Apartheid did not begin as apartheid but as a divine religious belief of the early Dutch settlers to South Africa in 1652. The Dutch religious doctrine of that time preached that God had elected a chosen people (Giniewski, 1965), which the Dutch believed were themselves. This dogma preached that there should be no unity between the different races, but segregation of the races(Giniewski, 1965) and that Christians "whites" were given official authority/guardian ship over the natives (Blacks, Indians and Asians)(Giniewski, 1965). This is where the seed of segregation was planted and the unequal development of the races with in South Africa began( Browett,1982). Segregation formed the foundation for what we know now as apartheid and all of its constructs. One of the crucial construct of the development of South Africa was the creation of the migrant labor force. This essay will focus on the crucial role the migrant labour system had in the development of the South African economy and its detrimental effects on the South African family and the South African child. .

             To completely understand the impact that migrant labor has had on the African family and child. It must first be understood why the migrant labor force was created, who benefited from it and how it worked. To understand this we must go back to the beginning of colonialism in Africa.

             With the arrival of the Dutch settlers to the Cape, little did the African people of Cape known that their lives would be changed forever. With the colonization of South Africa by the first Dutch settlers, also came the need for a cheap labor force for the large-scale white owned agricultural production and later labor within white urban areas. The Dutch believed that their darker skin counterparts were an inferior bread. They saw the natives of South Africa as an excellent source of cheap labor. However, the colonizers soon discovered that the original inhabitants of South Africa had a way of life that sustained them and that they had no wish to enter a money economy as laborers.