helotage

He called the post-war settlement and the Act of Union their great betrayal, which had reduced them to political helotage '.

Class & Colour in South Africa 1850-1950 - Chapter 13 Ray Esther 1969

And when the burden loaded on our bent backs becomes absolutely unbearable we are at times inclined to blame ourselves; for, when some of us fought hard -- and often against British diplomacy -- to extend the sphere of British influence, it never occurred to us that the spread of British dominion in South Africa would culminate in consigning us to our present intolerable position, namely, a helotage under a Boer oligarchy.

Chapter XXIV Solomon Tshekisho 1916

Although there were some chattel-type privately owned slaves, the dominant form of servitude here was a kind of collective serfdom, known as helotage.

The Guardian World News 2010