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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Tribal Recreation and Recreating Tribalism: Culture, Leisure and Social Control on South Africa's Gold Mines, 1940-1950
Authors:Badenhorst, CecileISNI
Mather, CharlesISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:23
Issue:3
Period:September
Pages:473-489
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:ethnicity
labour migration
gold mining
leisure
Labor and Employment
History and Exploration
Ethnic and Race Relations
Urbanization and Migration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637512
Abstract:This paper explores attempts by South Africa's Chamber of Mines in the 1940s to retribalize migrant workers using sport and leisure. The first section of the paper sets the scene of recreation on the minefields by examining the early efforts of the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA) and a few mines in recreation. The second section explores the emergence of a new phase in the Chamber of Mines' policy on sport and leisure following the recommendations of the Lansdown Commission in 1943 that, wherever possible, recreation be provided on the mines, as part of an overall strategy of stabilization. Recreation as a means of consolidating 'tribal' culture emerged after the 1946 strike. While the ideology of the 'tribal' migrant had been shattered by the widespread support for the strike, it did not stop the gold mining industry from trying to push back the 'tribal' clock through organized recreation. In the final section the authors focus on the way in which a series of reports which were produced in the aftermath of the 1946 strike reflected the links between culture and social control, for example through the promotion of traditional mine dancing and stick fighting. After 1949, more and more individual mines began to pursue recreational programmes that included detribalized/urban sports like soccer and rugby. Notes, ref., sum.
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