Working Class Action and Informal Trade on the Durban Docks, 1930s–1950s

In this article, I discuss the limited archival and other sources we have about three important African dock leaders in Durban between 1931 and 1949: Dick Mate, Amos Gumede, and Zulu Phungula. Scholars have described Phungula in particular as a proletarian hero. However, the actions and discourse of these leaders exhibit a distinctive combination of working class radicalism and a concern for the interests of African petty traders. Their thinking was also often characterised by economic nationalism and anti-Indian sentiments. Interviews with some of the leaders of the 1958 dock strikes demonstrate a similar mixture of working class and entrepreneurial concerns. I argue that these seemingly contradictory actions and discourses may not be inconsistent. The working class discourse was not simply an attempt by a petty bourgeoisie to appeal to African workers, as it was for some other African leaders, and Zulu nationalism was not a surrogate for repressed working class action. Instead, these different approaches to socio-economic advancement reflected the livelihood strategies of many dock workers, who combined formal wage labour with informal commercial enterprises. Moreover, their employment on the docks made these small-scale businesses possible and these activities were thus not just two separate sources of income; they were functionally linked and integral parts of households’ livelihood strategies.