additional slaves were brought in after the British return in 1806. Slavery itself was slated for gradual abolition as a result of an abolition act in 1833 (originally over 10 years, but completely by new legislation in 1838).


- some of the slaves from the east in the early days were Islamic; also, because it was a question whether Christians could be held in slavery, slaves were increasingly not encouraged to convert to Christianity. In any case, a small Islamic community (called Cape Malays) has maintained itself since the 17th C and are included as part of the Coloured community in and around Cape Town.
Coloured People
 - these are the descendants and the products of a long process of intermixing of different ethnic and racial groups over almost 350 years. Although increasingly in the 20th C they have been referred to collectively with this designation, they have never been a homogeneous group. [See Wikipedia]

- the core group were the Khoikhoi. We shall examine the processes more closely, but they began to lose cattle and land to whites and were forced to work for whites. In fact, except for some groups in Namibia, no Khoikhoi remain separate from the Coloured community. However, with the coming of the missionaries, beginning in the late 18th C but especially in the early 19th C, many Khoikhoi found refuge on mission stations and these communities have had a good deal of stability in terms of population.

- among slaves, women tended to be monopolised by whites and later slave owners frequently had relations and fathered children with them. A few whites married these women in the early days and their children merged into the white population; later, as colour distinctions became more rigid, the results of these liaisons too tended to become part of the forebears of the Coloured people.

- some slave men cohabited with Khoikoi women, especially when the latter were servants on the same farm. The results of these liaisons became part of the gene pool.

- as white cattle farmers began to go farther into the interior, they did not have slaves (these whites tended to be less well off), but they not infrequently had sexual relations with Khoikhoi and mixed servant women (occasionally they married the women but this became rarer in the 18th C). Some of these people of mixed white-Khoikhoi background came to be known as Bastards and there are some in southern Namibia who still use that name. Others, who had horses and guns, moved northward across the Orange River in the late 18th and early 19th C, partly to escape the intensifying discrimination. They became known as Griqua and other names.

- additionally, as a port city, Cape Town always had a significant prostitution trade, mostly women excluded from the ‘white’ community. As a result of relations with them, sailors and other whites have continued to make contributions to the gene pool.

- thus, the Coloured people have long filled the pigmentation spectrum from people who are very light and virtually indistinguishable from whites to those on the opposite end who are virtually indistinguishable from Africans.

- there has long been a tradition of ‘passing for white’ and there has thus been an ongoing infiltration into the ‘white’ population; however, the majority of people of mixed genetic background have been incorporated into this group known as the Coloured people. Most were Afrikaans-speaking, but more recently, growing numbers have English as their first language (sometimes a reaction to being declared part of the “Non-White” categorisation of apartheid policies) and a high percentage are bilingual.

- quite a few belong to a Dutch Reformed church (a separate ‘daughter’ church of the NGK—Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk; the NGK is the oldest and largest of the 3 white Dutch Reformed churches in S. Africa)—Allen Boesak was a minister of this daughter church.

- culturally, Coloured people are part of the Afrikaans group—in fact, they probably had a major hand in the creation of the Afrikaans language.
Asian Indians
 - in the 1850s and 60s, white settlers (mostly British) were trying to develop the economy in Natal, especially growing sugar cane. They needed labour, but most Africans were not suitable or were not interested (at least at the low wages whites wanted to pay).

- as a result, the Natal government arranged to bring indentured (contract) labourers from British India— often called ‘coolies’. See History of Indians in South Africa website especially the pages under the 'The arrival of Indians in South Africa' link.

- after the expiration of their contracts, many decided to stay and to bring their families although most did not want to continue as labourers in the sugar industry. Many went into small business as traders or later into occupations like market gardening. A few Indian immigrants from commercial families even came on their own.

- white farmers wanted labour but didn’t want non-indentured Indians; other retailers and traders did not like the competition as Indians could usually undersell white traders. As a result, there was always a good deal of resentment against the Indians. Although some discriminatory measures were put in place, many others were disallowed as a result of British government intervention under pressure from the Indian government.

- most Indians were Hindu but a small minority were Moslem communities; over time, some Indians, mostly Hindus, have converted to Christianity also.
Chinese
 - shortly after 1652, a few made their way to the new VOC settlement. Their numbers were minuscule; a few more made their way to South Africa among the influx to the diamond fields and later the gold fields. They ended up, as elsewhere, mostly doing work such as laundry.

- in the wake of the S. African War, there was great anxiety among British administrators and mine managers to get a resumption of gold mining as quickly as possible in order to pay for the administration and government of the newly conquered Boer republics. The African labour used before the war had been dispersed and was slow to return. Thus, the new, colonial government in the Transvaal responded to the clamours of the mining companies and arranged to bring in Chinese contract labourers.

- this provoked outrage both among the white population in S. Africa but also among various groups in Britain and colonies such as Canada and Australia. As a result, the Transvaal Government had to keep them in compounds (virtually prisons) for the duration of their contracts, refrain from bringing any more and repatriate all of them at the end of their contracts. This was mostly done although a few escaped to join the small Chinese population.

- the Chinese population is small (approximately one hundred thousand) as there has always been opposition to their being there and vigorous steps taken to restrict their immigration. Because of their small numbers, they have not been subject to as much attention or as much discrimination as Indians. Although classified as ‘Coloured’ under apartheid’s race classification, the Chinese were allowed to live in white areas and go to white schools. However, any white person who wanted to marry a Chinese had first to be reclassified as ‘Coloured’ in order to avoid violating the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act.

- during the apartheid era, the National Party government maintained diplomatic relations and trade with Taiwan. The small number of Taiwanese who went to South Africa were, like the Japanese, considered to be 'honorary Whites' in status.

Geographical Background

- you must learn some geographical background, not only for the exams (there will be a map portion on each exam) but also because geography has many important influences and effects on historical events and trends.
Contour and topography
- this diagram gives an indication of what most of Africa (from South Africa through central Africa to north Africa—west Africa is a bit of an exception) might look like in a cross-section. There are relatively narrow coastal plains, often only 100-300 miles wide; then there are steep escarpments leading to a rather high central plateau. However, from the southern coast of what was the Cape Colony (later, the Cape Province) the ascent to the low veld and onto the high veld was more gradual. Below is a map showing elevations in Africa.

- this topography has had a number of very important historical ramifications; it sharply inhibited penetration of much of Africa by outsiders. It prevented navigation very far inland because large rivers were disrupted by large, sometimes spectacular falls and rapids (such as, Stanley Falls on the Congo River and Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River).

- the coastal plains have been rife with diseases harmful to people (especially those who have not built up immunity during childhood) and draft animals (malaria and sleeping sickness especially carried by the mosquito and tsetse fly respectively). The result is that people in the interior of Africa were not subjected to invasion by whites for a long time after Africa began to be circumnavigated by the Portuguese late in the 15th C.

- as a result, it was not until late in the 19th C that technological and medical advances made it possible for Europeans to penetrate into the interior of Africa and to carry out conquest.
- however, South Africa is farther south and is different. The climate is temperate. Malaria extends into South Africa only in the northeastern areas close to Mozambique and extending down into parts of Natal and Zululand; South Africa is too far south for the tsetse fly. Thus, neither disease nor topography provided the barrier to penetration of Europeans as occurred in the rest of Africa. As a result, Europeans settled early at the southern tip of Africa at Cape Town in 1652 and gradually began to expand eastwards and later northwards into the interior.

- the plateau, which reaches a great height in areas such as Uganda and the highlands area of Kenya, is not as elevated, but still exceeds most of North America. Here are some comparisons with North America, including the Canadian prairies:
Height above Sea Level in metres

Lake Ontario

75

South Africa—low veld

1000-2000

Lake Superior

183

South Africa—high veld

1500-2000

high point in Algonquin Park, Ont.

556

Windhoek, Namibia

2000

Lake Winnipeg

216

Pretoria & Johannesburg

1500-2000

most of Manitoba

<400

Lesotho—low point

1400

southern Saskatchewan

876

Lesotho—high point

3482

Edmonton

<1000

    

Calgary

>1000

    

- Lesotho is mostly in the Drakensberg mountains and is the highest area in southern Africa.

- the veld (pronounced “felt”) refers to grassland, but much of the area east of the Kalahari Desert and south of the Orange River in the northern Cape is desert or semi-desert. Except for a few areas along the Indian Ocean coast in the Cape and in Natal, rainfall is limited and droughts a recurring occurrence. The rainfall season is winter in Cape town and the western Cape, but summer in most other areas of South Africa.

- temperatures are moderate. Only high areas occasionally get snow and temperatures below 0. However, cool temperatures in the winter frequently go down to about 5C, even though daytime temperatures may frequently get into the low 20s. Although summer temperatures are much higher, the low humidity means that it is not too uncomfortable and cools off in the evening.
Crops
- in earlier times, the main cereal was millet; however, in the 15th and 16th Cs the Portuguese introduced maize (corn as we call it or mealies as it is known in South Africa) from the western hemisphere. It quickly became a staple in many areas of southern and central Africa among those peoples practicing agriculture. Maize produces more (although it depletes the soil more quickly also) and is less vulnerable to birds. Its introduction and spread may be a major explanation for the population explosion in Natal during the late 18th and early 19th Cs which led to the creation of warring kingdoms out of which the Zulu Kingdom emerged with incredible consequences; millions of people died or had their lives disrupted seriously not only in southern Africa but also up through central Africa all the way to southern Tanzania.
Mineralisation
- South Africa is certainly the most richly endowed area in Africa in this regard—gold, coal, uranium, diamonds, platinum, manganese, iron, etc. etc. The discovery of diamonds in 1868 brought a surge of immigrants (mostly whites) from all over the world, attracted by the possibility of great wealth. Although initially open to individual diggers with only shovels and modest gear, operations gradually required much more capitalization and evolved into large companies. Eventually, a single, monopoly company, De Beers Consolidated Diamond Mining Company, was created under the leadership of Cecil Rhodes. In effect, this started the industrialization of South Africa by the 1880s.

- although some small alluvial gold was discovered in the 1870s, the gold bearing reefs (quartz rock layers) were not discovered until the second half of the 1880s in the area of Johannesburg. However, it was not until the beginning of the 1890s that the real gold rush began. It was only then that the very extensive scale of the reefs was proved and the cyanide process was perfected to enable the gold, which is in low concentration but very uniform, to be extracted economically from the silicate ores. This gold mining required heavy crushing machinery and quickly the building of ever deeper mining shafts (the reefs slanted sharply downwards). As a result, from the very beginning, gold mining was capital intensive and the domain of large companies, almost all based in Europe. Thus, gold mining reenforced and intensified the trends to industrialization and urbanization that had begun with diamond mining.
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