Diamonds and Dominion: The Making of Colonial Southern Africa

 

1870 and the Kimberley Revolution: Empire, Race, and Resources

The year 1870 can be regarded as a major turning point in the history of Southern Africa. It marked the beginning of a period of profound transformation, catalyzed by the discovery of diamonds (and later gold) in the region's interior—specifically in the area now known as Kimberley.

This discovery occurred amidst intense territorial rivalries involving multiple stakeholders: the Boers, primarily of Dutch descent; the British imperial authorities; and indigenous African communities, whose ancestral lands were increasingly coveted by both settler and imperial interests.

In his work South Africa: From the Great Trek to Union, J.D. Omer-Cooper captures the complexity of this development:

“In 1867, the chance discovery of a diamond started South Africa’s mineral boom and there was a rush to stake out claims to diamond diggings. The diamondiferous area fell within territory disputed between the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, the Griquas of Waterboer and two Tswana tribes.”

 As the competition for control and ownership intensified, waves of fortune-seekers from various parts of the world descended on the region. Kelvin Shillington elaborates:

“The diamond-fields lay to the north of what was then the British Cape Colony, in territory claimed by the Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, as well as by the rulers and representatives of local Griqua, Tswana and Kora residents. Thousands of people, black and white, from all over southern Africa, as well as miners and speculators from Europe, America and Australia, converged on the region.”

This growing international attention heightened British interest in incorporating the area into its colonial holdings. The British government responded by establishing a court of inquiry, which ruled in favor of Chief Waterboer of the Griqua. Encouraged to request British protection against the Boers, Waterboer’s appeal gave Britain the justification it needed to annex the territory. As Shillington notes:

“The British were determined to add this valuable territory to their southern African possessions. They set up a court of enquiry which found in favour of Griqua Chief Waterboer. The latter meanwhile had been persuaded to ask for British protection from the Boer Republics. This provided the British with justification and they promptly annexed the territory. Thus by the end of 1871, what was then the richest known diamond-bearing territory in the world had become the British colony of Griqualand West.”

However, the British annexation was far from uncontested. The Boer Republics of the Free State and Transvaal, both with strong interests in the region, actively resisted British influence. Meanwhile, the indigenous inhabitants of Griqualand viewed the growing Boer presence with suspicion and unease.

The discovery of diamonds and subsequent British control brought significant social and economic changes, although these benefits were disproportionately enjoyed by white settlers and entrepreneurs. From the outset, whites dominated diamond exploitation, leveraging their access to technology, capital, and colonial backing.

Initially, mining operations were carried out by thousands of independent “diggers”, most of them white, though some were black. Each digger staked out a small claim, usually worked with hired black labor. Although the Griqualand administration initially pursued non-racial policies, intending to allow all races equal rights to mine ownership, white diggers resisted these efforts. They argued that permitting Africans to own or operate claims encouraged theft, illegal trade, and moral disorder.

Omer-Cooper explains:

“In 1875, the system was abandoned and the right to own and operate a diamond concession became an exclusively white privilege. The principle that in industry, as on land, ownership and management should be white while unskilled labour was exclusively non-white was taking shape.”

As mining operations grew more capital-intensive, control gradually shifted from individuals to large mining companies. By the late 1870s, operating the major mines had become too expensive for individual diggers. The transition to open-pit mining required costly steam-powered machinery and water removal systems—investments that only well-funded companies could afford.

Kelvin Shillington highlights the emergence of De Beers as a dominant force:

“During the 1880s, one company—De Beers—grew to dominate all others. It was owned by Cecil Rhodes, an English immigrant who had made an early fortune at the diamond-fields in the 1870s. By 1889, De Beers had bought out all its rivals and so obtained a complete monopoly of diamond mining at Kimberley.”

The rise of De Beers had devastating implications for African laborers. The company used its monopoly power to suppress wages and enforce exploitative labor contracts. African workers were subjected to six-month contracts under poor pay, forced to live in fenced compounds, isolated from their families and denied alternative sources of income.

By the 1870s, the Kimberley mines employed up to 50,000 black workers annually, mostly confined to manual labor roles under rigid and discriminatory labor conditions. The social and economic structures emerging from this period laid the foundation for the racialized industrial hierarchy that would dominate South African society for decades to come.