Shangaan Bronze Bust by Anton van Wouw, 1907 – Powerful Portrait of a Migrant Labourer Cast by G. Nisini, Rome

Shangaan Bronze Bust by Anton van Wouw, 1907 – Powerful Portrait of a Migrant Labourer Cast by G. Nisini, Rome – inscribed ‘Anton van Wouw / S.A. Joh.burg 1907’ (lower left); inscribed ‘G. Nisini. Fuse. Roma’ (on the base)

bronze 30cm by 20c, by 15cm (including base)

Provenance English Private Collection

The history and social context behind this bronze is fascinating.

The profitability of the South African gold-mining industry depended on the supply of cheap labour from neighbouring countries, including present-day Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and in particular Mozambique. The Portuguese colonial government allowed an annual recruitment of 100,000 labourers from the rural southern provinces of Mozambique, where the Shangaan people lived, accounting for up to 60% of underground mine workers in the Transvaal. The Shangaan were forced to pay for their own visas, transport and clothing, and to work in harsh and dangerous conditions, while their salaries were deferred, paid in gold directly to the Portuguese government.

Anton van Wouw was one of the only artists of the day to examine the plight of these urbanised migrant labourers and the terrible working and living conditions they endured.