Infrastructures and the Ontological Question of Race
The Bultfontein compound in Kimberley, South Africa, was built in 1889 by De Beers and housed approximately 5,000 workers. Bultfontein mine compound, photographer unknown. Source: The McGregor Museum, Kimberley, South Africa.
In the mid-1880s, Kimberley’s diamond mines began constructing massive complexes to house their laborers.1 The closed compounds—so named because migrant laborers from across Southern Africa were confined there for the duration of their contracts—were modeled after existing carceral, plantation, and industrial infrastructures. They were considered a major success in Kimberley, and quickly spread throughout Southern Africa and the colonized world. The compounds were designed as classic panopticons, placing every inch of space between the high watchtower and the compound manager’s office under surveillance. The cramped living quarters were arranged side by side in a single row along the perimeter of the property, with communal areas at the center including a basic goods store, bathing facilities, and a hospital. The boundaries of the compound were inviolable: workers traveled to the mine via underground tunnels or through walkways enclosed in wire mesh.
The mine operators envisioned the compounds as an infrastructural fix for a number of labor problems that they had been unable to resolve through law, chiefly the risk of theft. The particular qualities of diamonds—small, lightweight, and therefore easy to transport on one’s person—meant that preventing theft required a level of surveillance and restriction far beyond what was standard in other nineteenth-century industries. After increasingly harsh legal restrictions on the movement and freedom of laborers proved ineffective in quelling the illicit trade, the mines pivoted towards a technical solution. This shift in orientation can be attributed, at least in part, to the inauguration of engineers into senior management positions on the mines. Engineering only started being professionalized in this period, and managerial duties were increasingly included in the scope of an engineer’s role. This meant that those tasked with remedying the problem of theft had both the inclination and technical skills to develop an infrastructural solution.
