Settler women's experiences of fear, illness and isolation, with particular reference to the Eastern Cape Frontier, 1820-1890
- Authors: Dampier, Helen
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: Women -- South Africa -- History , Women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- History , British settlers of 1820 (South Africa) , Frontier and pioneer life -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2537 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002389 , Women -- South Africa -- History , Women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- History , British settlers of 1820 (South Africa) , Frontier and pioneer life -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis is an exploration of diaries and letters written by middle-class English-speaking settler women living on the Eastern Cape frontier between 1820 and 1890. By according primacy to these women’s experiences and perceptions, it aims for a greater understanding of women’s encounters with the frontier, and how these were articulated in their personal writing. An emphasis on the recurrent themes of ill-health, fearfulness and solitude undermines the popular myth of the brave, conquering, invincible pioneers which dominates settler historiography to date. The tensions felt by white women living on the frontier disrupted their identities as middle-class Victorian ‘ladies’, and as a result these women either constantly re-established a sense of self, or absorbed some aspects of the Eastern Cape, and thus redefined themselves. Settler women’s experiences of the frontier changed little during the seventy year period spanned by this study, indicating that frontier life led to a rigidification and reinforcement of old, familiar values and behaviours. Rather than adapting to and embracing their new surroundings, settler women sought to duplicate accepted, conventional Victorian ideals and customs. White Victorian women identified themselves as refined, civilized, moral and respectable, and perceived Africa and Africans as untamed, immoral, uncivilized and threatening. To keep these menacing, destabilizing forces at bay, settler women attempted to recreate ‘home’ in the Eastern Cape; to domesticate the frontier by rendering it as familiar and predictable as possible. The fear, illness and solitariness that characterise settler women’s personal writings manifest their attempts to eliminate alienating difference, and record their refusal to truly engage with the frontier landscape and its inhabitants.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2000
- Authors: Dampier, Helen
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: Women -- South Africa -- History , Women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- History , British settlers of 1820 (South Africa) , Frontier and pioneer life -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2537 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002389 , Women -- South Africa -- History , Women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Women -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- History , British settlers of 1820 (South Africa) , Frontier and pioneer life -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis is an exploration of diaries and letters written by middle-class English-speaking settler women living on the Eastern Cape frontier between 1820 and 1890. By according primacy to these women’s experiences and perceptions, it aims for a greater understanding of women’s encounters with the frontier, and how these were articulated in their personal writing. An emphasis on the recurrent themes of ill-health, fearfulness and solitude undermines the popular myth of the brave, conquering, invincible pioneers which dominates settler historiography to date. The tensions felt by white women living on the frontier disrupted their identities as middle-class Victorian ‘ladies’, and as a result these women either constantly re-established a sense of self, or absorbed some aspects of the Eastern Cape, and thus redefined themselves. Settler women’s experiences of the frontier changed little during the seventy year period spanned by this study, indicating that frontier life led to a rigidification and reinforcement of old, familiar values and behaviours. Rather than adapting to and embracing their new surroundings, settler women sought to duplicate accepted, conventional Victorian ideals and customs. White Victorian women identified themselves as refined, civilized, moral and respectable, and perceived Africa and Africans as untamed, immoral, uncivilized and threatening. To keep these menacing, destabilizing forces at bay, settler women attempted to recreate ‘home’ in the Eastern Cape; to domesticate the frontier by rendering it as familiar and predictable as possible. The fear, illness and solitariness that characterise settler women’s personal writings manifest their attempts to eliminate alienating difference, and record their refusal to truly engage with the frontier landscape and its inhabitants.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2000
Re-creating home: British colonialism, culture and the Zuurveld environment in the nineteenth century
- Authors: Payne, Jill
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Imperialism -- Social aspects , Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa , Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2552 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002404 , Imperialism -- Social aspects , Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa , Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: This thesis centres on the environmental impact of British colonialism in the Zuurveld during the nineteenth century. Within this context, it addresses the extent to which human-engineered environmental change is dictated by cultural mindset. Consideration of the links between culture and landscape transformation illuminates a little-considered aspect of the colonial experience in the Zuurveld. The British worldview at the turn of the eighteenth century is examined, with special reference to attitudes towards the environment. The changes which occurred in this attitude while the colonists adjusted to a foreign environment are traced. Precolonial societies manipulated the environment to a certain extent, but it was the British colonists who were to have the most profound effect on the ecosystem. The colonists impacted on the Zuurveld in a variety of ways. Much of the environmental change they induced resulted from their attempts to construct a familiar world from the alien landscape surrounding them. Attempts to "re-create home" in the Zuurveld were closely linked to the desire to exert control over what was to the colonists an "untamed wilderness." To this end land was cleared and new land use methods put into practice. Wildlife species threatening productivity were eliminated or forced through loss of habitat to retreat to the peripheries of the settlement. Exotic flora and fauna took the place of indigenes. The introduction of a capitalist economy meant that greater demands were made on the carrying capacity of the land. Conservation legislation introduced to limit increasing environmental degradation and protect commercial productivity simultaneously limited African access to the environment. Control of the land was closely linked to control of Africans: their labour was needed to facilitate the subjugation of the environment. Only through an appreciation of the British colonial mentality can changes to the Zuurveld environment during the nineteenth century be fully understood. Consequently, this study indicates that cultural mindset can play a pivotal role in shaping the environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
- Authors: Payne, Jill
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Imperialism -- Social aspects , Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa , Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2552 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002404 , Imperialism -- Social aspects , Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa , Imperialism -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: This thesis centres on the environmental impact of British colonialism in the Zuurveld during the nineteenth century. Within this context, it addresses the extent to which human-engineered environmental change is dictated by cultural mindset. Consideration of the links between culture and landscape transformation illuminates a little-considered aspect of the colonial experience in the Zuurveld. The British worldview at the turn of the eighteenth century is examined, with special reference to attitudes towards the environment. The changes which occurred in this attitude while the colonists adjusted to a foreign environment are traced. Precolonial societies manipulated the environment to a certain extent, but it was the British colonists who were to have the most profound effect on the ecosystem. The colonists impacted on the Zuurveld in a variety of ways. Much of the environmental change they induced resulted from their attempts to construct a familiar world from the alien landscape surrounding them. Attempts to "re-create home" in the Zuurveld were closely linked to the desire to exert control over what was to the colonists an "untamed wilderness." To this end land was cleared and new land use methods put into practice. Wildlife species threatening productivity were eliminated or forced through loss of habitat to retreat to the peripheries of the settlement. Exotic flora and fauna took the place of indigenes. The introduction of a capitalist economy meant that greater demands were made on the carrying capacity of the land. Conservation legislation introduced to limit increasing environmental degradation and protect commercial productivity simultaneously limited African access to the environment. Control of the land was closely linked to control of Africans: their labour was needed to facilitate the subjugation of the environment. Only through an appreciation of the British colonial mentality can changes to the Zuurveld environment during the nineteenth century be fully understood. Consequently, this study indicates that cultural mindset can play a pivotal role in shaping the environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
A social history of white working class women in industrializing Port Elizabeth, 1917-1936
- Authors: Gibbs, Patricia Anne
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Women -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History , Women -- Employment -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History , Port Elizabeth (South Africa) -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2543 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002395 , Women -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History , Women -- Employment -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History , Port Elizabeth (South Africa) -- History
- Description: The study period saw a significant increase in the urbanisation of whites and blacks in Port Elizabeth induced by droughts and coercive legislation, but also by burgeoning industrialisation. Industry had been given great stimulus by World War 1 and maintained by protectionist legislation in the 1920s which the local state and industrialists came to endorse. The ethos of the town was overwhelmingly British in terms of the population, the composition of the local council, business interests and the prevailing culture. Whites formed the largest component of the population in Port Elizabeth during the inter-war years. The majority of white women lived in the North End, the industrial hub and a major working class area of the city. Although the provision of housing was initially neglected, economic and subeconomic housing in the 1930s helped to create both racial separation and a sense of community between sectors of the working class. Yet, white working class women did not form a homogenous group, but rather consisted of different ethnic groups, occupations and classes. The Afrikaans speaking sector, formed a significant component of the industrial labour force especially in the leather, food and beverage and clothing industries. In a centre where white labour was favoured and marketed as an advantage to outside investors, they rapidly displaced coloured women. The female workforce was basically young, underpaid (especially in comparison to wages on the Rand) and temporary. While white women were still in evidence in other occupations such as domestic work and in the informal sector, their numbers here steadily diminished as both racial segregation and municipal regulation, were implemented. Against a background of chaotic social conditions, large slum areas and the spread of infectious diseases, the local council did much to improve health services particularly for women and children. Poor relief instituted in 1919 was, however, less forthcoming and female - headed households were often left to rely on the services of local welfare organisations. The extended family, however, was the norm affording support against atomization. Although pressurised by social ills throughout the period, the family was increasingly buttressed by state assistance. Prevailing morality was likewise actively constructed in terms of legislative repression and racial division. This often lead to social aberrations such as infanticide which was only reduced by the increase of state assistance and, in the longer term, social mobility of the whites.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Gibbs, Patricia Anne
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Women -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History , Women -- Employment -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History , Port Elizabeth (South Africa) -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2543 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002395 , Women -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History , Women -- Employment -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth -- History , Port Elizabeth (South Africa) -- History
- Description: The study period saw a significant increase in the urbanisation of whites and blacks in Port Elizabeth induced by droughts and coercive legislation, but also by burgeoning industrialisation. Industry had been given great stimulus by World War 1 and maintained by protectionist legislation in the 1920s which the local state and industrialists came to endorse. The ethos of the town was overwhelmingly British in terms of the population, the composition of the local council, business interests and the prevailing culture. Whites formed the largest component of the population in Port Elizabeth during the inter-war years. The majority of white women lived in the North End, the industrial hub and a major working class area of the city. Although the provision of housing was initially neglected, economic and subeconomic housing in the 1930s helped to create both racial separation and a sense of community between sectors of the working class. Yet, white working class women did not form a homogenous group, but rather consisted of different ethnic groups, occupations and classes. The Afrikaans speaking sector, formed a significant component of the industrial labour force especially in the leather, food and beverage and clothing industries. In a centre where white labour was favoured and marketed as an advantage to outside investors, they rapidly displaced coloured women. The female workforce was basically young, underpaid (especially in comparison to wages on the Rand) and temporary. While white women were still in evidence in other occupations such as domestic work and in the informal sector, their numbers here steadily diminished as both racial segregation and municipal regulation, were implemented. Against a background of chaotic social conditions, large slum areas and the spread of infectious diseases, the local council did much to improve health services particularly for women and children. Poor relief instituted in 1919 was, however, less forthcoming and female - headed households were often left to rely on the services of local welfare organisations. The extended family, however, was the norm affording support against atomization. Although pressurised by social ills throughout the period, the family was increasingly buttressed by state assistance. Prevailing morality was likewise actively constructed in terms of legislative repression and racial division. This often lead to social aberrations such as infanticide which was only reduced by the increase of state assistance and, in the longer term, social mobility of the whites.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
Colonial policies and the failure of Somali secessionism in the Northern frontier district of Kenya colony, c.1890-1968
- Authors: Abdullahi, Abdirashid
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Somalis -- Kenya -- History , Kenya -- History -- 1963- , Kenya -- Politics and government , Decolonization -- Kenya -- History -- 20th century , Kenya -- History -- To 1963
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2532 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002384 , Somalis -- Kenya -- History , Kenya -- History -- 1963- , Kenya -- Politics and government , Decolonization -- Kenya -- History -- 20th century , Kenya -- History -- To 1963
- Description: This thesis examines the events that took plac,e. in the Northern Frontier District I North Eastern Province of Kenya hetween the late nineteenth century and 1968. After 1900 the imposition of colonial policies impacted on the socio-economic and political structures of the Somali people. This thesis also examines the nature of Somali resistance l\P- to the late 1920s when Somali society was finally pacified. It further examines colonial policies such as the creation of the Somali-Galla line in 1919, the separation of the J uhaland region from the Kenya Colony in 1926 and the Special District Ordinance of 1934. Between 1946 and 1948 the British Government through its Foreign Minister, Ernest Bevin, attempted to unify Somali territories in the Horn of Africa and this raised Somali hopes of uni fication. The Bevin Plan collapsed because of the opposition of the United States, the Soviet Union, the French and Ethiopian leaders. Similar hopes of NFD Somali unification were raised hetween 1958 and 1963 because of the unification of the former British Somali land and Italian Somaliland. Due to the imminent end of British colonial rule in Kenya, the NFD Somali leaders demanded secession from Kenya to join up with the nascent Somali republic. But the NFDSomali hopes of unification with the Somali Repuhlic were dashed by 1964 because of the same opposition provided by the United States, the French and the Ethiopians. The British Government were all along half-hearted towards Somali unification attempts even though the field administrators adopted a pro-Somali attitude to the issue. In the early 1960s, however, the NFD Somali leaders were faced with the additional opposition of the new KANU government in Kenya. In 1964 the failure of the NFD Somalis to secede from Kenya led to the guerrilla war, what the Kenyan government called the 'shifta movement', that engulfed the North Eastern Region until 1968 when the Arusha Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Kenyan and the Somali Governments. The signing of the Arusha Memorandum of Understanding by the Kenyan and Somali Governments did not satisfy· the NFD Somalis hopes of joining the Somali Republic. The main conclusion of this thesis is that the N FD Somalis, except for few collahorators, did at no time, whether in the colonial or post-colonial eras, accept heing in Kenya. By the late 1960s the prospects of NFD Somalis unifying with the Somali Republic were, in view of the forces arrayed against the Somali secessionist movement, slim; and they have remained slim since then.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Abdullahi, Abdirashid
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Somalis -- Kenya -- History , Kenya -- History -- 1963- , Kenya -- Politics and government , Decolonization -- Kenya -- History -- 20th century , Kenya -- History -- To 1963
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2532 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002384 , Somalis -- Kenya -- History , Kenya -- History -- 1963- , Kenya -- Politics and government , Decolonization -- Kenya -- History -- 20th century , Kenya -- History -- To 1963
- Description: This thesis examines the events that took plac,e. in the Northern Frontier District I North Eastern Province of Kenya hetween the late nineteenth century and 1968. After 1900 the imposition of colonial policies impacted on the socio-economic and political structures of the Somali people. This thesis also examines the nature of Somali resistance l\P- to the late 1920s when Somali society was finally pacified. It further examines colonial policies such as the creation of the Somali-Galla line in 1919, the separation of the J uhaland region from the Kenya Colony in 1926 and the Special District Ordinance of 1934. Between 1946 and 1948 the British Government through its Foreign Minister, Ernest Bevin, attempted to unify Somali territories in the Horn of Africa and this raised Somali hopes of uni fication. The Bevin Plan collapsed because of the opposition of the United States, the Soviet Union, the French and Ethiopian leaders. Similar hopes of NFD Somali unification were raised hetween 1958 and 1963 because of the unification of the former British Somali land and Italian Somaliland. Due to the imminent end of British colonial rule in Kenya, the NFD Somali leaders demanded secession from Kenya to join up with the nascent Somali republic. But the NFDSomali hopes of unification with the Somali Repuhlic were dashed by 1964 because of the same opposition provided by the United States, the French and the Ethiopians. The British Government were all along half-hearted towards Somali unification attempts even though the field administrators adopted a pro-Somali attitude to the issue. In the early 1960s, however, the NFD Somali leaders were faced with the additional opposition of the new KANU government in Kenya. In 1964 the failure of the NFD Somalis to secede from Kenya led to the guerrilla war, what the Kenyan government called the 'shifta movement', that engulfed the North Eastern Region until 1968 when the Arusha Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Kenyan and the Somali Governments. The signing of the Arusha Memorandum of Understanding by the Kenyan and Somali Governments did not satisfy· the NFD Somalis hopes of joining the Somali Republic. The main conclusion of this thesis is that the N FD Somalis, except for few collahorators, did at no time, whether in the colonial or post-colonial eras, accept heing in Kenya. By the late 1960s the prospects of NFD Somalis unifying with the Somali Republic were, in view of the forces arrayed against the Somali secessionist movement, slim; and they have remained slim since then.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
Conservatism and change: the refashioning of gender relations from 1870 to 1914: a case study of East London
- Authors: Vernon, Gillian Noël
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Women -- South Africa -- East London , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Women's rights -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2567 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002420 , Women -- South Africa -- East London , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Women's rights -- South Africa
- Description: This is a case study of East London from 1870 to 1914 with gender as the critical analytical category. The focus is on change in the structure of gender relations, evaluated in terms of the recognition of the rights of women and their status in society and women of all race groups are dealt with. A feature of the source material has been the use made of oral history where interviews were conducted with the descendants of women who lived during the study period. There were many indirect factors which had a retrogressive influence on progressive change in the rights and position of women. The initial small size of the population and unbalanced gender ratios, the few natural resources, a small and limited port and periodic unpredictable natural disasters gave rise to a 'boom and burst' economy with very little industry. The result was that initially the women were very conservative and unwilling to make social changes. The military occupation and the outbreak of hostilities in the late 1870s affected social and racial attitudes detrimentally. The entrenched patriarchal system, under which both black and white women lived, and the legal controls, particularly in the marital situation, reinforced the subordination of women, making the system difficult to break. Further conservative forces were at work with the European class system being well entrenched, with most women working for upward mobility, gentrification and respectability. Wealth was critical in determining status and those women from the working class, who had achieved some degree of wealth and status, were not prepared to challenge the system. Religion was important for nearly all white women and converted black women, but was a retarding influence in the growth of feminist consciousness. Little progress was made in improving the condition of women who transgressed the law, the non-respectable women, and ethnicity made no difference. Progress was made in gender relations for women in some fields. The reduction in family size and the improvement in health, gave women more time and energy for public affairs. Participation in sport helped women discard the image of being weak and frail and also improved health. Educational opportunities allowed some to get tertiary training and obtain proper qualifications to earn a living for themselves. Xhosa women who came into the town, made a major break with traditional society and many became independent. The major impetus for change came through women's associations, where women actively worked together and achieved some positive results. Middle class white women could earn an independent living without losing respectability, although it was accepted that women should give up paid employment on marriage. Black women broke traditional ties and many urban women became independent. Conditions for working class and non-respectable women changed very little. A deduction is that many women, both white and black, had sympathy for one another and they created a fund of goodwill on both sides of the colour line.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Vernon, Gillian Noël
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Women -- South Africa -- East London , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Women's rights -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2567 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002420 , Women -- South Africa -- East London , Women -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Women's rights -- South Africa
- Description: This is a case study of East London from 1870 to 1914 with gender as the critical analytical category. The focus is on change in the structure of gender relations, evaluated in terms of the recognition of the rights of women and their status in society and women of all race groups are dealt with. A feature of the source material has been the use made of oral history where interviews were conducted with the descendants of women who lived during the study period. There were many indirect factors which had a retrogressive influence on progressive change in the rights and position of women. The initial small size of the population and unbalanced gender ratios, the few natural resources, a small and limited port and periodic unpredictable natural disasters gave rise to a 'boom and burst' economy with very little industry. The result was that initially the women were very conservative and unwilling to make social changes. The military occupation and the outbreak of hostilities in the late 1870s affected social and racial attitudes detrimentally. The entrenched patriarchal system, under which both black and white women lived, and the legal controls, particularly in the marital situation, reinforced the subordination of women, making the system difficult to break. Further conservative forces were at work with the European class system being well entrenched, with most women working for upward mobility, gentrification and respectability. Wealth was critical in determining status and those women from the working class, who had achieved some degree of wealth and status, were not prepared to challenge the system. Religion was important for nearly all white women and converted black women, but was a retarding influence in the growth of feminist consciousness. Little progress was made in improving the condition of women who transgressed the law, the non-respectable women, and ethnicity made no difference. Progress was made in gender relations for women in some fields. The reduction in family size and the improvement in health, gave women more time and energy for public affairs. Participation in sport helped women discard the image of being weak and frail and also improved health. Educational opportunities allowed some to get tertiary training and obtain proper qualifications to earn a living for themselves. Xhosa women who came into the town, made a major break with traditional society and many became independent. The major impetus for change came through women's associations, where women actively worked together and achieved some positive results. Middle class white women could earn an independent living without losing respectability, although it was accepted that women should give up paid employment on marriage. Black women broke traditional ties and many urban women became independent. Conditions for working class and non-respectable women changed very little. A deduction is that many women, both white and black, had sympathy for one another and they created a fund of goodwill on both sides of the colour line.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
F C Erasmus and the politics of South African defence, 1948-1959
- Authors: Boulter, Roger Stephen
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Erasmus, F C (Francois Christiaan) South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1948-1961 South Africa -- Armed Forces -- History South Africa -- Military policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2534 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002386
- Description: FC Erasmus became South Africa's defence minister in 1948 after two decades as a leading political organiser for the National Party. Although an architect of the Nationalists' post-war election victory he was not considered a minister of the first rank. Erasmus initiated a process of ridding the defence force of officers who he believed were associated with the Smuts government and replacing them with party supporters. As a result the military often lost experienced and talented officers. Erasmus felt that the armed services had been too British in ethos and appearance. He inaugurated tighter regulations on bi-lingualism, reintroduced boer rank titles, launched new uniforms and original medals and decorations, to the acclaim of the volk. His purpose was to have a defence force which was uniquely South African. Many of his policies came under attack not only from the United Party but also groups such as the Torch Commando and the veterans organisations. With the apparent lack of an imminent military threat to the apartheid government Erasmus never received substantial budgetary allocations from finance ministers. The defence force, one without conscription, remained small with largely antiquated equipment for the important air and land forces. However by the decade's end the navy was gradually receiving modern ships under the terms of the Simonstown agreement, which Erasmus had negotiated with Britain. The events of the Sharpeville crisis, just after Erasmus left defence, demonstrated that the armed forces as moulded by the minister were in poor condition to assist the civil power in suppressing disturbances. Overseas Erasmus hoped to increase the acceptability of the Union as a defence partner among Western countries by providing personnel for the Berlin Air Lift and the Korean conflict and promising a contingent for the Middle East. He attempted unsuccessfully to instigate anti-communist alliances for the land and maritime defence of Africa when the European powers were leaving the continent. These actions were primarily to obtain political support for the Union, whose prestige was rapidly decreasing as apartheid became better known. The external initiatives with the exception of the Simonstown naval agreements were not lasting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Boulter, Roger Stephen
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Erasmus, F C (Francois Christiaan) South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1948-1961 South Africa -- Armed Forces -- History South Africa -- Military policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2534 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002386
- Description: FC Erasmus became South Africa's defence minister in 1948 after two decades as a leading political organiser for the National Party. Although an architect of the Nationalists' post-war election victory he was not considered a minister of the first rank. Erasmus initiated a process of ridding the defence force of officers who he believed were associated with the Smuts government and replacing them with party supporters. As a result the military often lost experienced and talented officers. Erasmus felt that the armed services had been too British in ethos and appearance. He inaugurated tighter regulations on bi-lingualism, reintroduced boer rank titles, launched new uniforms and original medals and decorations, to the acclaim of the volk. His purpose was to have a defence force which was uniquely South African. Many of his policies came under attack not only from the United Party but also groups such as the Torch Commando and the veterans organisations. With the apparent lack of an imminent military threat to the apartheid government Erasmus never received substantial budgetary allocations from finance ministers. The defence force, one without conscription, remained small with largely antiquated equipment for the important air and land forces. However by the decade's end the navy was gradually receiving modern ships under the terms of the Simonstown agreement, which Erasmus had negotiated with Britain. The events of the Sharpeville crisis, just after Erasmus left defence, demonstrated that the armed forces as moulded by the minister were in poor condition to assist the civil power in suppressing disturbances. Overseas Erasmus hoped to increase the acceptability of the Union as a defence partner among Western countries by providing personnel for the Berlin Air Lift and the Korean conflict and promising a contingent for the Middle East. He attempted unsuccessfully to instigate anti-communist alliances for the land and maritime defence of Africa when the European powers were leaving the continent. These actions were primarily to obtain political support for the Union, whose prestige was rapidly decreasing as apartheid became better known. The external initiatives with the exception of the Simonstown naval agreements were not lasting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
The diary of Robert John Mullins (1833-1913)
- Nicholls, B M, Charton, N C J, Knowling, Mary
- Authors: Nicholls, B M , Charton, N C J , Knowling, Mary
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Mullins, Robert John, 1833-1913 , Church of the Province of Southern Africa -- Clergy , Missions -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Cattle Killing, 1856-1857 , St Mark's mission , St Luke's mission , Missionaries -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Education -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Bolotwa mission , St Peter's mission -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Kaffir Institute -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:527 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004350 , Mullins, Robert John, 1833-1913 , Church of the Province of Southern Africa -- Clergy , Missions -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Cattle Killing, 1856-1857 , St Mark's mission , St Luke's mission , Missionaries -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Education -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Bolotwa mission , St Peter's mission -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Kaffir Institute -- Grahamstown
- Description: Summary of Content: This volume offers its readers extracts from the diary and the correspondence of Robert John Mullins, Anglican missionary, priest and in due time principal of what was called the Kafir Institution in Grahamstown and as such a pioneer in the field of western education to black South Africans. After his marriage to Jennie Roe he was assisted in all that he undertook by a loyal and devoted wife. The editors have made use of the earlier diaries and manuscripts because of the light they shed on the conditions in the eastern Cape frontier in the crucial years before and after the cattle-killing. While Mullins' own observations are those of a young missionary his remarks and the record of his experiences are themselves to be viewed in the light of the recent scholarship in regard to the cattle-killing which reveals the multisidedness of an appalling social tragedy. What Mullins wrote records, for better or for worse, episodes which show how South Africans of different origins have in the past regarded one another. Mullins was a committed Christian eager to offer to all whom he could reach the salvation of Christ in which he so fervently believed.He was often intolerant of Xhosa customs he could not understand as well as often perplexed and discouraged. But the overwhelming impact of this record is what it took to be a missionary: courage, commitment, humour, resilience, a capacity to endure physical hardship and enjoy physical activity. All these were qualities which Robert John Mullins possessed in abundance. As his diary shows they were the qualities the frontier demanded. Working over a long period of time Nancy Charton and Brenda Nicholls (who became a coeditor in 1991) have transcribed the diary entries and the correspondence working with the help of the sites of some of the missionary activity. The help of members of the Mullins family (notably Judy Sturrock and her husband) is gratefully acknowledged. Earlier generous contributions made it possible to obtain a typescript from which the editors could work. Every effort has been made to identify the individuals (Xhosa, Tembu and white) and events (both in South Africa and abroad) which are alluded to in the diary. This was a time consuming task and the editors are grateful to all who helped them with it. The book consists of an introduction and eleven chapters. The introduction describes the material and the methods of the editors, discusses the religious and social conditions of the time, addresses the problems of interpartition presented by the cattle-killings, turns attention to the dilemmas of missionaries and then focusses the attention of readers on the diarist Robert John Mullins (with Jennie as later stand-in) as well as the value of the diary. There is much to interest the educationist, the theologian, the economist, and the historian. Chapter 1 deals with Mullins' voyage to the Cape in 1854 and the extracts record the experiences of an exuberant as well as a dedicated lad of sixteen. Chapter 2 deals with the arrival at the Cape in 1854. Chapter 3 gives us a picture of Mullins' experience of Graham's Town in 1854. Chapter 4 deals with Mullins' experience at St Luke's Mission. Chapter 5 covers the period of 1856-57 when Mullins was at Balotwa and the cattle-killing frenzy developed. Chapter 6 describes the hunger and turmoil which followed in the wake of the cattle-killing. Chapter 7 describes the founding of a new station, St Peter's Gwytyu. Chapter 8 is concerned with life at St Peter's in the early months of 1858. Chapter 9 covers the last months at St Peter's and his journey to the Bashee. Chapters 10 and 11 cover the early years in the married life of Robert John Mullins and his wife Jennie. The Mullins' delight in family life is strongly evident in their joy in each other's company and their anxious joy over their first-born baby. Chapter 11 gives the reader the texts of letters written by Robert John and his wife Jennie in the years which marked the end of Mullins' career as a frontier missionary, and the opening to him of the opportunity to become Principal of the Kafir Institution. A map carefully prepared by Mr Oakley West of the Geography Department, with the assistance of Deby Brody, enables the reader to trace the frontier journeys of Robert John Mullins and his wife Jennie who were among the pioneers of frontier societies who did their best to make available to others what they believed to be the eternal benefits of the Christian faith, and the accompanying mores of the 'western' culture of their day.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Nicholls, B M , Charton, N C J , Knowling, Mary
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Mullins, Robert John, 1833-1913 , Church of the Province of Southern Africa -- Clergy , Missions -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Cattle Killing, 1856-1857 , St Mark's mission , St Luke's mission , Missionaries -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Education -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Bolotwa mission , St Peter's mission -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Kaffir Institute -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Book
- Identifier: vital:527 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004350 , Mullins, Robert John, 1833-1913 , Church of the Province of Southern Africa -- Clergy , Missions -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Cattle Killing, 1856-1857 , St Mark's mission , St Luke's mission , Missionaries -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Education -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Bolotwa mission , St Peter's mission -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Kaffir Institute -- Grahamstown
- Description: Summary of Content: This volume offers its readers extracts from the diary and the correspondence of Robert John Mullins, Anglican missionary, priest and in due time principal of what was called the Kafir Institution in Grahamstown and as such a pioneer in the field of western education to black South Africans. After his marriage to Jennie Roe he was assisted in all that he undertook by a loyal and devoted wife. The editors have made use of the earlier diaries and manuscripts because of the light they shed on the conditions in the eastern Cape frontier in the crucial years before and after the cattle-killing. While Mullins' own observations are those of a young missionary his remarks and the record of his experiences are themselves to be viewed in the light of the recent scholarship in regard to the cattle-killing which reveals the multisidedness of an appalling social tragedy. What Mullins wrote records, for better or for worse, episodes which show how South Africans of different origins have in the past regarded one another. Mullins was a committed Christian eager to offer to all whom he could reach the salvation of Christ in which he so fervently believed.He was often intolerant of Xhosa customs he could not understand as well as often perplexed and discouraged. But the overwhelming impact of this record is what it took to be a missionary: courage, commitment, humour, resilience, a capacity to endure physical hardship and enjoy physical activity. All these were qualities which Robert John Mullins possessed in abundance. As his diary shows they were the qualities the frontier demanded. Working over a long period of time Nancy Charton and Brenda Nicholls (who became a coeditor in 1991) have transcribed the diary entries and the correspondence working with the help of the sites of some of the missionary activity. The help of members of the Mullins family (notably Judy Sturrock and her husband) is gratefully acknowledged. Earlier generous contributions made it possible to obtain a typescript from which the editors could work. Every effort has been made to identify the individuals (Xhosa, Tembu and white) and events (both in South Africa and abroad) which are alluded to in the diary. This was a time consuming task and the editors are grateful to all who helped them with it. The book consists of an introduction and eleven chapters. The introduction describes the material and the methods of the editors, discusses the religious and social conditions of the time, addresses the problems of interpartition presented by the cattle-killings, turns attention to the dilemmas of missionaries and then focusses the attention of readers on the diarist Robert John Mullins (with Jennie as later stand-in) as well as the value of the diary. There is much to interest the educationist, the theologian, the economist, and the historian. Chapter 1 deals with Mullins' voyage to the Cape in 1854 and the extracts record the experiences of an exuberant as well as a dedicated lad of sixteen. Chapter 2 deals with the arrival at the Cape in 1854. Chapter 3 gives us a picture of Mullins' experience of Graham's Town in 1854. Chapter 4 deals with Mullins' experience at St Luke's Mission. Chapter 5 covers the period of 1856-57 when Mullins was at Balotwa and the cattle-killing frenzy developed. Chapter 6 describes the hunger and turmoil which followed in the wake of the cattle-killing. Chapter 7 describes the founding of a new station, St Peter's Gwytyu. Chapter 8 is concerned with life at St Peter's in the early months of 1858. Chapter 9 covers the last months at St Peter's and his journey to the Bashee. Chapters 10 and 11 cover the early years in the married life of Robert John Mullins and his wife Jennie. The Mullins' delight in family life is strongly evident in their joy in each other's company and their anxious joy over their first-born baby. Chapter 11 gives the reader the texts of letters written by Robert John and his wife Jennie in the years which marked the end of Mullins' career as a frontier missionary, and the opening to him of the opportunity to become Principal of the Kafir Institution. A map carefully prepared by Mr Oakley West of the Geography Department, with the assistance of Deby Brody, enables the reader to trace the frontier journeys of Robert John Mullins and his wife Jennie who were among the pioneers of frontier societies who did their best to make available to others what they believed to be the eternal benefits of the Christian faith, and the accompanying mores of the 'western' culture of their day.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
The wreck of the Dutch man o' war, Amsterdam, in December 1817 on the Eastern Cape coast of Southern Africa: an elucidation of the literary and material remains with an annotated translation of the Journal of Captain Hermanus Hofmeijer (1814-1818)
- Authors: Bennie, Jennifer Shirley
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Amsterdam (Steamship) , Shipwrecks -- South Africa , Underwater archaeology , Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie , Hofmeijer, Hermanus, 1721-1805--Diaries , Voyages and travels -- History -- 18th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2533 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002385 , Amsterdam (Steamship) , Shipwrecks -- South Africa , Underwater archaeology , Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie , Hofmeijer, Hermanus, 1721-1805--Diaries , Voyages and travels -- History -- 18th century
- Description: This study endeavours to elucidate the journal of Captain Hermanus Hofmeijer of the Dutch man 0' war, Amsterdam, which has been transcribed from the original script, translated from Dutch into English and interpreted from a contemporary viewpoint. It offers an opportunity to evaluate a unique primary historical document which records an important historical event. An attempt has been made to contextualise the incident in the light of the early history of the Dutch people. The contribution of the Dutch East India Company (VaC) to the trade and commerce of the Netherlands during the 17th and 18th centuries has been assessed together with the shipbuilding techniques that served to make the Dutch a major seafaring nation. The significance of Texel and Nieuwediep has been examined and the sea route and navigational instruments placed in perspective. The voyage has been analysed in some detail. The background of Captain Hermanus Hofmeijer has proved especially interesting. Although he pursued his career with the Dutch Navy, he was born and spent his early years in Cape Town, South Africa. The time spent by the Amsterdam in Batavia, Samaraog and Sourabaya gives an insight into the Dutch possessions overseas. The return voyage, storms and ultimate grounding are of special interest as Hofmeijer records the journey and events on a daily basis. The impact and significance of 217 extra people in the Eastern Cape area did not go unnoticed, and although the event was not well documented, an attempt at some contextualisation has been made. Finally a short overview of maritime archaeology in South Africa and its significance as a relatively new discipline has been included. The study of the material remains of the wreck of the Amsterdam has resulted in a new understanding of wooden ships built in the early 19th century.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Bennie, Jennifer Shirley
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Amsterdam (Steamship) , Shipwrecks -- South Africa , Underwater archaeology , Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie , Hofmeijer, Hermanus, 1721-1805--Diaries , Voyages and travels -- History -- 18th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2533 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002385 , Amsterdam (Steamship) , Shipwrecks -- South Africa , Underwater archaeology , Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie , Hofmeijer, Hermanus, 1721-1805--Diaries , Voyages and travels -- History -- 18th century
- Description: This study endeavours to elucidate the journal of Captain Hermanus Hofmeijer of the Dutch man 0' war, Amsterdam, which has been transcribed from the original script, translated from Dutch into English and interpreted from a contemporary viewpoint. It offers an opportunity to evaluate a unique primary historical document which records an important historical event. An attempt has been made to contextualise the incident in the light of the early history of the Dutch people. The contribution of the Dutch East India Company (VaC) to the trade and commerce of the Netherlands during the 17th and 18th centuries has been assessed together with the shipbuilding techniques that served to make the Dutch a major seafaring nation. The significance of Texel and Nieuwediep has been examined and the sea route and navigational instruments placed in perspective. The voyage has been analysed in some detail. The background of Captain Hermanus Hofmeijer has proved especially interesting. Although he pursued his career with the Dutch Navy, he was born and spent his early years in Cape Town, South Africa. The time spent by the Amsterdam in Batavia, Samaraog and Sourabaya gives an insight into the Dutch possessions overseas. The return voyage, storms and ultimate grounding are of special interest as Hofmeijer records the journey and events on a daily basis. The impact and significance of 217 extra people in the Eastern Cape area did not go unnoticed, and although the event was not well documented, an attempt at some contextualisation has been made. Finally a short overview of maritime archaeology in South Africa and its significance as a relatively new discipline has been included. The study of the material remains of the wreck of the Amsterdam has resulted in a new understanding of wooden ships built in the early 19th century.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
"Re-thinking" the Great Trek: a study of the nature and development of the Boer community in the Ohrigstad/Lydenburg area, 1845-1877
- Authors: Erasmus, Diderick Justin
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: South Africa -- History -- Great Trek, 1836-1840 , Afrikaners , Afrikaners -- South Africa -- Transvaal -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2541 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002393 , South Africa -- History -- Great Trek, 1836-1840 , Afrikaners , Afrikaners -- South Africa -- Transvaal -- History
- Description: From the late 1830s Boer settlers conquered and settled vast new lands outside the Cape Colony. Although they more than doubled the area of European domination, historians have categorised Boer society outside the British colonies as primitive and dismissed the Boer conquests as an abberation from the broader process of European expansion. Such a distinction is no longer tenable. This study, which focuses on the Obrigstad/Lydenburg area, shows that the Boers were an integral part of European expansion in southern Africa. Settler expansion did not occur in a vacuum. Booming demand for commodities sparked economic growth across the sub-continent; the Boers were part of this process and consistently strove to produce for the region's expanding markets. In tandem with the expanding regional system, the Boer economy grew constantly. This was reflected in the centralisation of power in the Z.A.R. as Boer producers created formal political and administrative structures to further their economic interests. (A parallel process culminated in the Cape with colonists receiving representative government in March 1853.) This correlation between political and economic development was evident in the creation of a coercive labour system by the Boer state. Through their control of state structures, the Boers employed measures ranging from brute force to punitive taxation, legally enforceable contracts and pass laws to procure and control workers. It is important to note that the creation of a coercive labour system by the Boers paralleled similar developments in the Cape Colony. The speed with which the Boer economy expanded in comparison to the Cape, however, meant that stages in the development of an unfree labour force which had been chronologically distinct in the Cape coexisted within the Boer coercive system. Boer dependence on coerced labour made conflict with African groups inevitable. African groups in the eastern Transvaal had already been partly moulded by predatory economic forces emanating from the Portuguese settlements on the east coast since at least the 1750s. The arrival of the Boers in the 1840s greatly accelerated this process. Some groups were crushed, but others were able to obtain the means to resist Boer rule by interfacing with the settler economy. The economic forces which drove Boer settlement were thus not confined to the white settlers: Boer expansion was paralleled by the rise of African survivor states. The Dlamini, for example, built the powerful Swazi state by exchanging captives, ivory and cattle for guns and horses. Similarly, the Pedi, through the large scale expon of migrant labour, were able to acquire the means to challenge Boer authority in the late 1870s. Oearly then, the Boers 'Were not only representative of the wider settler social and economic order, but were acting in response to the same circumstances as the British settlers, Portuguese traders and African survivor states. It is thus impossible to continue to classify them as retrogressive and distinct from other groups in the region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1995
- Authors: Erasmus, Diderick Justin
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: South Africa -- History -- Great Trek, 1836-1840 , Afrikaners , Afrikaners -- South Africa -- Transvaal -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2541 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002393 , South Africa -- History -- Great Trek, 1836-1840 , Afrikaners , Afrikaners -- South Africa -- Transvaal -- History
- Description: From the late 1830s Boer settlers conquered and settled vast new lands outside the Cape Colony. Although they more than doubled the area of European domination, historians have categorised Boer society outside the British colonies as primitive and dismissed the Boer conquests as an abberation from the broader process of European expansion. Such a distinction is no longer tenable. This study, which focuses on the Obrigstad/Lydenburg area, shows that the Boers were an integral part of European expansion in southern Africa. Settler expansion did not occur in a vacuum. Booming demand for commodities sparked economic growth across the sub-continent; the Boers were part of this process and consistently strove to produce for the region's expanding markets. In tandem with the expanding regional system, the Boer economy grew constantly. This was reflected in the centralisation of power in the Z.A.R. as Boer producers created formal political and administrative structures to further their economic interests. (A parallel process culminated in the Cape with colonists receiving representative government in March 1853.) This correlation between political and economic development was evident in the creation of a coercive labour system by the Boer state. Through their control of state structures, the Boers employed measures ranging from brute force to punitive taxation, legally enforceable contracts and pass laws to procure and control workers. It is important to note that the creation of a coercive labour system by the Boers paralleled similar developments in the Cape Colony. The speed with which the Boer economy expanded in comparison to the Cape, however, meant that stages in the development of an unfree labour force which had been chronologically distinct in the Cape coexisted within the Boer coercive system. Boer dependence on coerced labour made conflict with African groups inevitable. African groups in the eastern Transvaal had already been partly moulded by predatory economic forces emanating from the Portuguese settlements on the east coast since at least the 1750s. The arrival of the Boers in the 1840s greatly accelerated this process. Some groups were crushed, but others were able to obtain the means to resist Boer rule by interfacing with the settler economy. The economic forces which drove Boer settlement were thus not confined to the white settlers: Boer expansion was paralleled by the rise of African survivor states. The Dlamini, for example, built the powerful Swazi state by exchanging captives, ivory and cattle for guns and horses. Similarly, the Pedi, through the large scale expon of migrant labour, were able to acquire the means to challenge Boer authority in the late 1870s. Oearly then, the Boers 'Were not only representative of the wider settler social and economic order, but were acting in response to the same circumstances as the British settlers, Portuguese traders and African survivor states. It is thus impossible to continue to classify them as retrogressive and distinct from other groups in the region.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1995
Confrontation, cooptation and collaboration : the response and reaction of the Labour Party of South Africa to Government Policy, 1965-1984
- Authors: Du Pré, Roy Howard
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: South African Labour Party -- History Colored people (South Africa) -- Politics and government South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1948-1994
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2539 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002391
- Description: The Labour Party was a prominent political party amongst coloured people for more than twenty-five years. Formed in 1965 to contest elections for the Coloured Persons' Representative Council (CRC), the Labour Party at the outset adopted an anti-apartheid, anti-separate representation and anti-eRe stance. During the first five years of its existence, the party tried to muster coloured support for its policies. Its promise to cripple the CRC by refusing to occupy seats in the council became the rallying call. The Labour Party won a majority of the elected seats in the first CRC election in 1969 but the government nominated progovernment candidates to all the nominated seats, depriving the Labour Party of an overall majority. Thwarted in their bid to "wreck" the CRC, Labour Party members instead took their seats in the council, vowing to destroy it from within. For the next five years the Labour Party pursued a policy of "confrontation. " By using a "boycott" strategy, it not only hamstrung the effective working of the CRC but thwarted the government in other areas of its "coloured" policy. In the 1975 election the Labour Party won an outright victory, giving it the power to cripple the CRC. However, it did not seize this opportunity. Its decision to "govern" in the CRC constituted a decisive step in the change from confrontation to cooptation. The Labour Party's continued support of the CRC drew widespread criticism from supporters and opponents alike. Its leaders tried to hold together a disaffected party and eventually agreed to the dissolution of the CRC in 1980 in an effort to paper over the cracks in party unity, and to forestall growing coloured opposition to the CRC at the next election. In 1983, the Labour Party displayed a decisive shift in its anti-separate representation stance by lending support to the tricameral system. By doing so, it laid itself open to the same charge of collaboration it had levelled at the other CRC parties. This thesis will examine the history of the Labour Party from its formation in 1965 as an anti-government party, to one of cooperation with its erstwhile opponent by 1984.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1995
- Authors: Du Pré, Roy Howard
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: South African Labour Party -- History Colored people (South Africa) -- Politics and government South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1948-1994
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2539 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002391
- Description: The Labour Party was a prominent political party amongst coloured people for more than twenty-five years. Formed in 1965 to contest elections for the Coloured Persons' Representative Council (CRC), the Labour Party at the outset adopted an anti-apartheid, anti-separate representation and anti-eRe stance. During the first five years of its existence, the party tried to muster coloured support for its policies. Its promise to cripple the CRC by refusing to occupy seats in the council became the rallying call. The Labour Party won a majority of the elected seats in the first CRC election in 1969 but the government nominated progovernment candidates to all the nominated seats, depriving the Labour Party of an overall majority. Thwarted in their bid to "wreck" the CRC, Labour Party members instead took their seats in the council, vowing to destroy it from within. For the next five years the Labour Party pursued a policy of "confrontation. " By using a "boycott" strategy, it not only hamstrung the effective working of the CRC but thwarted the government in other areas of its "coloured" policy. In the 1975 election the Labour Party won an outright victory, giving it the power to cripple the CRC. However, it did not seize this opportunity. Its decision to "govern" in the CRC constituted a decisive step in the change from confrontation to cooptation. The Labour Party's continued support of the CRC drew widespread criticism from supporters and opponents alike. Its leaders tried to hold together a disaffected party and eventually agreed to the dissolution of the CRC in 1980 in an effort to paper over the cracks in party unity, and to forestall growing coloured opposition to the CRC at the next election. In 1983, the Labour Party displayed a decisive shift in its anti-separate representation stance by lending support to the tricameral system. By doing so, it laid itself open to the same charge of collaboration it had levelled at the other CRC parties. This thesis will examine the history of the Labour Party from its formation in 1965 as an anti-government party, to one of cooperation with its erstwhile opponent by 1984.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1995
The Quakers in South Africa a social witness
- Authors: Tonsing, Betty Kathryn
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Society of Friends Quakers -- History Quakers -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2564 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002417
- Description: The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, began their witness in the 1600s during a time of religious debate when competing doctrines reflected the political, social and intellectual turmoil of seventeenth-century England. George Fox (1624-1691), the founder, preached that people are guided by God's inner light which is present in the hearts and conscience of all people and reflects God's 'divine' will. The Quakers form a small religious membership not larger than 200,000 people sect, its world-wide. Yet, historically, the group's impact on social issues has always outweighed its numerical strength. The earliest Quakers to reside more permanently in South Africa were British settlers, several of whom became outspoken civic leaders. Quaker humanitarian gestures led to the opening of a multi-racial school for poor children in Cape Town (1840) and investigations into the treatment of Afrikaner women and children in concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Early Quakers are also credited with initiating the Joint Council Movement of Europeans and Africans (1920s), forerunner to the South African Institute of Race Relations. This study traces the Quaker presence in South Africa from its earliest history to the present, with particular emphasis on the twentieth century. Specifically, the examination of the Quaker presence addresses the group's reaction to South African society and politics in reference to segregationist and apartheid legislation. The study includes a comparative analysis of the response among South African Quakers to these issues with Quaker response in England and the United states. The purpose of this analysis is to attempt an assessment of the extent to which South African Quaker practices were consistent with the philosophies of their world-wide religious fellowship. Relevant to the Quaker belief in peace and justice for all, with no discrimination, specific issues that involved South African Quakers and for which sufficient primary sources were available are closely examined. Of particular interest is the opening of a Quaker boarding school during the early 1930s, the Quaker response to the Defiance Campaign in 1952, and South African Quaker response to the call for international sanctions and boycotts against South Africa. More recent Quaker activities, including mediation between the African National Congress and the government, provide significant data. South African Quakers have defined themselves as members of a religious body whose belief of pacifism and commitment to non-violence dictates to a certain extent their obedience to a higher authority -- which some call their conscience and others call God -- if a civil law is deemed immoral and unjust . Thus, the study seeks to define the individual and corporate Quaker witness in South Africa in relation to the Society's principles.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994
- Authors: Tonsing, Betty Kathryn
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Society of Friends Quakers -- History Quakers -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2564 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002417
- Description: The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, began their witness in the 1600s during a time of religious debate when competing doctrines reflected the political, social and intellectual turmoil of seventeenth-century England. George Fox (1624-1691), the founder, preached that people are guided by God's inner light which is present in the hearts and conscience of all people and reflects God's 'divine' will. The Quakers form a small religious membership not larger than 200,000 people sect, its world-wide. Yet, historically, the group's impact on social issues has always outweighed its numerical strength. The earliest Quakers to reside more permanently in South Africa were British settlers, several of whom became outspoken civic leaders. Quaker humanitarian gestures led to the opening of a multi-racial school for poor children in Cape Town (1840) and investigations into the treatment of Afrikaner women and children in concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Early Quakers are also credited with initiating the Joint Council Movement of Europeans and Africans (1920s), forerunner to the South African Institute of Race Relations. This study traces the Quaker presence in South Africa from its earliest history to the present, with particular emphasis on the twentieth century. Specifically, the examination of the Quaker presence addresses the group's reaction to South African society and politics in reference to segregationist and apartheid legislation. The study includes a comparative analysis of the response among South African Quakers to these issues with Quaker response in England and the United states. The purpose of this analysis is to attempt an assessment of the extent to which South African Quaker practices were consistent with the philosophies of their world-wide religious fellowship. Relevant to the Quaker belief in peace and justice for all, with no discrimination, specific issues that involved South African Quakers and for which sufficient primary sources were available are closely examined. Of particular interest is the opening of a Quaker boarding school during the early 1930s, the Quaker response to the Defiance Campaign in 1952, and South African Quaker response to the call for international sanctions and boycotts against South Africa. More recent Quaker activities, including mediation between the African National Congress and the government, provide significant data. South African Quakers have defined themselves as members of a religious body whose belief of pacifism and commitment to non-violence dictates to a certain extent their obedience to a higher authority -- which some call their conscience and others call God -- if a civil law is deemed immoral and unjust . Thus, the study seeks to define the individual and corporate Quaker witness in South Africa in relation to the Society's principles.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994
Transformation in late colonial Ngqika society : a political, economic and social history of African communities in the district of Stutterheim (Eastern Cape), c.1870-1910
- Authors: Wotshela, L E
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- History -- 19th century , Stutterheim (South Africa) -- History , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2574 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002427
- Description: This study analyses the methods and policies of the colonial government which shaped Stutterheim's African communities between c.1870 and 1910. In 1870 the Stutterheim magisterial district had not yet been officially established. However, creation of the British Kaffrarian administration (1847-1865) had already ensured the entrenchment of colonial rule over the humiliated Xhosa chiefdoms west of the Kei. This work studies transformations in late colonial Ngqika society and the development of Stutterheim as a magisterial district. It analyses the entrenchment of colonial bureaucracy and changes in indigenous social, economic and political structures. In the period c.1860-1877, direct administration of the Ngqika was first attempted. While recovering from the 1856-57 cattle killing, the Ngqika were brought under colonial administration by the annexation of British Kaffraria to the Cape Colony in 1865. The thesis also examines the process and implications of the breakup and resettlement of the Ngqika location after the 1877-1878 war and the mechanisms and complications in forming a new postwar settlement. The focus then narrows to Stutterheim magisterial district (finalised in 1880), where, after the removal of the main Ngqika population to the Transkei formal structures of quitrent settlement were established around mission stations. A new form of social behaviour underpinned by principles of individualism evolved under missionary influence. Urged on by legislation that sought to intensify implementation of individual tenure, this social behaviour predominated under the new administration. Attention is also given to the allocation of farm land in the district. On part of what had once been communally owned land, an immigrant farming community originally intended strictly for whites emerged. Numerous Africans later managed to hold property in this area. An urban area with a mixed African and white population resulted where allotments initially allocated to the German Legion were later auctioned. On crown lands, leasing and purchasing was initiated. By the early twentieth century, settlement patterns were in chaos: on the mission settlements, quitrenters disobeyed settlement regulations, farms were overpopulated by tenants and interracial urban settlements faced imminent segregationist policies. By 1910 local administration was in difficulties and the Africans were becoming politically mobilised against local and colonial policies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994
- Authors: Wotshela, L E
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- History -- 19th century , Stutterheim (South Africa) -- History , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2574 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002427
- Description: This study analyses the methods and policies of the colonial government which shaped Stutterheim's African communities between c.1870 and 1910. In 1870 the Stutterheim magisterial district had not yet been officially established. However, creation of the British Kaffrarian administration (1847-1865) had already ensured the entrenchment of colonial rule over the humiliated Xhosa chiefdoms west of the Kei. This work studies transformations in late colonial Ngqika society and the development of Stutterheim as a magisterial district. It analyses the entrenchment of colonial bureaucracy and changes in indigenous social, economic and political structures. In the period c.1860-1877, direct administration of the Ngqika was first attempted. While recovering from the 1856-57 cattle killing, the Ngqika were brought under colonial administration by the annexation of British Kaffraria to the Cape Colony in 1865. The thesis also examines the process and implications of the breakup and resettlement of the Ngqika location after the 1877-1878 war and the mechanisms and complications in forming a new postwar settlement. The focus then narrows to Stutterheim magisterial district (finalised in 1880), where, after the removal of the main Ngqika population to the Transkei formal structures of quitrent settlement were established around mission stations. A new form of social behaviour underpinned by principles of individualism evolved under missionary influence. Urged on by legislation that sought to intensify implementation of individual tenure, this social behaviour predominated under the new administration. Attention is also given to the allocation of farm land in the district. On part of what had once been communally owned land, an immigrant farming community originally intended strictly for whites emerged. Numerous Africans later managed to hold property in this area. An urban area with a mixed African and white population resulted where allotments initially allocated to the German Legion were later auctioned. On crown lands, leasing and purchasing was initiated. By the early twentieth century, settlement patterns were in chaos: on the mission settlements, quitrenters disobeyed settlement regulations, farms were overpopulated by tenants and interracial urban settlements faced imminent segregationist policies. By 1910 local administration was in difficulties and the Africans were becoming politically mobilised against local and colonial policies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994
"Working in the grave" the development of a health and safety system on the Witwatersrand gold mines, 1900-1939
- Authors: Smith, Matthew John
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Gold mines and mining -- South Africa -- Witwatersrand -- Safety measures -- History -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2557 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002410 , Gold mines and mining -- South Africa -- Witwatersrand -- Safety measures -- History -- 20th century
- Description: This thesis analyses the establishment of a health and safety system on the Witwatersrand gold mines in the period between the end of the South African War and the eve of World War Two. The period has been chosen, firstly, because the South African War had seriously disrupted production and the industry virtually had to start up again from scratch; secondly, because it was during this period that mine and state officials began to seriously investigate the reasons for the appalling mortality and morbidity rates on these mines; and, thirdly, because during this period some improvements did occur which were significant enough to enable the industry to warrant the lifting, in the latter part of the 1930s, of the ban on tropicals, enforced since 1913 as a result of their extremely high mortality rate. In the first thirty years of the twentieth century about 93 000 African miners died disease-related deaths and in the same period some 15000 African miners were killed in work-related deaths. In attempting to establish why so many African miners died, the thesis attempts to identify the diseases and accidents that caused these deaths and considers what attempts were made to bring mortality and morbidity rates down. Whilst the thesis is neither a history of gold mining in South Africa nor an economic history of South Africa in the period 1901 to 1939, it nevertheless, as detailed in the first chapter, places the health and safety system within the context of the wider political and economic forces that shaped the mining industry in this period. The need for a productive and efficient labour force, vital for the industry'S survival during a number of profitability crises in this period, forced the industry to reassess compound structures, nutrition and eventually the health of its work force. These issues of compounds, work and diet are discussed in chapters two, three and four. Appalling living and working conditions led to a high incidence of pulmonary diseases - TB, silicosis and pneumonia - which were the principal killers on the mines. Attempts to cure or prevent their occurrence are discussed in chapter five. Fear of disruptions to production ensured that the mining industry eventually also devoted considerable resources to accident prevention, a theme which is discussed in chapter six. The thesis concludes that the mining industry for much of this period was able to determine the pace of change; neither state officials nor African miners were able to significantly alter the tempo. In fact the industry was so successful that it was able to convince a number of government commissions in the 1940s that the migrant system had to stay, to ensure the wellbeing of the miner. This meant that despite considerable time, money and effort being spent on establishing a health and safety system on the gold mines, the mining industry was still of the opinion that the health of their workers was best served if they were sent home.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
- Authors: Smith, Matthew John
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Gold mines and mining -- South Africa -- Witwatersrand -- Safety measures -- History -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2557 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002410 , Gold mines and mining -- South Africa -- Witwatersrand -- Safety measures -- History -- 20th century
- Description: This thesis analyses the establishment of a health and safety system on the Witwatersrand gold mines in the period between the end of the South African War and the eve of World War Two. The period has been chosen, firstly, because the South African War had seriously disrupted production and the industry virtually had to start up again from scratch; secondly, because it was during this period that mine and state officials began to seriously investigate the reasons for the appalling mortality and morbidity rates on these mines; and, thirdly, because during this period some improvements did occur which were significant enough to enable the industry to warrant the lifting, in the latter part of the 1930s, of the ban on tropicals, enforced since 1913 as a result of their extremely high mortality rate. In the first thirty years of the twentieth century about 93 000 African miners died disease-related deaths and in the same period some 15000 African miners were killed in work-related deaths. In attempting to establish why so many African miners died, the thesis attempts to identify the diseases and accidents that caused these deaths and considers what attempts were made to bring mortality and morbidity rates down. Whilst the thesis is neither a history of gold mining in South Africa nor an economic history of South Africa in the period 1901 to 1939, it nevertheless, as detailed in the first chapter, places the health and safety system within the context of the wider political and economic forces that shaped the mining industry in this period. The need for a productive and efficient labour force, vital for the industry'S survival during a number of profitability crises in this period, forced the industry to reassess compound structures, nutrition and eventually the health of its work force. These issues of compounds, work and diet are discussed in chapters two, three and four. Appalling living and working conditions led to a high incidence of pulmonary diseases - TB, silicosis and pneumonia - which were the principal killers on the mines. Attempts to cure or prevent their occurrence are discussed in chapter five. Fear of disruptions to production ensured that the mining industry eventually also devoted considerable resources to accident prevention, a theme which is discussed in chapter six. The thesis concludes that the mining industry for much of this period was able to determine the pace of change; neither state officials nor African miners were able to significantly alter the tempo. In fact the industry was so successful that it was able to convince a number of government commissions in the 1940s that the migrant system had to stay, to ensure the wellbeing of the miner. This meant that despite considerable time, money and effort being spent on establishing a health and safety system on the gold mines, the mining industry was still of the opinion that the health of their workers was best served if they were sent home.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
A history of Grahamstown, 1918-1945
- Torlesse, Ann Catherine Marjorie
- Authors: Torlesse, Ann Catherine Marjorie
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2565 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002418 , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Description: This study in local history describes socio-economic developments in Grahamstown between 1918 - 1945, and analyses the extent to which these developments mirrored trends in the macrocosm. During these years the city failed to become ndustrialised, but enhanced her reputation as an eminent educational centre. Despite being financially handicapped, the City Council undertook large public works schemes for the provision of essential services, such as electricity and an adequate supply of water. In addition a water-borne sewerage scheme was introduced, and roads were repaired and tarred. The influx of a large number of poor rural Blacks into the urban area placed a considerable strain on the city's health services, and housing projects had to be implemented. Local political affiliations and race relations are examined against the background of national developments, especially the growing entrenchment by the State of the policy of segregation. Attention is also devoted to the impact upon the community of international political crises. The cultural and sporting pursuits, as well as the entertainments enjoyed by Grahamstonians, are investigated; and a picture of the local "mentalite" is presented.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
- Authors: Torlesse, Ann Catherine Marjorie
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2565 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002418 , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- History , Grahamstown (South Africa) -- Economic conditions
- Description: This study in local history describes socio-economic developments in Grahamstown between 1918 - 1945, and analyses the extent to which these developments mirrored trends in the macrocosm. During these years the city failed to become ndustrialised, but enhanced her reputation as an eminent educational centre. Despite being financially handicapped, the City Council undertook large public works schemes for the provision of essential services, such as electricity and an adequate supply of water. In addition a water-borne sewerage scheme was introduced, and roads were repaired and tarred. The influx of a large number of poor rural Blacks into the urban area placed a considerable strain on the city's health services, and housing projects had to be implemented. Local political affiliations and race relations are examined against the background of national developments, especially the growing entrenchment by the State of the policy of segregation. Attention is also devoted to the impact upon the community of international political crises. The cultural and sporting pursuits, as well as the entertainments enjoyed by Grahamstonians, are investigated; and a picture of the local "mentalite" is presented.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
King William's Town during the South African War, 1899-1902 an urban, social, economic and cultural history
- Authors: Webb, D. A
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: South African War, 1899-1902 , King William's Town (South Africa)--Population , King William's Town (South Africa)--Economic conditions , King William's Town (South Africa)--Social conditions , King William's Town (South Africa)--Race relations , King William's Town (South Africa --Commerce , King William's Town (South Africa)--Industries , Imvo Zabantsundu (Newspaper) , Local government--South Africa-- King William's Town , Crime--South Africa--King William's Town , King William's Town (South Africa)--History , South Africa--History, Military
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M.A.
- Identifier: vital:2571 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002424 , South African War, 1899-1902 , King William's Town (South Africa)--Population , King William's Town (South Africa)--Economic conditions , King William's Town (South Africa)--Social conditions , King William's Town (South Africa)--Race relations , King William's Town (South Africa --Commerce , King William's Town (South Africa)--Industries , Imvo Zabantsundu (Newspaper) , Local government--South Africa-- King William's Town , Crime--South Africa--King William's Town , King William's Town (South Africa)--History , South Africa--History, Military
- Description: This thesis examines the urban social, economic and cultural history of a community under stress and in transition at the turn of the century. Two themes run through the study: how the residents responded to long-term challenges such as the decline of the town in relation to its nearest urban neighbour, the increasing significance of the black population of the town and district, and the end of the millennium; and secondly, the effects of the South African War on King William's Town society and how the residents perceived the various stresses it exerted on the town. Chapter 1, by way of introduction, provides a general overview of the history of King William's Town and of the current state of historical research on the town. It also examines historiographical strands reflected in this study, focusing on urban history, social history, local history and the new cultural history. The chapter ends with a brief note on sources and methodology. Chapter 2 sets the scene be examining the population of the town and district in relation to its eastern Cape neighbours. It briefly explores the settlement patterns in the town, and the social divisions and racial attitudes manifested by its inhabitants. The third chapter provides a study of the town's economy with particular emphasis on the mercantile sector, agriculture and manufacturing. The informal sector, domestic service and labour relations are also explored. Political processes in this period are dealt with in Chapter 4. The 1898 elections and the re-alignment of political allegiances, the outbreak of the war, the main political issues that emerged and the suppression of the Imvo Zabantsundu newspaper are discussed. Chapter 5 provides an examination of military aspects of the town and district during the war. The impact of the imperial garrison, the attitudes of the residents to the war and the imposition and effects of martial law are amongst the topics covered. The next chapter deals with municipal matters, with particular reference to the townspeople's attitudes to Borough status, public health and sanitation, municipal locations and residential segregation, and the various successes and failures of the Borough Council during the war. The seventh chapter focuses on crime, legislation and social control in the town. The number and type of criminal incidents during the period are analyzed, the various laws establishing the parameters of society and the manner in which these were applied are examined. Chapter 8 seeks to define the cultural contours of the town, looking at religion, the large number of different clubs and societies, sport and recreation. It explores the way in which cultural pursuits were both a reflection and a reinforcement of the social, political and economic order. The ninth and final chapter links the preceding themes with regard to the effects of the war on King William's Town society, with particular reference to the mentalité of the community as displayed in the attitudes of the residents to the various developments discussed in the body of the thesis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
- Authors: Webb, D. A
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: South African War, 1899-1902 , King William's Town (South Africa)--Population , King William's Town (South Africa)--Economic conditions , King William's Town (South Africa)--Social conditions , King William's Town (South Africa)--Race relations , King William's Town (South Africa --Commerce , King William's Town (South Africa)--Industries , Imvo Zabantsundu (Newspaper) , Local government--South Africa-- King William's Town , Crime--South Africa--King William's Town , King William's Town (South Africa)--History , South Africa--History, Military
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M.A.
- Identifier: vital:2571 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002424 , South African War, 1899-1902 , King William's Town (South Africa)--Population , King William's Town (South Africa)--Economic conditions , King William's Town (South Africa)--Social conditions , King William's Town (South Africa)--Race relations , King William's Town (South Africa --Commerce , King William's Town (South Africa)--Industries , Imvo Zabantsundu (Newspaper) , Local government--South Africa-- King William's Town , Crime--South Africa--King William's Town , King William's Town (South Africa)--History , South Africa--History, Military
- Description: This thesis examines the urban social, economic and cultural history of a community under stress and in transition at the turn of the century. Two themes run through the study: how the residents responded to long-term challenges such as the decline of the town in relation to its nearest urban neighbour, the increasing significance of the black population of the town and district, and the end of the millennium; and secondly, the effects of the South African War on King William's Town society and how the residents perceived the various stresses it exerted on the town. Chapter 1, by way of introduction, provides a general overview of the history of King William's Town and of the current state of historical research on the town. It also examines historiographical strands reflected in this study, focusing on urban history, social history, local history and the new cultural history. The chapter ends with a brief note on sources and methodology. Chapter 2 sets the scene be examining the population of the town and district in relation to its eastern Cape neighbours. It briefly explores the settlement patterns in the town, and the social divisions and racial attitudes manifested by its inhabitants. The third chapter provides a study of the town's economy with particular emphasis on the mercantile sector, agriculture and manufacturing. The informal sector, domestic service and labour relations are also explored. Political processes in this period are dealt with in Chapter 4. The 1898 elections and the re-alignment of political allegiances, the outbreak of the war, the main political issues that emerged and the suppression of the Imvo Zabantsundu newspaper are discussed. Chapter 5 provides an examination of military aspects of the town and district during the war. The impact of the imperial garrison, the attitudes of the residents to the war and the imposition and effects of martial law are amongst the topics covered. The next chapter deals with municipal matters, with particular reference to the townspeople's attitudes to Borough status, public health and sanitation, municipal locations and residential segregation, and the various successes and failures of the Borough Council during the war. The seventh chapter focuses on crime, legislation and social control in the town. The number and type of criminal incidents during the period are analyzed, the various laws establishing the parameters of society and the manner in which these were applied are examined. Chapter 8 seeks to define the cultural contours of the town, looking at religion, the large number of different clubs and societies, sport and recreation. It explores the way in which cultural pursuits were both a reflection and a reinforcement of the social, political and economic order. The ninth and final chapter links the preceding themes with regard to the effects of the war on King William's Town society, with particular reference to the mentalité of the community as displayed in the attitudes of the residents to the various developments discussed in the body of the thesis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
The formulation of modern power configurations in the Keiskammahoek district of the Ciskei from c.1948 to the present
- Westaway, Ashley Frank Hurford
- Authors: Westaway, Ashley Frank Hurford
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Keiskammahoek (South Africa) -- Social conditions , Keiskammahoek (South Africa) -- Economic conditions , Power (Social sciences) -- South Africa -- Keiskammahoek
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2573 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002426 , Keiskammahoek (South Africa) -- Social conditions , Keiskammahoek (South Africa) -- Economic conditions , Power (Social sciences) -- South Africa -- Keiskammahoek
- Description: Much of the available documentation, and the multiple oral testimonies collected for this thesis agree that the most important changes that have occurred in Keiskammahoek district over the past half century resulted from the implementation of the government's conservationist policy known as betterment. The work is thus dominated by a wideranging look at betterment in Keiskammahoek The thesis is arranged chronologically, and each of the successive periods designated is analysed in terms of power. The first period considered is c.1920-c.1936; this was the time during which betterment policy was conceived. The key question that is posed here is why the policy was formed. Foucault's idea of power/knowledge features prominently in answering this question. For all of the remaining periods a conspicuously ,important power relation (unequal relationship) is chosen, and the analyses consist of plotting the histories of the various relations. The first of these periods is that which preceded the implementation of betterment in the district, i.e. c.1936-1960. Since multi-form resistance against betterment characterised this period, the power relation considered is that between the state and the various communities of Keiskammahoek. Next, attention is given to the actual implementation of betterment in the district. Because betterment affected locations in which land was held communally so differently from locations in which land was held under title, these two categories of location are analysed separately. In communal locations, a power relation spawned by betterment that has come to dominate life is that between village neighbours. In the other category of location, betterment has often further differentiated the power relation between title-deed holders and non title-deed holders. The thesis is not exclusively devoted to betterment. The 1970s saw many people being forcibly removed to Keiskammahoek. The final section of the work examines these events in relation to the changing economy of South Africa. In this section the power relation that is deemed important is that between the employed and unemployed The overall aim of the thesis then is to give an indication of the variety of forms or configurations of power that run through modernday Keiskammahoek.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
- Authors: Westaway, Ashley Frank Hurford
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Keiskammahoek (South Africa) -- Social conditions , Keiskammahoek (South Africa) -- Economic conditions , Power (Social sciences) -- South Africa -- Keiskammahoek
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2573 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002426 , Keiskammahoek (South Africa) -- Social conditions , Keiskammahoek (South Africa) -- Economic conditions , Power (Social sciences) -- South Africa -- Keiskammahoek
- Description: Much of the available documentation, and the multiple oral testimonies collected for this thesis agree that the most important changes that have occurred in Keiskammahoek district over the past half century resulted from the implementation of the government's conservationist policy known as betterment. The work is thus dominated by a wideranging look at betterment in Keiskammahoek The thesis is arranged chronologically, and each of the successive periods designated is analysed in terms of power. The first period considered is c.1920-c.1936; this was the time during which betterment policy was conceived. The key question that is posed here is why the policy was formed. Foucault's idea of power/knowledge features prominently in answering this question. For all of the remaining periods a conspicuously ,important power relation (unequal relationship) is chosen, and the analyses consist of plotting the histories of the various relations. The first of these periods is that which preceded the implementation of betterment in the district, i.e. c.1936-1960. Since multi-form resistance against betterment characterised this period, the power relation considered is that between the state and the various communities of Keiskammahoek. Next, attention is given to the actual implementation of betterment in the district. Because betterment affected locations in which land was held communally so differently from locations in which land was held under title, these two categories of location are analysed separately. In communal locations, a power relation spawned by betterment that has come to dominate life is that between village neighbours. In the other category of location, betterment has often further differentiated the power relation between title-deed holders and non title-deed holders. The thesis is not exclusively devoted to betterment. The 1970s saw many people being forcibly removed to Keiskammahoek. The final section of the work examines these events in relation to the changing economy of South Africa. In this section the power relation that is deemed important is that between the employed and unemployed The overall aim of the thesis then is to give an indication of the variety of forms or configurations of power that run through modernday Keiskammahoek.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
The failure of the Coloured Persons' Representative Council and its constitutional repercussions, 1956-1985
- Authors: Saks, David
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: South African Labour Party , Federal Coloured People's Party -- South Africa , South Africa. Parliament , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century , South Africa -- Race relations , Coloured Persons Representative Council of South Africa , Colored people (South Africa) -- Politics and government , Political parties -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2624 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015907
- Description: The thesis starts by providing a brief overview of South African ''Coloured" politics from the passing of Ordinance 50 in 1828 to the removal of the Cape Coloured people from the common voter's roll in 1956. It then goes on to discuss in detail the structures instituted by successive Nationalist Governments to serve as an alternative to parliamentary representation for the coloured people, the role of the various coloured political parties within such structures and the latter's gradual adaptation and development, culminating in the inauguration of the Tricameral Parliament in early 1985. The thesis is, on the one hand, a detailed record of coloured political activity following the loss of common roll voting rights in the Cape, focusing on specifically coloured political parties rather than on broader, non-ethnic resistance movements in which many coloured people took part during the same period. This covers the rise and rapid decline of a conservative grouping within the coloured community which sought to foster an exclusively coloured nationalism operating within the Government's policy of parallel development, and attempted to use the Coloured Persons' Representative Council as a means towards achieving the economic, social and political upliftment of the coloured people. It also deals with the important role of the Labour Party after 1966, showing how a moderate resistance movement carne to use the Council as a platform from which to confront the Government's apartheid policies and to render the institutions of parallel development unworkable through noncooperation and boycotting. The second important preoccupation of the thesis concerns the ambiguous and often contradictory attitudes towards the "coloured question" within the National Party itself. This ambivalence, it is argued, not only had much to do with the eventual failure of the Coloured Persons' Representative Council to become a viable substitute for Parliamentary representation acceptable to the majority of coloured people, but was also a primary cause of the National Party split in 1982. It shows too how the collapse of Grand Apartheid had its origins in the failure to incorporate the coloured population within its framework. The thesis is concerned primarily with coloured political developments. When relevant, however, the establishment and development of representative institutions for the Indian people is also dealt with, in so far as this overlaps with issues and events concerning the coloured Council. Finally, the five year period following the dissolution of the Coloured Persons' Representative Council in 1980 and the inauguration of the Tricameral Parliament in 1985 is briefly dealt with in a concluding chapter. This mainly concerns the gradual accommodation reached between the Government and the Labour Party when the latter eventually agreed, conditionally, to take part in the new constitution.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1992
- Authors: Saks, David
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: South African Labour Party , Federal Coloured People's Party -- South Africa , South Africa. Parliament , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century , South Africa -- Race relations , Coloured Persons Representative Council of South Africa , Colored people (South Africa) -- Politics and government , Political parties -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2624 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015907
- Description: The thesis starts by providing a brief overview of South African ''Coloured" politics from the passing of Ordinance 50 in 1828 to the removal of the Cape Coloured people from the common voter's roll in 1956. It then goes on to discuss in detail the structures instituted by successive Nationalist Governments to serve as an alternative to parliamentary representation for the coloured people, the role of the various coloured political parties within such structures and the latter's gradual adaptation and development, culminating in the inauguration of the Tricameral Parliament in early 1985. The thesis is, on the one hand, a detailed record of coloured political activity following the loss of common roll voting rights in the Cape, focusing on specifically coloured political parties rather than on broader, non-ethnic resistance movements in which many coloured people took part during the same period. This covers the rise and rapid decline of a conservative grouping within the coloured community which sought to foster an exclusively coloured nationalism operating within the Government's policy of parallel development, and attempted to use the Coloured Persons' Representative Council as a means towards achieving the economic, social and political upliftment of the coloured people. It also deals with the important role of the Labour Party after 1966, showing how a moderate resistance movement carne to use the Council as a platform from which to confront the Government's apartheid policies and to render the institutions of parallel development unworkable through noncooperation and boycotting. The second important preoccupation of the thesis concerns the ambiguous and often contradictory attitudes towards the "coloured question" within the National Party itself. This ambivalence, it is argued, not only had much to do with the eventual failure of the Coloured Persons' Representative Council to become a viable substitute for Parliamentary representation acceptable to the majority of coloured people, but was also a primary cause of the National Party split in 1982. It shows too how the collapse of Grand Apartheid had its origins in the failure to incorporate the coloured population within its framework. The thesis is concerned primarily with coloured political developments. When relevant, however, the establishment and development of representative institutions for the Indian people is also dealt with, in so far as this overlaps with issues and events concerning the coloured Council. Finally, the five year period following the dissolution of the Coloured Persons' Representative Council in 1980 and the inauguration of the Tricameral Parliament in 1985 is briefly dealt with in a concluding chapter. This mainly concerns the gradual accommodation reached between the Government and the Labour Party when the latter eventually agreed, conditionally, to take part in the new constitution.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1992
Cecil Rhodes, the Glen Grey Act, and the labour question in the politics of the Cape Colony
- Authors: Thompson, Richard James
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Rhodes, Cecil, 1853-1902 Labor policy -- South Africa -- History Labor supply -- South Africa -- History Black people -- Employment -- South Africa -- History Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- History -- 1872-1910 Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 1872-1910
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2562 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002415
- Description: Chapter One: The provisions of the Glen Grey Act of 1894 are summarised. The memoirs of contemporaries are discussed and the historical literature on the Act from 1913 to the present is surveyed. The likelihood of the land tenure provisions of the Act forcing the people of Glen Grey (or the people of other districts that came under the operation of the Act) to seek employment is noted. It is evident that there is an increasing emphasis in the literature on labour concerns rather than on the disenfranchising effects and local government provisions of the Act. It is often assumed that the labour force generated by the Act was meant for the Transvaal gold mines. Chapter Two: The relevance of the labour needs of the Indwe collieries is investigated. These mines lay adjacent to Glen Grey and might have been expected to draw their labour thence if the Act had been effective. Rhodes, the author of the Act and prime minister of the Cape, had bought shares in the collieries for De Beers shortly before the Act was passed, which made a possible connection more intriguing. No causal link between De Beers' interests and the Act could be demonstrated; nor do the collieries seem to have employed many people from Glen Grey. Chapter Three: Examines the Cape colonists' complaints about shortage of labour from 1807 to the eve of the Glen Grey Act, and investigates various official measures to promote the labour supply. The Glen Grey Act was not the first labour measure passed at the Cape, and it seems likely, therefore, that the labour needs of the Cape, rather than the Transvaal, were uppermost in the minds of those responsible for the Act. Chapter Four examines Rhodes's political position in the 1890s and shows him to be increasingly dependent on the parliamentary support of the Afrikaner Bond to stay in office. Since the Bond was an agricultural interest group it seems likely that labour for Cape farms, rather than Transvaal gold mines, was what the Act was supposed to provide. With that Rhodes could readily agree, since he wanted to promote the agricultural development of the Cape. However, the Bond wanted to be able to buy land in Glen Grey (and other district in which the Act was proclaimed). Rhodes wanted to keep such districts as 'reservoirs of labour' so he could not give the Bond all of what they wanted, i.e. Glen Grey titles to be alienable. His manoeuvring to keep the Bond supporting the Bill while not making the land readily salable is described. (In the end the land was alienable with the consent of the government -- consent that a Rhodes ministry would not give, but that another might.) Rhodes's desire to obtain the administration of Bechuanaland for his Chartered Company, and his need therefore to reassure the Colonial Office and humanitarian opinion that he could be trusted to rule over blacks, are pointed out as other possible motivations for the Act, which Rhodes tried hard to present as an enlightened piece of legislation. The course of the Act through the Cape parliament, and the opposition of Cape liberals to the Act, is described. Chapter Five: The mentalité of the Cape colonists as regards race, liquor, land tenure and other political issues is described. Chapter Six: The reaction to the Act of Cape blacks and sympathetic whites, British humanitarians and the Colonial Office is described. The contemporary concern with reserving land for blacks is noted, as well as concern over the morality of economically coerced labour. This is in contrast to the modern concentration on labour almost to the exclusion of other issues in regard to the Glen Grey Act. The unsuccessful efforts of Cape blacks and British humanitarians to have the imperial government veto the Act are described. Rhodes's influence over the Colonial Office is described.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
- Authors: Thompson, Richard James
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Rhodes, Cecil, 1853-1902 Labor policy -- South Africa -- History Labor supply -- South Africa -- History Black people -- Employment -- South Africa -- History Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- History -- 1872-1910 Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 1872-1910
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2562 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002415
- Description: Chapter One: The provisions of the Glen Grey Act of 1894 are summarised. The memoirs of contemporaries are discussed and the historical literature on the Act from 1913 to the present is surveyed. The likelihood of the land tenure provisions of the Act forcing the people of Glen Grey (or the people of other districts that came under the operation of the Act) to seek employment is noted. It is evident that there is an increasing emphasis in the literature on labour concerns rather than on the disenfranchising effects and local government provisions of the Act. It is often assumed that the labour force generated by the Act was meant for the Transvaal gold mines. Chapter Two: The relevance of the labour needs of the Indwe collieries is investigated. These mines lay adjacent to Glen Grey and might have been expected to draw their labour thence if the Act had been effective. Rhodes, the author of the Act and prime minister of the Cape, had bought shares in the collieries for De Beers shortly before the Act was passed, which made a possible connection more intriguing. No causal link between De Beers' interests and the Act could be demonstrated; nor do the collieries seem to have employed many people from Glen Grey. Chapter Three: Examines the Cape colonists' complaints about shortage of labour from 1807 to the eve of the Glen Grey Act, and investigates various official measures to promote the labour supply. The Glen Grey Act was not the first labour measure passed at the Cape, and it seems likely, therefore, that the labour needs of the Cape, rather than the Transvaal, were uppermost in the minds of those responsible for the Act. Chapter Four examines Rhodes's political position in the 1890s and shows him to be increasingly dependent on the parliamentary support of the Afrikaner Bond to stay in office. Since the Bond was an agricultural interest group it seems likely that labour for Cape farms, rather than Transvaal gold mines, was what the Act was supposed to provide. With that Rhodes could readily agree, since he wanted to promote the agricultural development of the Cape. However, the Bond wanted to be able to buy land in Glen Grey (and other district in which the Act was proclaimed). Rhodes wanted to keep such districts as 'reservoirs of labour' so he could not give the Bond all of what they wanted, i.e. Glen Grey titles to be alienable. His manoeuvring to keep the Bond supporting the Bill while not making the land readily salable is described. (In the end the land was alienable with the consent of the government -- consent that a Rhodes ministry would not give, but that another might.) Rhodes's desire to obtain the administration of Bechuanaland for his Chartered Company, and his need therefore to reassure the Colonial Office and humanitarian opinion that he could be trusted to rule over blacks, are pointed out as other possible motivations for the Act, which Rhodes tried hard to present as an enlightened piece of legislation. The course of the Act through the Cape parliament, and the opposition of Cape liberals to the Act, is described. Chapter Five: The mentalité of the Cape colonists as regards race, liquor, land tenure and other political issues is described. Chapter Six: The reaction to the Act of Cape blacks and sympathetic whites, British humanitarians and the Colonial Office is described. The contemporary concern with reserving land for blacks is noted, as well as concern over the morality of economically coerced labour. This is in contrast to the modern concentration on labour almost to the exclusion of other issues in regard to the Glen Grey Act. The unsuccessful efforts of Cape blacks and British humanitarians to have the imperial government veto the Act are described. Rhodes's influence over the Colonial Office is described.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
Land expropriation and labour extraction under Cape colonial rule : the war of 1835 and the "emancipation" of the Fingo
- Authors: Webster, Alan Charles
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Ayliff, John, 1797-1862 , Fingo (African people) -- History , Frontier War, 1834-1835 , Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- History -- 1814-1852 , Xhosa (African people) -- History , Gcaleka (African people) -- History , Bantu-speaking peoples -- Migrations , Rharhabe (African people) -- History , Historiography -- South Africa , D'Urban, Benjamin, Sir, 1777-1849 , Land tenure -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Working class -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Eminent domain -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2572 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002425
- Description: The interpretations of the war of 1835 and the identity of the Fingo that were presented by the English settlers, have remained the mainstays of all subsequent histories. They asserted that the war of 1835 was the fault purely of 'Kaffir' aggression, that it was controlled by Hintza, the paramount chief, and that the ensuing hostilities were justifiable colonial defence and punishment of the Africans. The arrival of the Fingo in the Colony, it was claimed, was unconnected with the war. It was alleged that the seventeen thousand Fingo brought into the Colony in May 1835 were all Natal refugees who had fled south from the devastations of Shaka and the 'mfecane', and who had then become oppressed by their Gca1eka hosts. Both of these 'histories' need to be inverted. The 'irruption' of December 1834 was not unprovoked Rharhabe aggression, but the final response to years of the advance of the Cape Colony. Large areas of Rharhabe land had been expropriated, and their cattle regularly raided. Their women and children had been seized and taken into the Colony as labourers. The attacks were carried out by only a section of the Rharhabe on specific areas in Albany. The damage caused, and stock taken, was vastly exaggerated by the colonists. The Cape Governor, D'Urban, and British troop reinforcements arrived in Albany in January, and the Rharhabe were invaded two months later. D'Urban later invaded the innocent Gcaleka, took cattle, wreaked havoc and killed Hintza after he refused to ally with the Colony. The Fingo made their appearance at this moment. They were not a homogenous group. There were four categories within the term: mission and refugee collaborators (who were given land at Peddie and had chiefs appointed), military auxiliaries, labourers, and later, destitute Rharhabe seeking employment in the Colony. Only a small minority of the total Fingo were from Natal. The majority of the Fingo appear to have been Rharhabe and Gcaleka women and children, captured by the troops during the war and distributed on farms in the eastern districts to ameliorate the chronic labour shortage. Thus, instead of the year 1835 being one of great loss for the eastern Cape, as claimed by the settler apologists, it was a catalyst to the economic development of the area. All Rharhabe land was seized, to be granted as settler farms. Well over sixty thousand Rharhabe and Gcaleka cattle were captured and distributed amongst the colonists. The security threat of the adjacent Rharhabe and the independent Gcaleka was removed. And a large colonial labour supply was ensured.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
- Authors: Webster, Alan Charles
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Ayliff, John, 1797-1862 , Fingo (African people) -- History , Frontier War, 1834-1835 , Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- History -- 1814-1852 , Xhosa (African people) -- History , Gcaleka (African people) -- History , Bantu-speaking peoples -- Migrations , Rharhabe (African people) -- History , Historiography -- South Africa , D'Urban, Benjamin, Sir, 1777-1849 , Land tenure -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Working class -- South Africa -- Cape of Good Hope , Eminent domain -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2572 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002425
- Description: The interpretations of the war of 1835 and the identity of the Fingo that were presented by the English settlers, have remained the mainstays of all subsequent histories. They asserted that the war of 1835 was the fault purely of 'Kaffir' aggression, that it was controlled by Hintza, the paramount chief, and that the ensuing hostilities were justifiable colonial defence and punishment of the Africans. The arrival of the Fingo in the Colony, it was claimed, was unconnected with the war. It was alleged that the seventeen thousand Fingo brought into the Colony in May 1835 were all Natal refugees who had fled south from the devastations of Shaka and the 'mfecane', and who had then become oppressed by their Gca1eka hosts. Both of these 'histories' need to be inverted. The 'irruption' of December 1834 was not unprovoked Rharhabe aggression, but the final response to years of the advance of the Cape Colony. Large areas of Rharhabe land had been expropriated, and their cattle regularly raided. Their women and children had been seized and taken into the Colony as labourers. The attacks were carried out by only a section of the Rharhabe on specific areas in Albany. The damage caused, and stock taken, was vastly exaggerated by the colonists. The Cape Governor, D'Urban, and British troop reinforcements arrived in Albany in January, and the Rharhabe were invaded two months later. D'Urban later invaded the innocent Gcaleka, took cattle, wreaked havoc and killed Hintza after he refused to ally with the Colony. The Fingo made their appearance at this moment. They were not a homogenous group. There were four categories within the term: mission and refugee collaborators (who were given land at Peddie and had chiefs appointed), military auxiliaries, labourers, and later, destitute Rharhabe seeking employment in the Colony. Only a small minority of the total Fingo were from Natal. The majority of the Fingo appear to have been Rharhabe and Gcaleka women and children, captured by the troops during the war and distributed on farms in the eastern districts to ameliorate the chronic labour shortage. Thus, instead of the year 1835 being one of great loss for the eastern Cape, as claimed by the settler apologists, it was a catalyst to the economic development of the area. All Rharhabe land was seized, to be granted as settler farms. Well over sixty thousand Rharhabe and Gcaleka cattle were captured and distributed amongst the colonists. The security threat of the adjacent Rharhabe and the independent Gcaleka was removed. And a large colonial labour supply was ensured.
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- Date Issued: 1991
Sir Godfrey Lagden : colonial administrator
- Authors: Burton, David Raymond
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Lagden, Godfrey Yeatman, Sir, 1851-1934 South Africa -- History -- 1836-1909
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2519 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001848
- Description: The thesis attempts to provide a chronological analysis of Lagden's colonial career between 1877 and 1907. The youngest son of a parish priest, Lagden received limited formal education and no military training. By a fortuitous set of circumstances, he was able, as a man on the spot, to attain high ranking posts in colonial administration. As a young man, he acquired considerable experience in the Transvaal, Egypt and the Gold Coast. However, blatant disobedience led to his dismissal from Colonial service. Fortunately for Lagden, Marshal Clarke, newly appointed Resident Commissioner of Basutoland, insisted on Lagden being appointed to his staff. Except for a brief stint in Swaziland, Lagden remained in Basutoland until 1900. With Clarke, Lagden played a prominent role in the implementation of the Imperial policy of securing the support of the Koena chiefs by allowing them to retain and consolidate their power and influence. Lagden became Resident Commissioner in Basutoland when Clarke was transferred to Zululand. He continued established policies and championed the Basotho cause by opposing the opening of Basutoland to prospectors and by stressing the industrious habits of the Basotho. His tactful and energetic handling of the rinderpest crisis reduced dramatic repercussions amongst the Basotho and enabled cooperative Koena chiefs to increase their economic and political leverage. Despite his reservations over Basotho loyalty, Lagden emerged from the South African War with an enhanced reputation as the Basotho remained loyal and energetically participated in the Imperial war effort. Largely because of his Basutoland experience, Lagden was appointed the Transvaal Commissioner of Native Affairs in 1901. He was responsible for regulating African labour supplies for the mines and delineation of African locations. His failure to procure sufficient labour and his defence of African rights earned Lagden much abusive settler condemnation. As chairman of the South African Native Affairs Commission, Lagden produced an uninspiring report conditioned by the labour shortage and his personal distaste for decisive action. Nevertheless, its advocacy of political and territorial segregation influenced successive Union governments.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
- Authors: Burton, David Raymond
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Lagden, Godfrey Yeatman, Sir, 1851-1934 South Africa -- History -- 1836-1909
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2519 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001848
- Description: The thesis attempts to provide a chronological analysis of Lagden's colonial career between 1877 and 1907. The youngest son of a parish priest, Lagden received limited formal education and no military training. By a fortuitous set of circumstances, he was able, as a man on the spot, to attain high ranking posts in colonial administration. As a young man, he acquired considerable experience in the Transvaal, Egypt and the Gold Coast. However, blatant disobedience led to his dismissal from Colonial service. Fortunately for Lagden, Marshal Clarke, newly appointed Resident Commissioner of Basutoland, insisted on Lagden being appointed to his staff. Except for a brief stint in Swaziland, Lagden remained in Basutoland until 1900. With Clarke, Lagden played a prominent role in the implementation of the Imperial policy of securing the support of the Koena chiefs by allowing them to retain and consolidate their power and influence. Lagden became Resident Commissioner in Basutoland when Clarke was transferred to Zululand. He continued established policies and championed the Basotho cause by opposing the opening of Basutoland to prospectors and by stressing the industrious habits of the Basotho. His tactful and energetic handling of the rinderpest crisis reduced dramatic repercussions amongst the Basotho and enabled cooperative Koena chiefs to increase their economic and political leverage. Despite his reservations over Basotho loyalty, Lagden emerged from the South African War with an enhanced reputation as the Basotho remained loyal and energetically participated in the Imperial war effort. Largely because of his Basutoland experience, Lagden was appointed the Transvaal Commissioner of Native Affairs in 1901. He was responsible for regulating African labour supplies for the mines and delineation of African locations. His failure to procure sufficient labour and his defence of African rights earned Lagden much abusive settler condemnation. As chairman of the South African Native Affairs Commission, Lagden produced an uninspiring report conditioned by the labour shortage and his personal distaste for decisive action. Nevertheless, its advocacy of political and territorial segregation influenced successive Union governments.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991