Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

Migrant Labourers

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A 19th-century image of an indentured labourer’s dance troupe in Natal. (Image courtesy of Campbell Collections, Killie Campbell Africana Library, UKZN)
1860 1911

‘The Making of Mount Edgecombe’: A view of history from below

Indian indentured labourers’ lives are celebrated in a new book, Sugar Mill Barracks: The Making of Mount Edgecombe

  • Youlendree Appasamy
12 min read
Migrating for the lockdown: India’s government only gave its citizens four hours to prepare for the nationwide lockdown. Many migrant workers and their families were forced to return to their villages immediately. Some were able to take buses (above) while others were forced to walk. (Bhuvan Bagga/AFP/Getty Images)
CORONAVIRUS

Governments, cushion the poor from Covid-19’s blow

Already vulnerable, working-class and informal workers are being left destitute and unsupported

  • Rema N Hanna
  • Benjamin A Olken
5 min read