East London: the creation and development of a frontier community, 1835-1873
- Authors: Tankard, Keith Peter Tempest
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: East London (South Africa) -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2580 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004550 , East London (South Africa) -- History
- Description: From Preface: Although East London exists today as one of the major ports of South Africa, the city appears to have been forgotten by historians. Little has been done to chronicle its history. In 1932, Bruce Gordon set out to initiate this research and he investigated East London's history to the end of 1865. However, Gordon's thesis, though accurate, is short and inadequate by today's standards. Furthermore, no-one continued from where Gordon left off. Several articles have been written over the previous six decades, each dealing with aspects of East London's past but these, on the whole, are inaccurate and misleading. The time is ripe, therefore, to begin again the research into the history of East London. East London owed its foundation to the state of unrest which existed on the eastern frontier of the Cape of Good Hope between 1834 and 1847. Although the geographic and climatic conditions were in the port's favour, East London remained in a suppressed condition until about 1870. It is the purpose of this thesis to examine the factors which gave rise to this truncated growth. The thesis will examine first the wider perspective of imperial and colonial policy in which East London was conceived and in which it had its early existence. The implications of this policy for East London at the various levels of the port's development will be explored in subsequent chapters. British and Cape colonial policy, however, evolved in a chronological sequence and so the examination of this policy likewise will tend to follow a chronological pattern within each chapter. The establishment of Port Rex in November/December 1836 enters into East London's story in several ways: its political development, the creation and development of the harbour on the Buffalo River, the evolution of trade, the growth of the community and the status of the black population at the mouth of the Buffalo River. It has been found necessary, therefore, to refer often to this beginning of East London's history. Although several theses have already been written which deal with topics related to British Kaffraria, none of these do more than allude to the creation and development of East London. Although, for example, the German Settlers played an important role in the growth of the port, Schnell's thesis hardly mentions the two communities at Panmure and Cambridge. The research for this thesis led me to two important and little known sources of early information, both in Cape Town. The first was the multiple volumed "Unsorted Archives" on East London which consists of reports and letters to the Resident Magistrate. It is a treasure chest of information on East London's early years. The second source was G.M. Theal's newspapers, The Kaffrarian Recorder and East London Shipping Gazette and, later, The Kaffrarian, East London's second newspaper which was believed to have been lost until copies were discovered recently in the South African Library in Cape Town. Theal, later prominent as a historian, had a clear insight into the problems which confronted the community at East London and the editorials of his newspaper make interesting reading. East London's first newspaper is, unfortunately, still lost. It was the East London Times which had its first issue in January 1863, and lasted a mere two months. It consisted of half a sheet of foolscap printed on one side, the other side being left blank, the editor of the King William's Town Gazette wrote, "'for want of room' or from lack of matter."
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- Date Issued: 1985
Philip Gibbs: war correspondent of a new dispensation
- Authors: Woodward, Christina Anna
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Gibbs, Philip, 1877-1962 , War correspondents , War -- Press coverage , Mass media and war , Journalists
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2577 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003126 , Gibbs, Philip, 1877-1962 , War correspondents , War -- Press coverage , Mass media and war , Journalists
- Description: The process of democratization which appeared in the nineteenth century was partly responsible for the emergence of a mass readership. It consisted of the new urban population which had its own tastes and interests, intellectual capacity and purchasing power. The popular press was firmly established by 1900 and it radically altered the scope and style of daily journalism in its attempt to speak in the language of the majority. Philip Gibbs was one of the prominent journalists between 1900 and 1914. His aspiration to become a war correspondent stemmed from the image of the war correspondent as a figure of romance and adventure, the consequence of the militarist spirit of the age and the licence which granted him freedom of movement. Inevitably, the war correspondent carne in conflict with the military which had not kept pace with democratization and sensed a challenge to itself and to national security. Censorship and restrictions on the war correspondent tightened, until major army reforms between 1901 and 1912 brought more cordial relations between the press and the military. When the Great War broke out in 1914 the co-operative atmosphere broke down as censorship was reinstated, more severely than before. It challenged the freedom of the press and the right of the people to know. Gibbs was determined that the people should have access to news from the front. He fought hard for that objective and was instrumental in the compromise reached between the military and the press when an officially recognized system was devised for press representation on the Western Front. The wisdom of such a move was shown by the success of Philip Gibbs' war correspondence, which had appeal to a mass readership in its own language and with subjects of interest to it.
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- Date Issued: 1985
The development of the system of individual tenure for Africans: with special reference to the Glen Grey Act, c1894-1922
- Authors: Ally, Russell Thomas
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- History , Labor policy -- South Africa -- History , Black people -- Employment -- South Africa -- History , South Africa -- Politics and government -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2576 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003122 , Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- History , Labor policy -- South Africa -- History , Black people -- Employment -- South Africa -- History , South Africa -- Politics and government -- History
- Description: The Glen Grey Act was promulgated in August 1894. The main provisions of the Act were for the survey into individual allotments of land held tribally and for a system of local self-government. Described by its originator, C.J. Rhodes, as a 'Bill for Africa, it was first applied to the district of Glen Grey and subsequently extended (in a piece-meal fashion) to a number of districts in the Transkei. The Act was introduced at a crucial stage in South Africa's history. During this period the country stood poised on the threshhold of a significant and far-reaching transformation. The South Africa of 'old', predominantly agricultural and rural was giving way to a 'new' South Africa, modern and industrial. At the centre of this development was the mineral discoveries of the 1860s and 1880s. The period of colonial conquest had also virtually been completed. Most of the hitherto independent African chiefdoms had either been broken up or were under European control. The most urgent problem which now faced the new rulers was devising a policy to govern the millions of black people over whom they had assumed responsibility. Of crucial concern was the creation of working class to minister to the needs of the developing economy. This task was made all the more difficult by the divisions which existed among the ruling groups at the time. To all intents and purposes the country was made up of essentially four independent and autonomous regions. Although the economic changes which were taking place would hasten the unification of the country, until that happened it was well-nigh impossible for a uniform 'native policy' to take shape. The inevitable consequence was the emergence of a number of regional responses to what was essentially a country-wide issue. As the unification of South Africa drew closer however these different regional responses began to vie with each other for supremacy at a national level. The Glen Grey policy then was the response of the Cape to the changes which were taking place in the country. As such, it drew much of its inspiration from the traditions which had developed in the Cape Colony. Its initiators did not however view it as only a regional policy. For them it had applicability to the whole country. It was therefore to be expected that they would attempt to 'sell' their policy to the rest of the country. In the end however it won few adherents outside of the Cape Colony and when Union became an established fact it bowed out to a policy favoured largely by the northern provinces. To be sure the Glen Grey system did linger on for a while in those districts where it had first been applied but it would not be long before it was to fall into official disapproval. While the Glen Grey Act was ushered in with much fanfare and vaunted expectations, its demise was silent and ignominous. The grandiose course which it had charted for the taking-in-hand of the 'native question' came to naught, as did the profound and far-reaching changes which it was believed the policy would inaugurate. The origins of this policy, its implementation and actual working, and the reasons why in the end it foundered and was abandoned will be the main themes of this thesis.
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- Date Issued: 1985