South African History [The British Colonial Era] - Part 2

In 1795 the British occupied the Cape as aMeanwhile large numbers of the original colonists,
strategic base against the French, controlling thethe Boers, were greatly extending white
sea route to the East.settlement beyond the Cape's borders to the
After a brief reversion to the Dutch in the coursenorth in the movement that became known as
of the Napoleonic wars, it was retaken in 1806the Great Trek in the mid-1830s. Alienated by
and kept by Britain in the post-war settlement ofBritish liberalism, and with their economic
territorial claims. The closed and regulatedenterprise usurped by British settlers, several
economic system of the Dutch period was sweptthousand Boers from the interior districts,
away as the Cape Colony was integrated into theaccompanied by a number of Khoisan servants,
dynamic international trading empire ofbegan a series of migrations northwards. They
industrializing Britain.moved to the Highveld and Natal, skirting the
A crucial new element was evangelicalism, broughtgreat concentrations of black farmers on the way
to the Cape by Protestant missionaries. Theby taking advantage of the areas disrupted during
evangelicals believed in the liberating effect ofthe mfecane.
'free' labor and in the 'civilizing mission' of BritishWhen the British, who were concerned about
imperialism. They were convinced that indigenouscontrolling the traffic through Port Natal (Durban),
peoples could be fully assimilated into Europeanannexed the territory of Natal in 1843, those
Christian culture, once the shackles of oppressionemigrant Boers who had hoped to settle there
had been removed.returned inland.
The most important representative of the missionThe Voortrekkers (as they were later called)
movement in South Africa was Dr. John Philip,coalesced in two land-locked republics, the South
who arrived as superintendent of the LondonAfrican Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free
Missionary Society in 1819. His campaign on behalfState. There, the principles of racially exclusive
of the oppressed Khoisan coincided with a highcitizenship were absolute, despite the trekkers'
point in official sympathy for philanthropicreliance on black labor. With limited coercive
concerns.power, the Boer communities had to establish
One result was Ordinance 50 of 1828, whichrelations and develop alliances with some black
guaranteed equal civil rights for 'people of co lour'chiefdoms, neutralizing those who obstructed their
within the colony and freed them from legalintrusion or who posed a threat to their security.
discrimination.Only after the mineral discoveries of the late
At the same time, a powerful anti-slavery1800s did the balance of power swing decisively
movement in Britain promoted a series oftowards the colonists. The Boer republics then
ameliorative measures, imposed on the colonies intook on the trappings of real statehood and
the 1820s, and the proclamation of emancipation,imposed their authority within the territorial
which came into force in 1834. The slaves wereborders that they had notionally claimed for
subjected to a four-year period of 'apprenticeship'themselves.
with their former owners on the grounds thatThe Colony of Natal, situated to the south of the
they must be prepared for freedom, which camemighty Zulu State, developed along very different
on 1 December 1838.lines from the original colony of settlement, the
Although slavery had become less profitableCape.
because of a depression in the wine industry,The size of the black population left no room for
Cape slave-owners rallied to oppose emancipation.the assimilationist vision of race domination
The compensation money, which the Britishembraced in the Cape. Chiefdoms consisting
treasury paid out to sweeten the pill, injectedmainly of refugee groups in the aftermath of the
unprecedented liquidity into the stagnant localmfecane were persuaded to accept colonial
economy.protection in return for reserved land and the
This brought a spurt of company formation, suchfreedom to govern themselves in accordance
as banks and insurance companies, as well as awith their own customs. These chiefdoms were
surge of investment in land and wool sheep in theestablished in the heart of an expanding colonial
drier regions of the colony in the late 1830s. Woolterritory.
became a staple export on which the CapeNatal developed a system of political and legal
economy depended for its further development indualism, whereby chiefly rule was entrenched and
the middle decades of the century.customary law was codified. Although exemptions
For the ex-slaves, as for the Khoisan servants,from customary law could be granted to the
the reality of freedom was very different fromeducated products of the missions, in practice
the promise. As the wage-based economythey were rare. Urban residence was strictly
developed, they remained a dispossessed andcontrolled and political rights outside the reserves
exploited element in the population, with littlewere effectively limited to whites. Natal's system
opportunity to escape their servile lot.is widely regarded as having provided a model for
Increasingly, they were lumped together as thethe segregationism of the 20th century.
coloured people, a group which included theNatal's economy was boosted by the
descendants of unions between indigenous anddevelopment of sugar plantations in the subtropical
European peoples, and a substantial Muslimcoastal lowlands. Indian-indentured laborers were
minority who became known as the 'Cape Malays'imported from 1860 to work the plantations, and
(misleadingly, as they mostly came from themany Indian traders and market gardeners
Indonesian archipelago).followed.
The coloured people were discriminated against onThese Indians, who were segregated and
account of their working-class status as well asdiscriminated against from the start, became a
their racial identity. Among the poor, especially infurther important element in South Africa's
and around Cape Town, there continued to be apopulation. It was in South Africa that Mohandas
great deal of racial mixing and intermarriageGandhi refined from the mid-1890s the techniques
throughout the 1800s.of passive resistance, which he later effectively
In 1820, several thousand British settlers, whopractised in India. Although Indians gradually
were swept up by a scheme to relieve Britain ofmoved into the Transvaal and elsewhere, they
its unemployed, were placed in the eastern Caperemain concentrated mainly in Natal.
frontier zone as a buffer against the XhosaIn 1853, the Cape Colony was granted a
chiefdoms.representative legislature in keeping with British
The vision of a dense settlement of smallpolicy, followed in 1872 by self-government. The
farmers was, however, ill-conceived and many offranchise was formally non-racial but also based
the settlers became artisans and traders. Theon income and property qualifications. The result
more successful became an entrepreneurial classwas that Africans and coloured people formed a
of merchants, large-scale sheep farmers andminority ­ although in certain places a
speculators with an insatiable demand for land.substantial one ­ of voters.
Some became fierce warmongers, who pressedWhat became known as the 'liberal tradition' at
for the military dispossession of the chiefdoms.the Cape depended on the fact that the great
They coveted Xhosa land and welcomed themass of Bantu-speaking farmers remained outside
prospect of war involving large-scale militaryits colonial borders until late in the 19th century.
expenditure by the imperial authorities.Non-racialism could thus be embraced without
The Xhosa engaged in raiding as a means ofposing a threat to white supremacy.
asserting their prior claims to the land. RacialNumbers of Africans within the Cape colony had
paranoia became integral to white frontier politics.had sufficient formal education or owned enough
The result was that frontier warfare becameproperty to qualify for the franchise. Political
endemic through much of the 19th century, duringalliances across racial lines were common in the
which Xhosa war leaders such as Chief Maqomaeastern Cape constituencies. It is therefore not
became heroic figures to their people.surprising that the eastern Cape became a
By the mid-1800s, British settlers of similarseedbed of African nationalism, once the ideal and
persuasion were to be found in Natal. They toopromise of inclusion in the common society was
called for imperial expansion in support of theirso starkly violated by later racial policies.
land claims and trading enterprises.