Chinese Immigrants and Underground Lotteries in South Africa: Negotiating Spaces at the Cusp of a Racial-Capitalist Order

This article reviews the history of an illegal Chinese-run numbers game or lottery in South Africa. Structurally very similar to games played by Chinese immigrants in the USA, fahfee operations (or banks) provided an illicit accumulation strategy, which allowed entrepreneurial Chinese immigrants to survive at the margins of a discriminatory racial–capitalist order, and to use these enterprises as a platform to enter the mainstream white economy. Fahfee was a tactic through which the subordinate were able to contest and negotiate the repressive strategies of the socio-political elite. The discussion of fahfee is set against the background of successive waves of Chinese immigration to South Africa, from the slaves and convict labour imported by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century to more recent immigration from Taiwan and the Peoples Republic of China. The article draws on a wide variety of historical material, the literature on both gambling and Chinese migration, and interviews with contemporary fahfee bankers.