1 Van Onselen, Charles, ‘AmaWasha: the Zulu Washermen's Guild on the Witwaters-rand, 1890–1914’, Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand, 1886–1914, II (London, 1982), 74–100.Google Scholar

2 To cite the most recent publications: Dudden, Faye E., Serving Women: Household Service in Nineteenth Century America (Middleton, Conn., 1983), 106, 142–143Google Scholar; Horn, Pamela, The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant (New York, 1975), 69–70Google Scholar; Katzman, David, Seven Days a Week (New York, 1978), 62, 85, 90–92, 124Google Scholar; Strasser, Susan, Never Done: A History of American Housework (New York, 1982), 104–124Google Scholar; Sutherland, Daniel, Americans and Their Servants from 1820–1920 (Baton Rouge, 1981), 133–134.Google Scholar All these studies generally concede that of the myriad tasks performed by women in the home, hand laundry work, i.e. washing and ironing, was the most onerous. See also Beecher, Catherine, A Treatise on Domestic Economy (Boston, 1842), 284–296,Google Scholar for the fullest account of the tremendous labour involved in laundry chores.

3 Russell, George, History of Old Durban and Reminiscences of an Emigrant of 1850 (Durban, 1899), 216.Google Scholar

4 Gordon, Ruth E. (ed.), Dear Louisa: A History of a Pioneer Family in Natal, 1850–1888 (Capeto'wn, 1970), 138.Google Scholar For interesting vignettes of the laundry problem facing this pioneer housewife, see ibid., 18, 29, 71, 101.

5 Barker, Lady, A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa (London, 1894), 68–70Google Scholar; Mrs Shooter, Joseph, ‘Off to Natal by a clergyman's wife’, Golden Hours: A Weekly Journal of Good Literature for Young Folks, \ (1868), 159Google Scholar; Colenso, John W., Ten Weeks in Natal (Cambridge, 1855), 14.Google Scholar

6 Buchanan, Barbara I., Pioneer Days in Natal (Pietermaritzburg, 1934), 15Google Scholar; Hattersley, Allan F. (ed.), John Shedden Dobie's South African Journal, 1862–6 (Capetown, 1945), 15.Google Scholar

7 Feilden, Eliza Whigham, My African Home (Durban, 1973), 224.Google Scholar

8 Shooter, , ‘Off to Natal’, 159.Google Scholar

9 Ibid.; Russell, , History of Old Durban, 216Google Scholar; Thomas Eastwood to Mayor and Town Council, Durban, 17 November 1874. Durban Corporation Letters (hereafter DCL), File 352.

10 ‘Pietermaritzburg Agricultural Society’, Natal Witness, 2 November 1875; Russell, , History of Old Durban, 216.Google Scholar

11 Russell, , History of Old Durban, 216.Google Scholar Russell was intimately acquainted with the labour situation at Durban; his reminiscences are therefore particularly valuable.

12 ‘Kafir dodges’, Natal Mercury (hereafter ATM), 24 October 1856.

13 Russell, , History of Old Durban, 216–217.Google Scholar

14 ‘The wash boys' parade’, Standard and Diggers' News (hereafter SDN), 2 July 1895.

15 ‘The labour question’, NM, 26 April 1854.

16 Onselen, Van, ‘AmaWasha’, 74–76, 100.Google Scholar

17 ‘Evidence of Henry Francis Fynn before the Native Commission, 1852’, John, Bird (ed.), The Annals of Natal, 1495–1845, 1 (Pietermaritzburg, 1888), 106, 108Google Scholar; Dohne, J. L., A Zulu-Kafir Dictionary (Capetown, 1857), 253–254Google Scholar; Bryant, A. T., Zulu-English Dictionary (Johannesburg, 1905), 464Google Scholar; Bryant, A. T., The Zulu People Before the White Man Came (Pietermaritzburg, 1949), 178Google Scholar; Krige, Ellen, The Social System of the Zulus (Pietermaritzburg, 1957), 211–212.Google Scholar

18 Krige, , Social System, 212.Google Scholar

19 Bryant, , Zulu People, 402–406.Google Scholar

20 Alan, Booth (ed.), The Journal of the Rev. George Champion (Capetown, 1967), 42–43Google Scholar; Grout, Lewis, Zululand; or Life Among the Zulu-Kafirs (Philadelphia, 1864), 113.Google Scholar

21 Bryant, , Zulu People, 404.Google Scholar

22 James, Stuart (ed.), The Diary of Henry Francis Fynn (Pietermantzburg, 1950), 273–274.Google Scholar

23 Bryant, A. T., Olden Times in Zululand and Natal, Part I (London, 1929), 113.Google Scholar For another account of a celebrated impali, see Webb, C. and Wright, J. B. (eds.), The James Stuart Archive, I (Pietermaritzburg, 1976), 325.Google Scholar

24 For example, Smith, Alan, ‘The trade of Delagoa Bay as a factor in Nguni politics, 1750–1835’, Leonard, Thompson (ed.), African Societies in Southern Africa (New York, 1969), 171–187Google Scholar; idem, ‘Delagoa Bay and the trade with South Eastern Africa’, Gray, R. and Birmingham, D. (eds.), Precolonial African Trade (London, 1970), 265–289.Google Scholar

25 Fynn, Henry Francis, ‘History of Godongwana (Dingiswayo) and (in part) of Chaka’, Bird, Annals, I, 63.Google Scholar Bryant credited the Tembe Tonga with having inspired Dingiswayo with the idea of establishing a local factory for the production of such wares by his people (Olden Times, Part I, 291). Mtomboti, who carved two chairs out of a wood called ‘red ivory’ for Mpande, was presented with cattle for his effort (Webb and Wright, Stuart Archive, I, 44).

26 Stuart, , Fynn's Diary, 16, 47–48.Google Scholar

27 Booth, , Champion's Journal, 31–32, 36Google Scholar; Gardiner, Allan, Narrative' of a Journey to the Zoolu Country in South Africa (Capetown, 1966), 47–51.Google Scholar Two valuable accounts which provide insights into the organization of labour around this craft are in Webb and Wright, Stuart Archive, I, 324–5; II, 60.

28 Government Commission on Native Laws and Customs (Capetown, 1883), Supplementary Minutes of Evidence, Cetshwayo, ex-king of the Zulus: Question 202, 531.Google Scholar

29 See, for example, Ngubane, Harriet, ‘Aspect of clinical practice and traditional organization of indigenous healers in South Africa’, Social Science and Medicine, 156, (1981), 361–365.Google Scholar This article gives special attention to the network of izangoma (female diviners) among the Zulu. Ngubane found that the izangoma's traditional mode of organization was not derived from western models but was ‘quite indigenous, with historical depth...’ A. T. Bryant (Zulu Medicine and Medicine Men (Capetown, 1970), 10), pointed out that the medicine man ‘constantly adds to his store of knowledge by consultation and the mutual exchange of remedies with neighbouring doctors, until, after perhaps twenty years or more, he has picked up all there is worth knowing in the kafir pharmacopoeia and kafir pathology’.

30 Gardiner, , Narrative, 130–131.Google Scholar

31 Bryant, , Zulu People, 406.Google Scholar

32 Shooter, , ‘Off to Natal’, 159Google Scholar; ‘The labour question’, NM, 26 April 1854Google Scholar; ‘To the editor’, Natal Star (hereafter NS), 10 September 1855Google Scholar; Buchanan, , Pioneer Days, 13–14Google Scholar; Barker, Lady, Year's Housekeeping, 124.Google Scholar

33 Bryant, , Zulu People, 184–185.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., 186–188; Krige, , Social System, 81–100, 134–135.Google Scholar

35 Holden, William Clifford, A Brief History of Methodism and Methodist Missions in South Africa (London, 1877), 431–432.Google Scholar Holden's observations were made between the years 1847 and 1852. One should note that when nineteenth century householders spoke of ‘nurseboys’, ‘kitchen boys’, and ‘houseboys’, those were ‘accurate’ descriptions of abafana and izinsizwa who generally undertook to engage in domestic service. European usage of the term ‘boy’, however, later came to be applied to all African males irrespective of age or marital status. See Shooter, ‘Off to Natal’, 89.

36 Bryant, , Zulu People, 186–187. See note 49.Google Scholar

37 ‘Kafir dodges’, NM, 24 October 1856; Bryant, , Zulu People, 178.Google Scholar

38 ‘Day labourers’, NS, 10 December 1863.

39 Shepstone, Theophilus, ‘Togt memorandum’, Natal Government Gazette (hereafter NGG), 31 March 1974.Google Scholar

40 ‘Kafir dodges’, NM, 24 October 1856.

41 Russell, , History of Old Durban, 216.Google Scholar

42 ‘Durban Town Council’, Natal Colonist (hereafter NC), 8 September 1876.

43 ‘Wash boys' parade’, SDN, 2 July 1895; Onselen, Van, ‘AmaWasha’, 79.Google Scholar

44 SNA 1/3/5. Fynn, H. F. to Shepstone, T., 19 January 1856Google Scholar; Mann, Robert J., The Colony of Natal (London, 1859), 188–189.Google Scholar

45 Secretary for Native Affairs (hereafter SNA), Natal. File 1/1/211. Johannesburg representative's reports dated 7 November and 16 November 1895; and SNA 1/1/214, 30 December 1895.

46 Bryant, , Zulu People, 376–377Google Scholar; Zulu Medicine, 10–11; Krige, , Social System, 209, 297–305.Google Scholar

47 ‘Kafir dodges’, NM, 24 October 1856; Eastwood, T. to Mayor, Durban, 17 November 1874, DCL File 352Google Scholar; ‘Wash boys' parade’, SDN, 2 July 1895Google Scholar; Durban Corporation Superintendent of Police Report Book (hereafter DCSPRB), File 3310: reports dated 2 June 1905 and 3 July 1905.

48 Webb, and Wright, , Stuart Archive, I, 63–73.Google Scholar

49 A purely military function is often ascribed to the izindibi but Dohne defined the udibi as ‘Commonly a boy who carries the effects of equipage of an older man in going to war (or in travelling)’ ( Zulu-Kafir Dictionary, 61). Note, for example, the business of the young assistant (impakutha) of the Zulu medicine man in Bryant, Zulu Medicine, 10; also Bryant, , Zulu People, 187.Google Scholar

50 Onselen, Van, ‘AmaWasha’, 76.Google Scholar

51 This was true in the higher, esoteric professions where whole clans specialized in a particular line of business: the emaCubeni and emaCunwini clans were noted smiths; the Nzuzas, war doctors; and the Ntlangwini, rainmakers (Bryant, , Zulu People, 376–377).Google Scholar

52 ‘Echoes of the week’, Natal Advertiser, 15 January 1910.

53 For example, ‘Kafir dodges’, NM 4 October 1856.

54 Pietermaritzburg Minutes of the Town Council, Minute Book 1/1/2, 8 June 1863, 550–1.

55 A fuller discussion of municipal and private attempts to break the AmaWasha monopoly will be presented in a subsequent article.

56 NGG, 20 January 1874.

57 NGG, 31 March 1874.

58 Ibid.

59 Durban Native Case Book, 2/3/4: Supreme Chief us. Umdukumban, 16 April 1874; and Supreme Chief vs. Umgama, 15 May 1874.

60 Barker, Lady, A Year's Housekeeping, 124–125.Google Scholar

61 NGG, 22 July 1879; DCSPRB File 3305: report dated 7 October 1879.

62 See, for example, ‘The steam laundry’, fanes of Natal, 30 January 1880.

63 NGG, Durban Corporation Water Service Bye-Laws, 1 May 1888 and 15 January 1889; Henderson, William, Durban: Fifty Years of Muncipal History (Durban, 1904), 225–248.Google Scholar

64 Strasser, , Never Done, 112–124.Google Scholar

65 Strasser, Susan, ‘An enlarged human existence? Technology and household work in nineteenth century America’, Susan, Fenstermaker Berk (ed.), Women and Household Labour (California, 1980), 29–51.Google Scholar Although ‘the technological potential of the nineteenth century house was fairly high, it could only be achieved... by wealthy people in urban areas. Indoor plumbing, electricity and gas, the innovations which ended the necessity for making fires and carrying water, were luxuries’: p. 30.

66 See, for example, Verasammy [sic] to the Mayor and Town Council, Durban, 21 March 1892. DCL File 427.

67 A fuller discussion of the Indian dhoby and the public health movement will be presented in a subsequent article on the AmaWasha.

68 ‘Life at Natal’, by a Lady. Cape Monthly Magazine, 4 (1872), 342–3.

69 SNA 1/1/112. Report on the Inanda Laundry dated 19 June 1890.

70 SNA 1/1/356. Mrs Mcunu, Lettie, Bush, Thorny, 4 December 1906.Google Scholar

71 DCSPRB File 3310: reports dated 7 September 1907 to January 1910. See also File 3311: reports dated February 1910 to December 1914.

72 Evidence of Togt Inspector, Mines, William A., Native Affairs Commission, 1906/1907, 39Google Scholar; see also DCSPRB File 3310: report dated 2 June 1905.

73 DCL File 429: Umgeni magistrate to Mayor of Durban, 31 March 1892; and DCL File 435: Umgeni Police Station to Superintendent of Police, 31 January 1893.

74 DCL File 485: W. C. Daugherty, Inspector of Nuisances to Chairman of Sanitary Committee, 30 December 1898.

75 NGG, ‘To amend Act no. 49, 1901, entitled “To facilitate the Identification of Native Servants’”, 29 March 1904.

76 NGG, ‘New Bye-Laws for the Borough of Durban’, 5 April 1904.

77 Barker, Lady, A Year's Housekeeping, 125.Google Scholar African males used also to perform ‘mangling’ tasks. See Russell, , History of Old Durban, 217–218Google Scholar, for a description of the ‘Colonial Mangle’.

78 For example, Verasammy to Mayor and Town Council of Durban, 21 March 1892, DCL File 427.

79 Onselen, Van, ‘AmaWasha’, 75.Google Scholar

80 South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903/05, v, 185; Native Affairs Commission Evidence (Pietermaritzburg, 1907), 822, 824–5; Van Der Horst, Sheila T., Native Labour in South Africa (London, 1942), 236–238Google Scholar; Marks, Shula, ‘The ambiguities of dependence: John L. Dube of Natal’, Journal of Southern African Studies, I, 2 (1975), 69.Google Scholar

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82 Onselen, Van, ‘AmaWasha’, 77.Google Scholar