They traded cattle for land, defeated their overtly aggressive neighbours, seizing their land and cattle in the process, and then proceeded peacefully to make oral treaties with other local tribes. Annexing a large part of land through victory allowed the Voortrekkers to form the Natalian Republic in which “citizenship was reserved to those of European descent, born at the Cape and Dutch-speaking”; an immigration policy aimed at preserving Afrikaner distinctiveness in respect to a modernising world.
Even though Voortrekker commandos were appropriating stolen cattle on behalf of Dingaane, the Zulu Chief, in exchange for promised land, “he was confused by rival claims to land coming from local whites” and was “filled with anxiety by ‘these white interlopers’ whose hunger for land and cattle and whose guns and military success were alarming.” On the Vortrekkers’ return with Dingaane’s stolen cattle from a rival tribe, he shockingly executed the men and fought against the dispossession of native lands by the whites by killing 350 Voortrekkers. On 16 December 1837, 500 Voortrekkers commandos led by Andries Pretorius sought swift and brutal retribution, in what is knows as the Battle of Blood River. They killed 3000 Zulus and lost not one man.
The annual ‘Dingaane’s’ thanksgiving day, the renaming of which to ‘the Day of the Covenant’ appropriately implicates their belief that victory was ordained by God is “charged with vibrant religion and national emotions, and with strong racial overtones,” acting as a medium through which the seeds of Afrikaner romantic nationalism were sewn: rewarding even barbaric ‘heroism’ in the face of adversity and celebrating pride in ones collective history. The Afrikaner language was closely linked to their nationalism. It expressed racism, for instance, through emphasising relations between the master and the slave. One example of this would be; ‘man’ was a word used exclusively for whites (a black man was called a Jong), and blacks in general were called skepsels, which means ‘creatures’. “Thus, the Afrikaner emphasis on cultural purity was directly linked with racial purity.”
The British, who still viewed the Voortrekkers as ‘backward’ farmers because of their incessant land-grabbing and pre-industrialised ways, preoccupied Port Natal and annexed the whole territory of the Natalian Republic in response to the atrocities at Blood River. Even though the Voortrekkers themselves “were consulted on the form of (new) government to be established, further encroachment on native lands and slavery (to which the ‘apprenticeship system’ approximated) were ruled out. The Republic of Natalia withered away within two years as most Natalians left the territory following further resentment of British control especially in relation to the ‘improper’ race relations they had imposed upon them again.
Within fourteen years, Afrikaans had claimed the most fertile and appropriate land around. “Their persistent ubiquity was to make South Africa ultimately Boer in character.” The colonial administration was prevented by the British Government from advancing northwards, as the “taxpayers were appalled at the huge cost of these ‘native wars’”, until the Afrikaner discovery of diamonds and gold made annexing the region attractive to the British Exchequer. Despite the liberal posturing by the British, the dictorial nature of the native administration in British Natal from 1856 onwards was far from liberal in comparison to the progressive Cape Colony. The introduction of the Natal Code meant that amongst the British of Natal, race discrimination was as stark as in the Voortrekker republics. For instance, the Transvaal Grandwet Constitution of 1858 explicitly stated that “the people desire to permit no equality between coloured people and the white inhabitants of the country, either in church or state.”
South African segregation policies were not merely aimed at supporting the subordination of the Blacks (‘Coloureds” and Africans). “Its underlying principle was the enforced separation not just subordination, of blacks and whites in the spheres of work, residence and government.” Segregationist models in South Africa were pioneered first during the nineteenth-century in the form of the demarcation of land and authority set up under the Glen Grey Act in the Eastern Cape and the Shepstone system in Natal. “Shepstone and his supporters claimed that the system of separation existed to protect Africans from erosion of their society by European influences.” However, this was simply a façade as protecting the colony from African competition and ‘disorder’ were his aims. “When there are differences in power between groups, as when one group is exploiting another, social distance becomes a mechanism for keeping the other group in its place.”
Pseudo-scientific support for the Afrikanes’ Calvinistic doctrines of race, fashioned in Europe and the United States over the turn of the century provided the foundation for racism in South Africa. For instance, in 1881, the Afrikaners declared that the Dutch Reformed Church was for whites only and that the Mission Church would cater for everyone else. In the context of mining, with the advent of the British mine owners offering higher wages, the Afrikaners cited Darwinist theory of Natural Selection to argue that blacks were inherently lazy and of ‘inferior human stock’ and so should be barred from such ‘skilled work’ in order to secure these jobs for white immigrants and ensure that their farms had sufficient labour. “Park stressed hat ethnicity, and ethnic conflict (or race prejudice), was an aspect of the relationship between groups that it was caused by threats, real or imaginary, to an existing ‘ecological pattern’ of mutual adjustment.” “
“In the campaigns of the late 1920s Hertzog linked the threat of black ‘Bolshevism’ with African peasant urbanisation and detribalisation.” The ‘Black Peril’ theme adopted for his 1929 election addresses was the legitimisation for segregationist policies. Implicitly there contained still a “belief that Africans were innately incapable of being fully incorporated members of ‘civilised’ society.” This was evident through the influence of German romantic and racist nationalist sentiments in future decades; “stressing an organic of community of soil, blood language and culture.”
The South African Native Affairs Commission was established to prepare the way for Union by establishing outline policies for Africans. “The commission’s recommendations were put into practise by legislation of the subsequent decades,” through a pro-segregationist liberalism that drew from the idea that African culture needed protecting from growing industrialisation. “Most notable were the Mines and Works Act (1911), which imposed the colour bar, the Natives Land Act (1913), which segregated land ownership, and the Natives (Urban Areas) Act (1923), which provided for residential segregation in towns,” all based on previous practises in various parts of the union.
From the Great Trek until independence, justification for Afrikaner people adopting racially discriminative segregationist policies is multi-faceted but perhaps unchanging. Underlying much of the agenda promoting racial segregation was Afrikaner nationalism (even if disguised), which developed from the need for unity against the hostile tribesmen in the earlier years of settlement.
“…ethnic relations are fluid and negotiable; that their importance varies situationally; and that, for all their claims to primordiality and cultural roots, ethnic identities can be consciously manipulated and invested in economic competition in modern societies.” On take-over, British and Afrikaner aspirations conflicted, but with the onset of real economic gain the two racial groups seemed to unite against the majority ‘Other’ to maximise their exploitative potential.
Bibliography
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D. L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1985: 55-83 and 96-113
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F. Troup, South Africa: An Historical Introduction. London: Methuen, 1972: 108-52
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H. C. Triandis, Culture and Social Behaviour. University of Illinois: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
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L. M. Eades, The End of Apartheid in South Africa. London: Greenwood Press
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N. Worden, The Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994: 65-94
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R. G. Crawford, Journey into Apartheid. Epworth Press
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T. H. Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives. London: Pluto Press, 1993: 1-35
Concise Oxford Dictionary, 10th Edition
p68, Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid
P68, Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid
One branch of native peoples prior to the arrival of Dutch settlers – the other is the San
White farmer with Dutch ancestry
p109, South Africa: An Historical Introduction
p114, South Africa: An Historical Introduction
p74-75, Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid
p115, South Africa: An Historical Introduction
p115, South Africa: An Historical Introduction
p34, The End of Apartheid
For instance, on defeating the Zulus they took one thousand Zulu children as ‘apprentices’ – to effectively perform the same duties as a slave
p112 , South Africa: An Historical Introduction
p122, South Africa: An Historical Introduction
p70, Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid
p72, Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid
Preceded Natal Land Act (1903) and Native Land Act (1913) – to free up farmland
Perhaps South Africa’s first example of structured segregation – to protect the colonial state unclaimed land was allocated to white farmers as ‘locations’ which Africans would have the right to cultivate undisturbed
p258, Culture and Social Behaviour
p20, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives
p77, Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid
p77, Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid
p114, Journey into Apartheid
p73, Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid
p20, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives