Independent Migration

INDEPENDENT MIGRATION

Alongside and beyond the European economy, extensive African networks, routes, services, relationships, hardships and ambitions existed..From the start of emigratory flows in the 1890s, considerable numbers of Malawians made their way south independently. Travelling abroad outside the frameworks established by colonial states, these migrants were a central element to the informalised elements of the Southern African economy. With the banning of Malawian labour on the Rand gold mines from 1913 to 1936 (due to the high death rate of 'tropical' miners) a tradition of walking to South Africa was established, such that in 1935 90% of Malawians migrating to South Africa arrived on foot. By the 1950s increasing numbers travelled by bakkie, bus or train, but walking remained an important element for some if not all of many migrants' journeys.

Those walking typically left Malawi after the planting season in April or May. Migrant groups defined by ‘traditional institutions’ – clans, joking relationships, clientage and youth associations migrants - would travel in ‘brotherhoods’ of 15 to 30 men, often formed around masculine identity and the provision of entrepreneurial services such as hair cutting, bike repair, tailoring, herbal medicine and religious practices. In 2012, Jimmy Banda recounted that pioneer groups were composed of "like-minded men – and by men it means physically fit men, no women." Due to migrant culture and the arduous nature of walking, migration on foot to South Africa was almost exclusively limited to men.

Migrants on the road in Zimbabwe, from Scott, ‘Migrant Labour in Southern Rhodesia’, Geographical Review, Vol. 44, No. 1, (January 1954).

A wealth of knowledge and expertise supported migrants en route. Many older migrants were hired by younger men looking to head south, and the experiences of seasoned migrants were complemented by considerable knowledge networks. Malawians already abroad would often inform others of good employers by letter or when they returned home. When travelling, most migrants therefore knew where they were going and what they wanted to do. Along popular routes, there were numerous notices pinned to trees, warning migrants of bad employers or sending messages back to Malawi. Nyasaland officials commented in 1937 that "the native usually returns home for a time and then comes back again...Thus the returning labourer, in search of work, knows where he is going or is advised by his more experienced friends where to find the best employers. The story is told of a gang of Nyasaland natives who, when accosted on the road by an unpopular employer, consulted a list – and walked on..."

Migration by on foot was often multi-staged rather than direct with groups stopping off to work on farms, earning a few weeks' wages, before setting off again on the road south. Farmers in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe were particularly reliant on cheap temporary labour which passed through on the way to South Africa.

Clandestine migration was particularly prolific with respect to South Africa, migrants entering either via Mozambique where Malawians, on payment, could become Portuguese citizens, or through Zimbabwe often exploiting Ulere buses to travel south and then crossing the border into the Rand. There they could obtain South African papers upon payment to a chief. In 1940, the Nyasaland Government's Labour Officer in Johannesburg noted most Malawians crossed over the border at the Malala, Mairi, Rhodes, Youngustu Drifts - key points on the Limpopo River - or where the Crocodile River crossed into South Africa.

Often circumvented by migrants, lack of control however also led to exploitation. Thieves, labour touts and ‘black birding’ South African employers were prolific along borderland southern migration routes, recruiting or capturing migrants who were much sought after on the Western Transvaal farms and un-federated mines. Lawlessness characterised these regions for decades; illegal recruiting was described in 1947 by the South African Director of Native Labour as “a selling and buying of human bodies.” In 1940, against 18,771 who were registered as entering Zimbabwe, an estimated 14,000 clandestinely left the Colony and entered South Africa.

The value of the labourers heading abroad meant that the Nyasaland colonial state looked to exert control over there considerable flows. They at best monitored rather controlled migrants, but in reality had little competence even in the former. Recruiting quotas, the numbers of identification certificates being issued and even idea of a South African labour empire, create a veneer of control which fails to capture how migration from Malawi played out on the ground - all population figures up to 1966 were based on estimates, and official statistics of the number of identification certificates issued fail to capture the considerable number of emigrants that left the Protectorate illegally.

Whilst migration to South Africa without identification certificates was seen as illegal by the Nyasaland and Rhodesian Governments, migrants were issued temporary permits by South African officials if they registered with them - acting on the interests of South African farmers who were reliant upon cheaper labour crossing over the border.

By the 1950s migration patterns had begun to change. Rather than walk, many men and increasing numbers of women, such as Melrin Mtegha, used the train to travel directly to South Africa. Many were also driven down south - either on specially orgnised bakkies owned by Malawians themselves, or on the back of goods lorries. Increasing numbers of migrants travelling to South Africa with official documents perhaps reflects the increasing attractiveness of using government approved means of migrating. With both Wenela and Mthandizi offering free, quick long-distance mass-transportation by the 1950s this offered an increasingly viable means of migration. These new systems themselves however did not go unexpolited. Numerous migrants used the Rhodeisan Ulere services as a menas of reaching southern Zimbabwe, before crossing over the border to South Africa. Soloman Mwale's brother used the Wenela services to reach Johannesburg station, before deserting to work independently.

The relative lack of documentary evidence about independent migration means the life histories of migrants themselves offer a unique insight - hopefully something this project can address.

Interview wtith Jimmy Banda Blantyre, 16/08/12.

Annual Report of the Labour Department, for the Year ending 31st December 1940, The Government Printer, Zomba, Nyasaland, (1941).

Boeder, Malawians Abroad, The History of Emigration from Malawi to its Neighbours, 1890 to the Present, PhD Thesis, (Michigan, 1974).

Crush & Jeeves (eds.), White Farms, Black Labour: The State and Agrarian Change in South Africa, 1910-1950, (Oxford, 1997).

Pirie, ‘Railways and Labour Migration to the Rand Mines: Constraints and Significance’, Journal of Southern African Studies, (1993).

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