From the 1900s, Malawians were engaged throughout South Africa's labour market, and were disproportionately represented in well-paid occupations. As noted by one official in 1960, "the Nyasas work themselves into all the best jobs. I have heard this in the mines and outside of them too."[1] Though prevalent on South Africa's mines and farms, Malawians were employed in a diverse range of urban occupations - indeed there was even a cohort who worked as clerks on South Africa's stock exchange during the 1960s.[2] These occupations were some of the best paid on the continent. Perhaps less common are the life histories of Clements Kadalie, founder of the ICU, South Africa's first black trade union, who continued to be politically active in East London into the 1940s;[3] JG Phillipps, founder of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion;[4] Peter Nyambo, who founded numerous churches in Malawi, Kenya and South Africa and was president of Cape Town's ANC branch;[5] Ali Safi, who worked in the Transvaal Museum and Pretoria National Zoological Gardens preparing scientific specimens, and in 1933 took part in ornithologist Hubert Lynes' expedition to the Belgian Congo;[6] Saulos Roseberg who was a native detective for the Criminal Investigation Department;[7] Flax Musopole who wrote for New Age magazine, and Shadrack Chitembe who worked for the Central News Agency in Boksberg;[8] Andisen who worked at the French Hair-dressing Salon on President Street, Johannesburg;[9] and trade unionist James G Mandah, who was secretary of the African Liquor, Catering, Domestic Servants, Hotel and Meat Workers' Union, an organisation with over 1000 members, and president of the Nyasaland African National Congress in Johannesburg.[10]

 

Regardless, wages in South Africa far exceeded those in Malawi. As noted in 1945 whilst in "the Protectorate itself the average wage for unskilled labour is 8/- per ticket for 30 days. These rates are 'plus food and quarters in all cases'...The minimum wage on the Witwatersrand Gold Mines is...equal to 63/- per calendar month."[11] Wages in South Africa for local black miners were "almost static in real terms between 1897 and 1970."[12] But if the real value of the wages in South Africa - essentially what bundle of consumable goods that wages could buy in any given year - did not improve for locals, in real terms wages paid on the Rand were far more valuable in Malawi. WNLA meant that less wealthy Malawians could reach the heart of South Africa's industrial economy, without having to undertake stop-go migration to get there, and earn wages that exceeded those available in colonial Malawi eight-fold. Mine wages were also complemented by tailoring, hair cutting and shoe repairing; whilst on one Free State mine "there was quite a large trade in eggs which was a monopoly of the Nyasas."[13] Though far fewer Malawians were in South Africa, remittances from the Union far outstripped those from Zimbabwe - in 1952 Malawians in the Union remitted £300,504 in postal and money orders, compared to £165,111 from Southern Rhodesia.[14] This money in turn funded relatives' education in South Africa and Malawi. In the north of Malawi in particular there was a noted correlation between migration and education; causation running both ways.[15] By the 1950s, many Malawians in South Africa were second generation migrants, benefitting from a mission education and parental loans.[16]

 

The day-to-day lives of migrants involved all too typical money-problems, work and family, but also socialising; entertainment, sex and religion. Though they were noted for their lack of physical prowess in tribal dancing on the mines,[17] in the 1940s "city venues like the BMSC and Inchcape Hall in Johannesburg were well patronised by better-paid workers, and male domestic workers from the neighbouring British colonies of Rhodesia and Nyasaland gained a particular reputation for their ballroom dancing skills."[18] Stereotyped as philanderers, the unpopularity of Malawian migrants among some South African men was not just due to the threats they posed in the job market. "Since foreign Bantu, especially those from Nyasaland, come from matriarchal communities, the men cause considerable disruption on making contact with women from patriarchal communities such as Pedi and Zulu. In these two ethnic communities the Nyasalander is referred to with considerable resentment as a polecat."[19] When a Malawian stole a Zulu's wife in 1927, a gang war erupted in Johannesburg resulting in numerous Malawians being hospitalised with stabs wounds. Such wars repeated or threatened to repeat themselves throughout the 1930s and 40s.[20] Yet many Malawian men married into South African families, settling in urban areas and integrating within local communities; for example a number of Malawians played for the Rhodesian Motherwells in Johannesburg.[21] Many others settled down with Malawian wives; in Daveyton, Johannesburg, there was an established community of Malawian women from Usisya who supported each other whilst their husbands worked across South Africa.[22]

 

Social solidarity at various levels allowed Malawians to negate capitalist exploitation. As noted by Moodie, on the Rand mines, migrants talked to each other about their future prospects at home; situating their harsh employment conditions in the context of future prosperity.[23] Malawians were noted for visiting each other at weekends, even when working on different mines and were avid consumers of political news from across Southern Africa.[24] But social solidarity among Malawians was predominantly expressed through religious, rather than political, organisations.[25] Religious networks appear to have been particularly important for supporting newly-arrived Muslims and Christians.[26] Imams Abu Inad and Yusuf Saidi were heavily involved in the South African Muslim community and looked after newly arrived Malawian Muslims in their homes.[27] The largest Malawian organisation in the Union was the Nyasaland Church of South Africa, which had 335 members in 1947, and had grown to 3,071 by 1980.[28] Probably most reflective of Malawians' experiences however is the history of the smaller United Presbyterian Church in Sandton, Johannesburg.

 

 

 

[1] UJ WNLA 59L/8, 'Leisure activities of Nyasas'.

 

[2] Walter Longwe interview, Johannesburg, 08/06/2014.

 

[3] C. Kadalie, My Life and the ICU, (New York, 1970).

 

[4] Shepperson & Price, Independent African.

 

[5] M. Skota, African Yearly Register, (Johannesburg, 1932)

 

[6] NASA NTS 164/301.

 

[7] NASA KJB 408 N1/14/3 'Proper recognition of the Congress by the Union government', 27/03/1950. 

 

[8] NASA NTS 7219 95/326.

 

[9] NTS 9610 457/400.

 

[10] NASA KJB 408 N1/14/3 'Proper recognition of the Congress by the Union government', 27/03/1950. 

 

[11] UJ WNLA 59L/1 'Nyasaland Native Labour', 30/11/1945.

 

[12] Crush et al. Labour Empire, p.3.

 

[13] UJ WNLA 59L/8, 'Leisure activities of Nyasas'.

 

[14] NLS 6.1311 Annual Report of the Labour Department, 1952.

 

[15] Groves, Malawians in Colonial Salisbury.

 

[16] See life histories of Solomon Mwale, Daih Mtegha & Abu Inad, http://independentafricans.wix.com/home

 

[17] UJ WNLA 59L/8, 'Leisure activities of Nyasas'.

 

[18] G. Ansell, Soweto Blues: Jazz, Popular Music, and Politics in South Africa,(New York, 2004),  p.43.

 

[19] UW Report into Foreign Bantu, pp.15-16.

 

[20] NASA KJB 408 N1/14/3 'RE Joseph Kumalo & Thomas Kazembe'; MacDonald, Colonial Trespassers in the making of South Africa's international borders, (Cambridge Uni. PhD thesis, 2012).

 

[21] P. Alegi, 'Playing to the Gallery? Sport, Cultural Performance, and Social History in South Africa, 1920s-1945', International Journal of African Historical Studies, 35, 1, (2002).

 

[22] Gilead Mtegha interview, Pretoria, 10/06/14.

 

[23] D. Moodie & V. Ndatshe, Going for Gold, (California, 1994).

 

[24] UJ WNLA 59L/8, 'Leisure activities of Nyasas'.

 

[25] For Malawian and Central African political associations in South Africa; H. Mitchell, Independent Africans: Migration from Colonial Malawi to South Africa, c.1935-1961, (Edinburgh Uni. MA thesis, 2014).

 

[26] This mirrors the importance of religious networks for Malawians in Zimbabwe; Z. Groves , 'Urban Migrants and Religious Networks: Malawians in Colonial Salisbury, 1920 to 1970', Journal of Southern African Studies, 38, 3, (2012).

 

[27] Sakina Mohamed interview, Pretoria, 26/05/14.

 

[28] NASA DGO 196 P120/4/179.