Late 19th-century railroad workcamps associated with the Nzasm Oosterlijn: an archaeological survey

Abstract

A significant economic and political endeavour of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) was the construction of the Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NZASM) Oosterlijn – or Delagoa Bay-Pretoria railway line – over the period 1889–1895. The line provided the goldfields of the Witwatersrand with access to a harbour without traversing British territory. Following global trends in Industrial and Historical Archaeology, industrial-centred interpretations of railway history were re-scaled to be more inclusive of the social aspects associated with railway construction. Utilising a multifaceted approach inclusive of historical photographs, as well as an extensive purposive archaeological field survey, three workcamps along the NZASM Oosterlijn were identified. Camp layouts were mapped and analysed to gain an understanding of the manifestation of the 19th-century railway labourers' agency and socio-cultural power relations within the workcamps. The intra-site, site, and inter-site comparisons of camps on local and global scales established a platform from which to approach more complex research themes surrounding South Africa's railway labour history.