Microsoft Word - PhD Thesis Final.pdf - University of Limpopo ...

itself in which people and ideas flow across the borders 514 . The new world
order has emerged devoid of visible structures and of an obvious logic. With
their movements to look for employment outside the borders of the area
which they regarded as their home, the Makgabeng migrant labourers
became part of the emerging network society, and their return to
Makgabeng further brought their area into the global fold.
In the Makgabeng area, although the people had been selling their labour
for a very long time, it was with the discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold
in 1886 that the migrancy of labourers intensified. The movement of
labourers between their homes and their working areas, facilitated and
enhanced trade and technological developments which were soon visible
even in the most remote and rural villages. With new commodities and ideas
from their various working areas, the migrant labourers’ influence in remote
areas such as Makgabeng, became evident. In this process, new identities
were formed, others were shaped, while others were destroyed along the
way. The ways of life of many rural communities came to be influenced to a
very large extent by the hundreds of labourers who periodically left for
employment in other parts of the country, and later returned. In the following
discussion, it will be shown how migrant labour brought about changes in
conjunction with trade and technological advancement in the Makgabeng
area.
514 M. Burawoy, Global Ethnography: Forces, Connections, and Imaginations in a Postmodern
World, p. 1.
293