84 Book R,vinfs
only be destroyed by raising the condition of the black workers, rathel' than by combining
against than.
The travels in writing the Agrarlan Problem exposed MacMillan to what he caIlcd the
'poor-black' question. and led to his major work. Complex South Africa (1930) (p6O~ ...
scholarly and passionate interVention against the segregationists". By now MacMilllllbad
come to see that the solution to South Africa's problems lay inraising the condition ofbleck
WOtkers. In Complex Sooth Africa MacMil1l11lwrote (p6O):
"Colour may be a peculiar social complication. but is is still only an accideilt, II1din
economics the blackness of the native makes no difference. The problem he
represents is in essentials that of 'dilution', familiar edOugh to workers in~
when the war trought about IIIl invasion of the skilled engineering trades by
WODle1l".
Krikler concludes this picture of MacMillan by analysing his writings about the 1919
and 1922 strikes on the Rand. MacMillan was strongly opposed to the 'Soviet' direction of
the 1919 incidents, ootwithstanding the follies of the City Council. which precipitated the
strike. He consistently advocated moderation on both sides of the 1922 strike, and, unlike
his friends, became neither a scab nor a special constable. "Iknew that the best of the men
had a case" (p63). Yet Krikler criticises MacMillllll's writings on 1922 (p65):
"A gifted historian such as he should surely have pel'ceived that an insurrectiOlllllY
struggle cannot beexplained by complaining of the implacability of the conteIKlin&
social forces that compose it....What made their clash so unremitting? An analysis
of such questions was more likely to create the sympathy for the strikers which
MacMillan, in his decency, sought to create. Such analysis, howevel', would have
required IIIl emphasis upon the essential class nature of the fateful combat of 1922.
And it was precisely 'class struggle' from which MacMillllll was taking flight".
In short, MacMillan's moderation prevented him from undel'standing the great social
issues of his day. Just as one cannot be moderate about whethel' the earth is round or flat,
amoderate, or classless, analysis of the 1922revolt prevents historical understanding of that
revolt. Similarly, no mattel' the degree of sympathy which MacMillan had for 'black'
people, his racism indenying the (P70) "semi-barbaric masses &Swamping vote" meant that
he was politically the enemy of democracy.
Reviewed by Renfrew Christie, Univel'Sity of the Western Cape, South Africa.
(no references supplied. Ed)
Maids and Madams. Domestic Workers Under Apartheid, Jacklyn Cock, The Women's
Press, LoOOon, 1989 (rev) (206pp, £6,95 pbk).
In the wake of increased international intc'ZestinSouth Africa, the Women's PressofLoOOon
has issued an updated and revised version of Jacklyn Cock's Maids and Madams. This
volume has virtually become a classic of South Africllll social science. Based on Cock's
PhD research in the Eastern Cape in 1978-9, Maids and Madams forcefully depicts the
lives of black women domestic workers under apartheid.
This work is representative of a range of writing by South African ICadmrlcs who are
committed to the overthrow of the apartheid system. Cock makes 00 attempt to hide her bias
in collating data from interviews with 175 domestic workers and SO employers. Herresearch
was "1mdertaken in the belief that sociologists in South Africa have a puticuIar obligation
to record the injustice and exploitation that surround us and of which we lI'e all too often a
contributing part". The main thrust of this wed wu not lost on at leutsome ultrarightwing
white South AfriCIIIIB.Maida and Madams elicited a steady campaign of Im-usment of
Cock. Attacks againlt the Witwaterstrand University lecturer culminated in late 1980 with
a bundle of dynamite being thrown through her front window IS she ate a late night dinner.
Only a faulty fuse saved Ms Cock from the lot of other assusinated white South African
intellectuals IlUChas David Webster, Ruth First and Richard Turner.
Even ten years later there is much in this book that would anger a significant portion of
the white population of South Africa. The power of this study lies in the repeated use of the
voices of the domestic workers themselves. The sensitive rendering of the interview
material was a product of Cock's diligence and the efforts of 'Iteld worker' (co-authorrnight
be a better title) Nobengazi Mary Kola. Kola, herself a former domestic worker, did all the
in depth interviews with the women. By dwelling on essential aspects of the domestic
workers' existence, Cock and Kota have presented a grim portrait of the lives of these
'trapped' women labourers.
Perhaps the most compelling chapter is entitled "Deprivations". Here many workers
reveal the intimate details of the oppressive routine apartheid has carved out for then them:
"We leave our children early in the morning to look after other women's families and
still they don't appreciate us" (pM).
"I never sleep at home with my husband and children. Even if! have a half day off.!
1 have to come back and sleep at night" (p54).
"I don't have time for friends visiting" (p46).
Similarly telling were the responses the workers gave when asked to name the best thing
about their job or employer (p55):
"There is nothing good to say. My job is hell" .
"Perhaps that sometimes her daughter gives me a tip or ajersey but thenmy employer
moans and says she is spoiling me".
"She SWell'S at me in a polite kind of way".
"She does greet me in the mornings".
If the comments of workers seem to reveal an excessively negative picture of their
employers, Cock's chronicling of employer responses hardly vindicates white 'bosses' and
'madams'. When asked to describe their workers, typical depictions were:
"An impossible thing, very self-willed, she is the first girl I've had that's gone to
school...The completely raw ones lI'e better (pl13).
"She is all right as long as she doesn't drink out of my cups" (114).
''In Rhodesia (sic) a boy does three times the work these do" (119).
In additioo., employers' general comments about black people often showed the most
undiluted racist views (P140):
"They have got a long way to go in evolutionary terms. Putting them in European
clothes doesn't mike them civilised".
86 Book Review&
Through the extensive use of such excerpts from the interviews, Cock has produced ahanh
yet readable indictment of the effects of apartheid on a major sector of the black workforce.
This trimmed down version of the original has lost none of its strength. In filet die
eliminllion of certain sections which focused on somewhat esoteric academic debetes
enhances the essmtial message of the mthor.
Yet for all its power, Maids and Madams has not completely stood the test of time. In
the 197011most writers on the South African experience were primarily concerned with
showing the oppressive nature of the apIIItheid system. However, more recent scholmbip
has also embraced the various ways in which black people in general and wOlken in
particullr have resisted apartheid. Writers such as Van Onse1en and Bozzoli of die
Witwatersrand History Workshop, llJllODg others, have examined both trade union
organisation and nonformal methods of worker resistance (such as theft, desertion, goslows,
and sabotage). By drawing attention to resistance, these mthors have emphuised
that black workers are far more than passive victims of an apartheid system.
Cock's work does not give us this fighting side of the domestic worker. She has tried
to address this '(Xoblem by adding a short chapter entided "Struggles". This briefly
describes the role of the domestic workers union during the 19808. But "Struggles" seems
cursory. While domestic workers have become somewhat unionised, their organisation has
hardly approached that of the metalworkers or mineworkers. Much more important than
formal union resistance are the informal ways in which domestic workers resist their
oppression. In fact, the domestic workers' environment presents a wide variety of
opportunities for such informal resistance - from the classic 'borrowing' of large quantities
of sugar to wearing the madam's best dress to a wedding and sneaking it back into the
wardrobe on Monday morning. In her excessive focus on the oppressive nature of lIbour
under apartheid, Cock has omitted another important side of the work experience of the
women she and Kota interviewed.
In addition, Cock's main concern here is with race and gender. While the position of
the South African domestic work force is largely conditioned by these two factors, the writfr
has avoided giving much weight to class. As we are hopefully near the downfall of the
apartheid regime, one wonders if black women domestic workers will fare much better
under a majority rule government. IfZimbabwe is anything to go by, there is litde reason
to think that rule by the ANC or some coalition of forces will spell total liberation for
domestic workers. Cock could have given us a hint of things to come by including in her
sample some black households which employed domestic workers.
In spite of these shortcomings, Jacklyn Cock's Maids and Madams remains •
masterpiece of both research rigour and political commitment. She and Kola deserve to be
commended and creatively emulated by other social scientists who share their conoem to
eliminate race, gender and class inequalities.
Reviewed by Jolm Pape, Harare.
References
Bozzoli Belinda (00) (1983) Town and Countryslde,ln the Transvaal, RavanPress,
Johannesburg.
Van Onselen Charles (1982) E8says on the Social and Economk: History or the
Wltswatersrand, Vols I and ll, Ravan Press, Johannesburg.