From Congo to Angola, the movement of indentured workers

This year marks the 165th anniversary of the first indentured workers arriving in South Africa on November 16, 1860. In a series of articles up to the day of arrival, the POST commemorates the indentured experience in South Africa

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GLOBAL migrations caused a significant shift in the distribution of the world's population. For many years, South Africa had the distinction of having the largest Indian diaspora outside of India. A large portion of this diaspora originated from the indentured labour migration system, which saw 152 184 Indian indentured workers arrive on 384 ships between 1860 and 1911.

The movement of indentured workers involved free and unfree movement of workers from their home countries, primarily from India, to colonies like South Africa, Mauritius, Reunion and the Caribbean, to work on sugar plantations and other industries. This movement was a contractual system where workers agreed to a fixed period of labour, typically five years, to pay for their passage, accommodation and food, often under exploitative and harsh conditions.

After completing their contracts, many workers chose to stay and establish new communities, which is why there are populations of South Africans of Indian origin.

Adam McKeown’s seminal paper, titled “Global Migration, 1846-1940”, highlights that there was a bigger movement of people in the 19th and 20th centuries, noting that: “Migration to Southeast Asia and lands around the Indian Ocean and South Pacific consisted of over 29 million Indians and over 19 million Chinese. Most migration from India was to colonies throughout the British Empire. Less than 10% of this migration was indentured, although much of it was undertaken with assistance from colonial authorities, or under some form of debt obligation under the kangani labour recruitment systems. Over two million Indians also migrated as merchants or other travellers, not intending to work as labourers.”

In South Africa, indentured workers whose contracts ended moved to new places, in most instances driven by necessity and generational poverty, or in search of new opportunities in foreign landscapes.