"Slave driving" and "the poor man's friend": Capitalist farming in the Bethal District, ca. 1910-1940

Abstract

Bethal is a place with a reputation. The early Dutch-speaking pioneers who first settled in the area were so gratified to find such a lovely place that they bestowed it with a special name -- one which they borrowed from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament and which means "abode of God." They thought that this name would give the town and the surrounding district a particular distinction as a holy place, like the original spot where Jacob rested and dreamed that a ladder stretched from earth to heaven, and he felt himself to be in the presence of God. Yet the passage of time often has a way of dispensing cruel ironies. The reputation which Bethal acquired has little to do with the sacred ideals which its name evokes, and more to do with profane realities of profit-making. With the growth and development of commercial agriculture in the early twentieth century, the Bethal district became one of the most productive farming regions of the South African countryside. The wealthy farmers of the district -- with their huge estates and great success in growing staple crops for distant markets — became the envy of the marginal ‘ little men’ who struggled to stay afloat under crushing debt, high prices, and low returns. These large-scale Bethal farmers were often portrayed in ruling class circles as the standard bearers of economic advance in agriculture. Yet this well-cultivated image of ‘progressive’ farming contrasts sharply with the historical memory of those who borne the brunt of decades of cost-cutting and profit-maximizing measures. In their relentless pursuit of profit, the farmers of the district subjected their African labourers to such harsh and abusive treatment that it was not long before the name Bethal became synonymous with callous brutality, ill-treatment, and violent death. In the minds of Africans, working on the white-owned farms of the Bethal district was akin to slavery and was to be avoided at all costs. Yet how and why the Bethal district achieved such notoriety is a story that cannot be easily recounted chronologically. Let us begin at the end. Bethal is a small platteland town situated in the heartland of the fertile farming zone of the eastern Transvaal highveld, about halfway between Johannesburg and the Swaziland border....