This podcast is going to be looking at the discovery of diamonds and gold, in this case in South Africa, which is being coined as the mineral revolution. 

Welcome back to another episode of the Mineral Revolution. As always, you can find video content and digital sources relating to this week's focus on our website, YouTube channel and Facebook page.

As you can probably tell from the introductory music this week, podcast is going to be looking at the discovery of diamonds and gold, in this case in South Africa, which is being coined as the mineral revolution.

Before we start to investigate them in more revolution, we need to go over a few key definitions that will keep cropping up and help to shape the podcast as we go.

This was through the capture and selling of people.

Moving onto the term indentureship, this came after the abolition of slavery and means indentured service depended upon a contract which declared that the master proprietor rights did not appertain to the servant's person, but only to his labor and then for no more than a fraction of their servant’s life.

We are particularly interested in whether or not there was a distinct difference between the two in South Africa during the mineral revolution.

This led to Indentureship as a labor force was still needed that Europeans didn't want to film.

One of the key figures of this period was Cecil Rhodes, and therefore it is only right that we start with him.

In Diamond, he would later farm the De Beers Mining Company along with Charles Donald Rudd.

De Beers monopolized diamonds in South Africa and swallowed the smaller companies.

Rhodes was key in the development of migrant labor systems and establishment of clause compounds for black workers.

Although at the beginning it wasn't as successful as his venture into diamonds, money was still able to be made.

This was due to the fierce competition between the white settlers and the idea that they didn't want the Africans to be wealthier than them and outnumber them without hierachy.

The Africans went from being emancipated to staking their claim for diamonds, to being put in enclosed compounds and treated in a way that resembled slavery.

This can be seen through examining the compounds in which they were forced to live if they were to work on the diamond mines.

Even though they were enclosed by iron fencing, they were still able to enjoy limited freedom within the town by having leisure time for food and drink.

This led to an end of independent diggers and a victory for white interests through Proclamation 14, which allowed mine owners to search both their servants and their property.

The other way they tried to justify it was through the idea that the Africans were better looked after in clause compounds, as Gardner Williams, who was the general manager of De Beers stated ‘are natives are better house than better fed than uncompounded natives?’

All of this showcases that even though Africans now got paid wages and had a sembalance more freedom.

They were still looked at and treated in a dehumanising way and not even as second class citizens.

Gold on the land also led to the mass importation and indentureship of Chinese labor.

This came after the yellow peril.

Earlier in the century and after, their participation in the California Gold Rush and the Chinese Exclusion Acts that followed, which were due to the fear that the Chinese would steal the rest of the world’s work, opportunities and fortunes.

They villainised the Chinese in the same way as they did the Africans as drug users andsexual deviants

They referred to them as coolies, which was a discriminatory term used for a low wage worker from South or East Asian descent.

However, labor was needed and the Europeans and Africans were not willing or able to provide it, especially after the South African war.

Their contract was for a minimum of three years, with two additional years being able to be added by the Chamber of Mines, who were responsible for employing balls who worked on the mines.

Of these, 986 died, as a result of causes directly attributable to their conditions of work.

A further 611 Chinese laborers sustained injuries that left them partially or totally disabled, resulting in repatriation of 523 disabled individuals.

These Chinese laborers on the Rand had to deal with disease, dehumanisation and death.

Looking at it in such a frank way suggests that the indentureship was not that far away from slavery.

If you cast your mind back to the beginning of this episode, we raise the question as to whether or not indentured labour was indeed a humane step forward from slavery.

Looking at the treatment of those in such labor on the gold and diamond mines, we can see that even though the workers were paid, they were still dehumanised, separated from the rest of society and put under tremendous pressure and stress, leading to injury and more often than not death.

To round this episode off, I would like to draw your attention to the De Beers Diamond Company, whose current mission statement is as follows.

We are passionate about our diamonds and where they come from.

We believe it is our responsibility to help and protect the natural world and to ensure our diamonds give back to the communities where they are discovered, helping them to thrive.

We are leaders in pioneering solutions to ensure our diamonds are responsibly and ethically sourced, and in doing so we are driving positive change for the whole of the industry.

We call our commitment building forever.

It is a holistic and integrated approach for creating a better future for people on the planet.

As you can tell, they pride themselves on contributing to the well-being of the planet, whilst being ethical and diverse.

You may be thinking, wait a minute.

A few minutes ago, didn't you just tell us that Debeers created an environment that set back race relations for South Africa?

And you would be right.

I did.

I use this example because it showcases.

How far we've come as a society.

However, it also exemplifies how far we still have to go.

On the Debeers website, they make no acknowledgement to the labor that built their empire in the beginning, and the timelines conveniently leave out the wrongdoings of the head honchos of the.

This begs the question as to whether or not they are ignorant to what they their founders did or are they are trying to atone for it through the changes they have implemented.

However, I will leave you with this question to ponder. Is it reallypossible for them to a term for that much history? Thanks for listening. Tune in next week.