Masculinity and Madness

Black workers, intent on maintaining a masculine identity, were housed in mine ‘compounds’ which, in terms of design and layout and the number of workers they accommodated, were more akin to prisons than mass male working-class housing. Sexual behaviour there often had more in common with that found in prisons than among the general working population. Underground, miners were exposed to the dreaded—often fatal—lung-lacerating disease of silicosis that led to other illnesses such as pneumonia or tuberculosis. Extreme mental and physical conditions contributed to the excessive use of alcohol and cannabis by miners which, in turn, contributed to mental illness. The ‘down’ trains, as the chapter explains, were provided with a special compartment for transporting mentally disturbed miners home.