A carved stone pendant marking the Rand Rebellion, an armed uprising of white miners in the Witwatersrand in 1922. Inscribed to the front ‘F. Hiles’ alongside an applied red glass bead and on the back ‘Red Revolt 1922’.
The rebellion started as a strike by white mine workers on 28 December 1921 in reaction to mining companies cutting their operating costs by decreasing wages and weakening the colour bar to enable the promotion of cheaper black miners to skilled and supervisory positions. This developed into an open rebellion against the state which was put down by Prime Minister Jan Smuts using 20,000 troops, artillery, tanks, and bomber aircraft. at the cost of over 200 lives.
Dimensions: 3.9 cm tall by 2.6 cm wide by 0.7 cm thick.