Miners - Part 4

South Africa

The gold and diamond mines in South Africa produced fabulous wealth for their white owners.  The black mine workers were exploited even more than miners in other countries.

This series of photos was taken by Robert Harris c. 1883-1888.  Now in a collection at Yale University, they document what was called the "Kimberley Searching System" for searching diamond mine workers for hidden diamonds after they came out of the mine.

The worker is completely naked.  His arms are raised to make sure he's not hiding anything in his armpits.  Note that the searcher, also black, is also naked except for a shirt tied around his waist.

Examining the mouth.  The searcher is holding a candle to reveal any diamonds by their reflection.

Another searcher examining the mouth of another worker.

Examining the feet for anything hidden in a crack or cut.

The worker has to retract his foreskin to show there's nothing hidden in there.

No hole is left unexamined.  Robert Harris did not take these photos as a crusading journalist to expose wrongdoing.  On the contrary, DeBeers hired him to take the photos to be used to instruct the searchers how to search the mine workers.

This searching process was expensive (in lost productivity) and ineffective; very few diamonds were ever found.  But it was continued as a way to help keep the miners in their place.  After 1919 it was replaced by using X-rays, in which diamonds fluoresce and are highly visible, which continued through the 1950s.  Today the miners are still searched, using full body scanners.

The other humiliating procedure that miners had to endure was a monthly medical examination, also conducted completely naked.  Here, miners are being herded as a group through a series of doctors and offices.  The photo is from House of Bondage, 1967, by Ernest Cole, a black photographer who smuggled his photos out of South Africa.

Another photo of miners lined up for medical examination.  This 1967 photo is by Peter Magubane, another pioneering black South African photographer who had to conceal his camera, often inside a Bible, to get his photos.

This 1943 photo by LIFE magazine photographer Hart Preston shows miners being weighed during a medical exam.  The naked monthly weighings and medical exams were not evidence of concern for the well-being of the miners.  Rather, they were a way to detect workers suffering from tuberculosis, who were then promptly fired.