Indentured labourers suffered as silence prevailed
WHETHER indentured Indian or indigenous African, the treatment of labourers during the colonial period, with few exceptions, ranged between harsh to indifferent.
That is the most likely outcome further research will reveal concerning the question of parallels between slavery and indenture which Selvan Naidoo and Kiru Naidoo pose in the POST (October 7-11).
Charles Smythe of Lions River in the KZN Midlands, who was prime minister of the Colony of Natal during 1905 to 1906 and later became administrator of the province, provides a fairly typical example of how white farmers treated their African labour.
He thrashed trespassers and fined Africans whose cattle strayed on to his land.
