Constructing Jewish immigrant identity: The "kaffireatnik" in South African Yiddish literature
Date
1997-09-29
Authors
Sherman, Joseph
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Although small gold deposits were found in the northern and eastern Transvaal
in 1871, what radically changed the shape of South Africa was the discovery,
on the farm Langlaagte in 1886, of surface deposits which persisted at depth.
This gold series was initially found to stretch in a straight line for a
staggering forty miles along the Witwatersrand, from Modderfontein in the east through Johannesburg in the centre to Randfontein in the west.... From the
outset the developing gold industry sought to exploit as workers the subcontinent's
technically unskilled blacks. Contract labour almost immediately
became the only participation permitted to blacks in the production of this
vast wealth.... This paper focuses exclusively on one
particular mode of adaptation forced upon only one segment of the South
African Jewish population — a singular group of Jewish immigrants who arrived
in the half-century between 1880 and 1930 who, in significant numbers, sought
work in the concession stores where they could work for and among Yiddish-speaking
Jews and, as they thought, earn a living and perhaps prosper without
having to face the trauma of engaging in other work which would demand learning a new language and being employed by and working alongside
potentially antisemitic South African Gentiles. The dislocating confrontation
of these shop assistants with South African racial discrimination in the
context of their past personal experience in Eastern Europe was sui generis.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 29 September 1997
Keywords
Yiddish literature. South Africa. History and criticism, Jews in literature. History and criticism, Immigrants in literature. History and criticism, Jews, East European. South Africa. Social conditions, Immigrants. South Africa. Social conditions