Place of Gold: The Complex Story of Johannesburg

With 6.5 million residents, Johannesburg is the biggest city in South Africa in terms of population, but its population pales in comparison to that of other metropolises in Africa, such as Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo, each of which has a population of well over 10 million.

Nevertheless, Johannesburg is by far the wealthiest city in Africa. For such a young city, its growth from a mining town to the business hub of Africa has been exceedingly rapid, and it continues to attract immigrants looking for a better life.

Known colloquially as “Jozi” or “Jo’burg,” Johannesburg also goes by the name of eGoli—a Zulu word that means “Place of Gold.”

For such a wealthy city, it is fitting that the basis for Johannesburg’s founding was to support the gold industry. The region had been inhabited by San hunter-gatherers and, later, Sotho–Tswana people who built towns in the area now covered by Johannesburg’s massive sprawl. The landscape was veld: grassland dotted with trees.

In 1884, gold was discovered on a farm in the Witwatersrand, and in 1886, Australian prospector George Harrison discovered the main gold reef. It was quickly realized that the area was unbelievably rich in gold, and a massive gold rush was triggered. Prospectors and laborers flocked to the area.

A mining camp was erected, and by August 1886, it had 3,000 inhabitants. In October, it was given a name: Johannesburg.

The settlement’s name is open to speculation. Johan or Joannes as a first or last name were popular, and various candidates have been put forward for whom the city was actually named. Popular suggestions involve two prominent prospectors, Christian Johannes Joubert and Johann Rissik. Another idea is that the town was named after Johannes Meyer, the first government official in the area.

In December, the area, which encompassed several farms designated as public digging sites, was subdivided and put on the auction block. Gold mining companies were established and moved into the area, and within ten years, Johannesburg had 100,000 residents.

The population was a mix of different ethnicities. The skilled miners were primarily of European descent and hailed from all over the world, while African men were hired for unskilled labor. All manner of support industries sprung up. African women brewed beer, while poor Afrikaners flocked to the region in search of work. Surprisingly, the laundry industry became dominated by Zulu men, who earned the nickname “AmaWasha” (Washers) as a result.

Naturally, the town also attracted people drawn to disreputable professions, and Johannesburg also became a figurative gold mine for prostitutes and gangsters. The city was an eclectic mix of opulence, chaos, and vice. Hundreds of saloons popped up, and the city was graced by the attention of huge international criminal syndicates with roots in London and New York.

In the space of a few years, tents were replaced with metal “shanties,” which were then replaced with large Edwardian-style buildings.

From the very beginning, Johannesburg was a city of apartheid before apartheid had ever been invented as a political policy. People were separated by race, with Europeans living in the more affluent areas, while Africans were consigned to slums. Many destitute Afrikaners/Boers also sought a better life in Johannesburg, creating slums of their own in suburbs such as Brickfields and Vrededorp.

Author’s note: The terminology at this point in history is fluid. Today, Afrikaners are descendants of European, mainly Dutch settlers. Those who left the Cape Colony on their Great Trek were referred to as Boers (farmers). For many decades after they settled to the north, the term was used interchangeably, although Afrikaners who remained in the Cape were not considered “Boers.” For most Afrikaners, the term “Boer” is a source of historical pride. 

Just north of the slum areas were the railway line and goods yards, which were the location of a massive explosion on February 19, 1896. Fifty-five tons of dynamite, left baking in the sun, detonated and left a massive crater 250 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. The explosion killed 78 people and wounded 1,500.

At the time, South Africa was not a unified country. It was split into four major territories. The Cape Province and Natal were owned by the British Empire, while the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (also known as Transvaal) were independent nations owned by the Boers. Johannesburg was located in the South African Republic.

As the gold industry boomed, so did the city’s population. Along with an influx of British people (known by the Boers/Afrikaners as Uitlanders), the gold fields attracted the greedy attention of the British Empire.

Hoping to sway the population dynamic of the South African Republic, the British encouraged emigration to Johannesburg. For the Boers, this represented a danger. If the Uitlanders were able to vote a government into power that was sympathetic to the British Empire, it would spell an end to independence.

Relations between the Boers and the Uitlanders broke down as political tensions were exacerbated. In December 1895, the British in the Cape, under the rule of Cecil John Rhodes, took action. Several hundred men, led by Leander Starr Jameson, rode into Johannesburg, intending to incite the Uitlanders to launch a coup. The Jameson Raid, as it became known, was an utter failure, and the conspirators were arrested and imprisoned. By 1899, the South African Republic, along with its ally, the Orange Free State, was at war with the British Empire.

By mid-1902, the Second Anglo-Boer War was over. It was an incredibly bloody affair marked by gross human rights violations. Nevertheless, Britain had won, and the Boer Republics, along with their rich gold deposits, were now under the control of the British Empire.

After the British took over, strict protocols were put in place, which further exacerbated the racial divide. Black people were forced to accept whatever wage white people were willing to offer. As a result of this practice, there was a shortage in the labor pool, and 60,000 laborers were imported from China.

In the years after the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War, Johannesburg was visited by an outbreak of the plague. With this as an excuse, the government targeted both Chinese and African settlements within Johannesburg, razing them and relocating the residents to the town of Klipspruit outside Johannesburg.

In 1910, the Union of South Africa became a self-governing dominion within the British Empire.

The racially charged world of Johannesburg in the first years of the 20th century was one in which Mohandas Gandhi would also find himself. Race laws against Indians were his primary concern, and as a lawyer, he felt obliged to take up the cause and fight against the laws that he felt were unjust.

Over the years, Gandhi led a movement of nonviolent resistance. His efforts resulted in him being arrested and imprisoned before he finally reached an agreement with the government. As a result, the Indian Relief Act of 1914 was passed. The act abolished a £3 tax on Indians who had not renewed their labor indentures and recognized Indian customary marriages. After this was achieved, Gandhi returned to India.

When the First World War broke out, South Africa declared war on the Central Powers. For the next four years, South Africa’s economy was geared towards war, and the result was an industrial boom that greatly impacted the city of Johannesburg, turning it from a mining city into a city of major industry across the board.

After the war, a drop in the gold price led to companies trying to mitigate their costs by lowering wages and hiring African laborers at the expense of white workers. In 1920, 70,000 African workers launched a strike for better wages. The strike was put down by the army.

Two years later, the fires were again stoked when the South African Communist Party (SACP) encouraged another strike, this time by white people who resisted the weakening of the color bar. The Rand Rebellion was crushed with considerable military force, which resulted in the death of 200 workers, a number that included 30 Black people who were murdered by white strikers.

This action led to the prominence of the SACP within South Africa’s political sphere. The party continues to wield significant political influence in South African politics to this day.

The 1930s and 1940s in Johannesburg were characterized by mass migrations of African people into the urban areas. Before, much of the African population had been migrant workers who had left their families behind in rural areas and would travel between the Johannesburg mines and their rural homes.

Now, the dynamic was changing, and families of Africans were putting down permanent roots in Johannesburg. This factor led to white Johannesburgers becoming increasingly wary of their status as a group, which faced becoming a minority. Housing failed to keep up with the mass immigration, and African people ended up living in cramped, squalid conditions.

This dynamic helped propel the National Party to power in 1948. The new government instituted apartheid and enforced the Group Areas Act of 1950 to forcibly relocate African people to different parts of the city. This was furthered by the Natives Resettlement Act of 1954. Johannesburg was a prime target for these new laws, which sought to separate people of different races.

With a heavy-handed approach, the police drove non-whites out of the bustling suburb of Sophiatown and dispersed the different ethnicities to different parts of the city. Such began the growth of the South Western Township (Soweto) as an area designated for Black people.

Coloured* people were moved to Eldorado Park outside Johannesburg, Indians to the suburb of Lenasia, and Chinese people to central Johannesburg.

Author’s note: The term “coloured” is not derogatory in South Africa. It mainly refers to people of mixed-race descent. 

As the years progressed, actions were taken to further entrench apartheid in Johannesburg while the city continued to grow. Draconian policies resulted in strikes and protests, which were broken up by police, often violently.

In this climate, the African National Congress attracted more support, and people like Nelson Mandela fought against an unjust regime.

In 1976, the streets of Soweto erupted in violence as Black people protested the education laws that forced them to learn in Afrikaans. The Soweto Riots followed on June 16, 1976 with the police suppressing the unrest with live ammunition. Hundreds were killed, and the events garnered widespread international attention and condemnation.

Riots spread throughout the country in the following years, and a state of emergency was declared during the 1980s. The South African Defence Force was deployed for policing action as the pushback against apartheid plummeted the country into chaos. By the late 1980s, it was clear that apartheid could no longer be sustained, and negotiations began on dismantling the system and transitioning South Africa to majority rule.

The late 1960s and early 1970s were also a boom time for Johannesburg. South Africa was producing more than two-thirds of the world’s gold, and the gold price during the 1980s was comfortably high, providing significant revenue.

After Apartheid

The fall of apartheid and the election of 1994 heralded a new era for South Africa. The race laws in Johannesburg disappeared as they did all over the country, and racial groups began to mix again. This process happened relatively quickly in Johannesburg in contrast to other regions in South Africa.

In 1995, the streets of Johannesburg erupted in jubilation after the South African rugby team lifted the William Webb Ellis Trophy upon winning the Rugby World Cup, the final being held at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg.

The city was also one of the host cities of the Soccer World Cup in 2010. Despite homeground advantage, South Africa did not make it out of the group stages.

The years following apartheid weren’t all joy and happiness, however. Crime became an acute problem that continues today, driving many businesses from the city center to the suburbs.

The modern city of Johannesburg is huge. Unhindered by geographical features, the city has been able to spread outwards into its flat surroundings. At 1,560 square miles, the urban area of Johannesburg represents the 14th largest city in the world.

Johannesburg is South Africa’s financial hub and home to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in Africa. The city is served by more than 50 airlines flying in and out of O.R. Tambo Airport, and Johannesburg is one of Africa’s biggest travel destinations as people transit through the city to other parts of Africa.

Johannesburg has had, in recent years, a negative reputation as a city of sprawling slums, violence, and pollution. Still, there is another side of Johannesburg that makes it a popular tourist destination. It is home to no less than 150 heritage sites, many of which are national monuments that commemorate the city’s history and multi-racial diversity.

Johannesburg is also cited as the world’s largest artificial urban forest, with ten million trees, giving much of Johannesburg a very green appearance, in stark contrast to the poorer parts of the city, which are characterized by a dusty reddish-brown color. In the summer months, the jacaranda trees prevalent throughout many parts of the city are in full purple bloom.

Today, Johannesburg’s legacy lives on. Just like when it was first established, Johannesburg is a vibrant city of entrepreneurs, full of opportunities for those wishing to exploit Africa’s potential as a marketplace for trade.