South Africa: White, Chinese and Black workers in a South African gold mine, c. 1900

South Africa: White, Chinese and Black workers in a South African gold mine, c. 1900

Chinese people began arriving in large numbers in South Africa in the 1870s through to the early 20th century initially in hopes of making their fortune in the diamond and gold mines in Kimberley and the Witwatersrand respectively. Most were independent immigrants mostly coming from Guangdong Province then known as Canton. Due to anti-Chinese feeling and racial discrimination at the time they were prevented from obtaining mining contracts and so became entrepreneurs and small business owners instead.

. Between 1904 and 1910, over 63,000 contracted miners were brought from China in to work the mines of the Witwatersrand. Most of these contractors were recruited from the provinces of Chihli (Zhili), Shantung (Shandong) and Honan (Henan). They were repatriated after 1910 because of strong White opposition to their presence, similar to anti-Asian sentiment in the western United States, particularly California at the same time.

Album / Universal Images Group / Pictures From History

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