BLACKBIRDING AT CROOKS-CORNER - ILLICIT LABOR RECRUITING IN THE NORTHEASTERN TRANSVAAL, 1910-1940

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Africans in search of w ork were attracted to the wage-paying employment opportunities on the Witwatersrand. These work-seekers travelled great distances on foot, b attling hunger, disease, and the harsh environment. For those Africans wishing to enter the Transvaal without benefit of official permission , the border presented little obstacle. These clandestine migrants eas ily bypassed police posts, but they experienced greater difficulty in evading predatory labour recruiters. Illicit labour recruiting took pl ace all along the frontier, but assumed special significance at the fa r corner of the northeastern Transvaal. It was here where the borders of the Transvaal, Southern Rhodesia, and Portuguese East Africa met th at labour pirating, or 'blackbirding' as it was sometimes called, care ened out of control. Investigating the modus operandi of these unscrup ulous labour recruiters sheds light on wider questions concerning the historical formation of labour markets in southern Africa.