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COOPERATION IN KWAZULU NATAL 377

The case study is based on the narratives This compares well, with shop steward statis-
of 120 of these grassroots intellectuals. That tics compiled in 1992, where the majority in
their emergence and ‘image-ing’ of the nature KwaZulu Natal, (48%), were drawn from
of their experience has happened under similar occupations (Meer, 1987). By contrast
extreme conditions of conflict and ‘struggle’ 72% of their parents were classified as
needs little comment. unskilled migrant workers.
The core of the cultural leadership in the In 1941, Baba Khumalo came from the
trade unions came from all over the KwaZulu Underberg region to find a job in Durban.
Natal countryside. More precisely, 23% trace His patriarch, who refused to enter the labour
their parental homesteads in the territories market, sent his sons out for contracts and,
of Northern Natal/KwaZulu, the heart of the through the earnings gathered, kept his rural
Zulu Kingdom of the late nineteenth century; homesteads intact. Whereas at first Khumalo
20% of them from Natal’s Midlands, 18% relied on kin and their networks to get jobs in
from Southern Natal, 11% in the northern domestic service, in gardening and cleaning,
interior areas around Paulpietsburg and he found the job that was to keep him for the
Newcastle. Only 6% came from any areas rest of his years at a large rubber company.
adjacent to Durban. They reflected a wide net The company shed its Indian workers after a
of experiences from all over the region. strike and proceeded to employ migrant
These parental homesteads experienced African workers. As one of the first mass
the agrarian transformations and pressures of producing firms, it tested one of the beliefs of
the last century – the Midlands all the way to the time: that ‘Natives’, because of their cultural
Northern Natal in the interior were marked make-up and their need for money, were suit-
by conditions of labour tenancy on white able for mass production. He was given a job
farms, with major upheavals in the 1906/7 and found a bed in the municipal compound.
periods and the post 1960s period as labour Khumalo’s descriptions of the work
tenancy was abolished. The Northern territo- process, its impersonal moments, and its
ries experienced chief-regulated access to ruthless performance standards capture what
land and migrations to the Reef and Durban he termed ‘khalo’, the Zulu word denoting
for a wage. The South homesteads share pain and lament, grievance and lamentation,
experiences closer to those of the North; but in short, a series of feelings that could be
with an intensification of ‘betterment schemes’ covered by the term for the experience of
in the late 1950s with large upheavals. Most alienation. These new workers, gathered
(95%) of their fathers were a migratory from all over KwaZulu Natal, soon estab-
labour force. In 60% of the cases, mothers lished networks of regulation, restricting
were responsible for homestead reproduction output, socializing new recruits and develop-
without any moves to the urban areas. ing a series of defensive combinations.
Although their parental homesteads were Within them, an informal leadership, which
rural, urbanization was already underway included him for standing up to a foreman,
during their parents’ working life, as 39% of created a perceived ‘dissonance’. Management
them were born in townships. Still, the emo- responded by appointing a series of tribal
tional grip of the countryside was enormous representatives or izinduna to create channels
as 61% were born in the countryside and of communication between themselves and
underwent primary socialization there. the reluctant labour force.
The majority (46%) of the black workers The factory was a practical, instrumental
in this case study were semi-skilled machine world though. As a Christian he found it dif-
and process operators. Another 26% – 13% ficult in the compound. On the one hand, his
each – clerical workers and drivers, and only own ‘manhood’ found an outlet in the boxing
6% of them were unskilled labourers, clubs of central Durban. He became a cham-
4% domestic workers and 2% supervisors. pion middleweight fighter. On the other,