STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND UNDESIRABLES AND BORDER-CONTROLS IN COLONIAL DURBAN, 1897-c.191O By Andrew MacDonald A thesis submitted in fulfliment of the requirements for the degree of Master ofArts University ofKwaZulu-Natal, Durban July, 2007 Supervised by Professor Keith Breckenridge Acknowledgements They say that a thesis is never reallY completed, merelY abandoned. Tbis disJeltation must stand in support of that sentiment. Over the course of 1Jry research and JlJriting, I have been fortunate enough to draJIJ on tbe expertise of a JlJide range of historians in framing this modest contribution to the history of Indian Ocean migration. Without JJJanting to sound too !Jrupy, the follOlJJingpeople all deseroe credit: Heading the list must be IJ!Y supervisor Keith Breckenridge JJJho gentlY prodded and guided and, miraculouslY, said nothing at allJlJhen I occasionallY disappeared. The steady jlOIIJ of references, reading and archival suggestions has been an enjqyable and invigorating trail to follOlIJ. Julie Parle and Catherine Bums have in an unofficial capacity inspired, humoured and fed both mind and body with their rich and inspired engagements JlJith South Africa and histon'es of empire. The Department of Histon'cal Studies at UKZN - staff, graduate students and affiliates alike - deseroe a collective mention for creating and sustaining an enriching intellectual atmosphere on the third floor of Memon'al TOJ)Jer Building which has occasionallY spilled Ott! into unStlspecting cqfJee-shops and lounges (particularlY at Whiteliggs, Colin Grove and Half-Tree Place) around Durban and P'burg. Prinisha Badas!J deseroes a special toast for tutoring me in the !lrysteriotls JIJq)'S of the archive and, along JlJith Sandi Thomson, for organisational competencies that JJJent way, way beyond the quotidian. Fn'ends Stephen Sparks, from his base in Ann Arbour, Michigan and Mark Hunter at the University of Toronto also gladlY belped source journal articles not othenJJise accessible to me, and JJJitbin less time than it takes me to JJJlite this page. Vashna Jagamath's critical JlJork on Gandhi inspired useful disCtlssions, and Hamzah Kea/, despite J)Jork in aforeign Jield of histon'ograplry was nonetheless a compatn"ot in dimD' lit graduate workspace and cbeap bars alike. Ngjyabonga. All of the above were regular pmticipants in the HistoD' and African Studies Seminar Series at UKZN JJJbose livelY and ng,orous discussions are rarelY atrytbing but esselltial parts of a semester JlJeek. Otber regulars JJJhose presentations, questions and comments I have beneJitedfrom include - but are not limited to - Vukile Khumalo, Thembisa IFaet/en, Goolam Vahed, Ricbard Pithouse, Kalpana Hirala/, Scott Coupe/~ Vanessa Noble, MariJke Du Toit, NaJisa Essop Sheik, Surya Chef!J, Craig Kesson and Amina Issa, amongst malry motley others. It has been, in the JlJords of one, "a sacred space" wbile tbe winds of corporate change whirl around tbe ci!J' and the Ridge. Long may it remain. A special thanks to tbe otber members of tbe Gang of Four, Darryl Accone, Yoon Park and Tu Htrynh, all in Johamzesburg, JJJhose much needed Jvork on Chinese immigrants is gathering important momentum in a society increasingD' troubled with neJ1J (or old?) xenopbobias. They - along J)Jith Karen Harris and EveIYn Hu-de Halt - JlJel1! amongst a wide range of scholars at the Intemational Society for tbe Study of the Chinese Overseas conference in Preton'a in late 2006. I'm gratefulfor all of the above's time, engagement and disCtlssions Jl'ith a graduate student presenting JJJork for tbe first time to an intemational alldience. Further afield, Jemlry Ma/tens at the University of If:7estem Australia gave bandy pointers and encouragement; Adam McKeOIJJn at the University of Columbia, NeJIJ ") 'ork provided an important reference and full access to a pre-published manuscript; inspiration from his JJJide-ranging and stimttlatingperspective will be found in this thesis and his request not to directlY quote the manuscript J)Jork bas provoked an occasionalpang ofguilt. Jane Caplan at the University of O:;...ford kindlY qfJered some general comments and references on !lry ideas JlJith amiable professionalism, and Si1lJon Szreter at Cambndge bas belped me indirectlY to raise the bar. I hope I have not butchered tbings too 1lJtlch. In India, Pradip K. Datta from Delhi University gave a useJitl reading and commentary for Chapter 5 at the Cultural Studies If:7orkshop in Hyderabad, India in January 2007. The presence of 24 like-minded graduates from around India and Afiica, and selJeral intellectuallY charged staffmembers (dralJJn mostb' from tbe Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta) JJJaS a buge motivation inJlJriting and thinking at the dreaD' mid-JIJq)' point of tbis pro/ect. To list all JJJottld give the reader indigestion, but I wOtlld Itke to pa/tiCtllarb note Julian Jonker - a historian in dmial- for being a roommate JJJith wit and intelligence une:;...pectedfrom a Capetollian (1; as J)Jell as Jayal1i Bonl1erJee and Maidul Islam for continuing disctlSSiolts and eXc!Janges still, I hope, to come. Pradeep BaSt! - and Shameel Jeppe on behalf of SEPHIS - deseroe a bravo for providing and administeling jlights, accommodation and funding JJJith aplomb - it makes the l-f:7orksbop highlY recolllmendable to other pauper graduate students and it celtainb' pmJented thiS JlJork frOll1 slipping illto the IJoid. On a personal le/le!, at periods over an eventful last tJvo years the Sachdev/ Kalekar clan in Mumbai - Ivhere, in 2005, my Master's degree can be technicalb' said to have stuttered into life after a 132 hourflight delcry, a meter of rain in a dqy and a ta>..? with a caviry in the floorboard - provided R&R, a daib' culinary festival, all important advice to the gora bamboozled ~ Indian bureaucrary, and mm!) other diversions besides; back in South Africa, Lord, Latfy and Little Covender ofMidrand made their estate a more than reliable and luxuriouJ redoubt for se/leral tripJ to Cauteng. My O1vn familY - Lynne, Ian and Rolryn - have Jt/pported If!) esoteric purJuitJ with onlY occaJional sidelong glances. U7ithout material and emotional mpport, I Jvould look a c011Siderab(y more bedraggled man! Ro~n agreed to proofread Ivhich allolvs me - Ivith a familial lack of shame - to declaim all reJponsibilities for !ypos. Ta! Last(y, staffat the Pietermaritzburg Archives and the Killie Campbell CollectiollS (Durban) are the t/nJtll1g heroes in the dai!J' life ofa reJearcher, and a deep b01V ofgratitude Imf.Itgo to Nellie SommerJ for allolVing me to pilot the country's most advanced computerized Microfilm machine; IlIithout itJ Jcanning and Jtoring tn'ckJ the 1Ie1llJpaper research from 1897-1911 IlIot/1d have been beleaguering., Simon She'{f; Mxolisi Mchunu, M/ht/ni! Zungu and Bob0' Eldrige IlIere also ahllqys on hand IlIith a smile. The Pieter7JJan"tzburg Archive Staff have also increased their good karma for kindlY agreeing when I requisitioned, over Jeverallong sessionJ, to conv~' every last one ofthe IRD's 96 boxes and much elJe in addition. And then aJked them to do it again Ivhen Ilvas sure IlIhat themeJ I IlIanted to follolll. One last thing. A word ofthanks to the National Research Foundation IlIho helpedfUlld much ofthe degree. PreJumab(y because thry do not much trust If!) 1llriting JkillJ, the J\TRF have given me a Jentence to quote directlY. It is: The fmancial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the aud10r and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF. ThankJ, !ru!J', for both monry alld thefreedom to IVn"te. Note on Text and Punctuation The style of narrative employed in the following dissertation makes ample use of quotations from numerous primary sources, for both flow and historical texture. This occasionally means that words or phrases are cited which may touch sensitive 21 Sf century ears. I by no means imply a pejorative use (see footnote 10, chapter 1). Double inverted commas refer to direct quotations that can be traced to specific correspondence, referenced immediately and accordingly, or othef\vise obvious from the narrative context in which the quoted text appears. Single commas refer to words, phrases or ideas that are more general in nature, not attributable to a single source, but still requiring historicizing. Finally, certain spelling forms - especially ofAsian names - remain as they appear in the archive. 11 ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the regulation of cross-border mobility and the formation of Natal, and nascent South African, immigration policy in the late colonial period. Natal's immigration technologies were at the very vanguard of a new global migration regime based on documentation and rigorous policing of boundaries. Essentially a thorough examination of the workings of the pre-Union Immigration Restriction Department (1897-c.191 0), I offer a historical analysis of state capacity to regulate and 'embrace' immigration along Natal's formative borders and points of entry, focusing on the port-town of Durban, whose colonial urban proftle forms a subsidiary focus of the project. This involves going beyond a mere study of policy and legislation - instead I have made a close and historically attentive study of the actual mechanisms of regulation and inclusion/exclusion and where these routinely failed, were subverted or implicated in economies of fraud and evasion. Through this, I build upon and deepen legal studies of immigration restriction by considering the practical and, to some degree, lived experience of restriction. I lay the groundwork by contextualizing the specific contours of 'undesirability' in turn of the century Durban. I point to a number of moral panics and a sense of crisis that engulfed officials in the town, referring in turn to merchant and 'passenger' Indians, war­ time refugees, maritime labourers and poor whites, amongst others, moving to and through a regional and Indian-Ocean economy.