DIAMONDS. GOLD.AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
Perhaps the most fateful process of the period was the struggle that led to
the racial structure of preindustrial,
colonial South African society being
applied in the mining industries. This was done by splitting the labor force
between white workers, with skilled or supervisory roles, opportunities for
advancement, high wages, and relatively good living conditions, and black
workers, devoid of the means to exercise skilled or supervisory
roles,
poorly paid, and subjected to harsh living conditions in all-male com-
pounds. A precedent was thus established for structuring industry on racial
lines throughout
the region.s
There were also deepening secondary divisions inside each racial catego-
ry. Most of the descendants of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
settlers identified themselves as Afrikaners, with their distinct language,
religious affiliation, historical consciousness, and social networks, whereas
nearly all of the nineteenth-century
white immigrants (most of whom came
from Britain) kept aloof from Afrikaners,
despised their language and
culture, and underestimated
their achievements. Nearly all Afrikaners,
moreover, continued to live and work in a rural environment,
whereas
most immigrants were townspeople.