Book 2: The Impact and Limitations of Colonialism - Chapter 1 - The Uneven Development of Colonialism in South Africa by Jeff Peires

From the book: Book 2: The Impact and Limitations of Colonialism commissioned by The Department of Education

To understand the complexities of modern South Africa and, more especially, to account for some of the differences between regions and provinces, it is important to realise that colonialism was brought to South Africa by different interests in different ways at different times. At the risk of over-simplification, we will distinguish between three models of colonialism in South Africa:

• Slavery and Forced Labour Model: This was the original model of colonialism brought by the Dutch in 1652, and subsequently exported from the Western Cape to the Afrikaner Republics of the Orange Free State and the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek.
• Missionary and Peasant Model: This model was introduced by the British when they took over from the Dutch in 1806. It was implemented mainly in the Eastern Cape and in certain parts of Natal.
• Segregation and Pseudo-traditional Model: This was essentially the creation of a single colonial official in Natal, Theophilus Shepstone. Although this model had a very limited application in Shepstone's lifetime, it is of critical importance because it formed the basis of the segregationist and apartheid structures of the twentieth century.

What is the Slavery and Forced Labour Model of colonialism?

Jan van Riebeeck, who founded the first colony at Cape Town in 1652, was an official of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch East India Company had already colonised Java, Sumatra and the Moluccas in present-day Indonesia for the purpose of growing crops and spices that could not be produced in Europe. In Indonesia, the Dutch enslaved entire populations, ruling them by force and coercing them to produce crops. In the Cape, Van Riebeeck first attempted to get cattle and labour by negotiation, but as soon as these negotiations broke down he turned to slavery.

The first slaves came to the Cape from Benin and Angola in 1658, and were soon followed by others from Mozambique, Madagascar and Indonesia. From 1710 onwards, the adult slave population outnumbered the adult colonial population by as much as three to one.

Even with so many slaves, the Dutch did not have sufficient labour power to provision their ships. In 1657, some Company officials were released from their contracts and were allocated land along the Liesbeeck River. They were known as the Free Burghers, and they formed the nucleus of the white South African population that came to be known as Boers or Afrikaners.

It soon became apparent to the Boers that beyond the Western Cape and Boland regions, the terrain of South Africa was unsuitable for intensive agriculture but very suitable for cattle farming. The majority of them lacked the financial means to buy slaves imported all the way from Indonesia. They were already in the process of dispossessing the indigenous population of their land, and it seemed logical to take not only the land but also the people themselves by force. In the wars which they fought against the Khoi and the San, the Boers frequently followed a policy of exterminating the mature adults but capturing the children and raising them on the farms, teaching them to speak Dutch and to practise the Christian religion. This system was hypocritically known as “apprenticeship”. In fact it was nothing better than slavery because normal human and family rights were not respected, and children were bought and sold separately from their parents.

During the period of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, the British captured the Cape from the Dutch who were, at that time, allied to Napoleon. From 1828 onwards the British introduced a number of administrative changes, known collectively as “the Revolution in Government”. These changes imposed British laws and the English language on the reluctant Boers, and limited the amount of land and labour that could be claimed by an individual.

In response, the Boers set out on an epic quest to establish themselves as a free people in their own country, where they could govern themselves according to their own tastes and habits. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish themselves in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, they settled on the highveld. There they founded two republics, the Orange Free State (1854) and the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), better known as the Transvaal (1858).

Is it correct to refer to these Boers as “settlers”? Some Afrikaners today deny that they are “settlers” and sometimes refer to themselves as “the white tribe of Africa.” They point with some justification to the fact that to be a settler you have to have a mother country. The Boers long ago discarded the Netherlands as their mother country and the Dutch culture as their native culture.

Unfortunately, no matter to what extent the Afrikaners moved away from their settler origins in other respects, they continued to operate the colonial model of land dispossession and forced labour. Their horses and firearms easily overpowered the African nations on the highveld. Their power manifested itself in such atrocities as the Makapansgat massacre of 1854 (see box on page 16).

Every ZAR citizen had the right to two farms, but without any regard for the rights of others. The capture and enslavement of children continued under the name of the inboekstelsel (so called because the farmers were supposed to write down the names of the children in a special book). This discrimination was explicitly justified in racial terms. Whereas earlier conflicts
had been expressed in terms of “Christians” versus “heathens”, racial discrimination now gained greater prominence. Article 7 of the Constitution of the ZAR stated, “The people [volk] desire to permit no equality between coloured people and the white inhabitants of the country, either in Church or State.”

This discrimination was extended even to anybody who was regarded as less than 90% white. According to the Potchefstroom Constitution of 1844,"No person of mixed race shall be allowed to sit in our meetings as a member or judge, down to the tenth degree."

What is the Missionary and Peasant Model of colonialism?

Great Britain was the leading economic power of the nineteenth century. It had long graduated from the smash-and-grab phase of colonialism. More than land and labour, it wanted raw materials for its factories and customers for its manufactured goods. It was sophisticated enough to see that money has no colour, and it was prepared to consider the possibility that black and brown people could perform the same functions as white people in the same situation.

The first British governors of the Cape introduced British settlers who were just as greedy as their Boer predecessors for the land and labour of the African people. They also introduced missionaries such as Dr John Philip of the London Missionary Society. Dr Philip was a humanitarian who was shocked at the racial attitudes of the white settlers, both Afrikaner and British. He pushed for equality and freedom, and was instrumental in the passage of Ordinance 50 of 1828 - a measure which made all people, black and white, equal before the law. He also protested against some of the atrocities committed by British troops, such as the murder and mutilation of the Xhosa king, Hintsa, in 1835.

Dr Philip's humanitarianism was not contradictory to colonialism. In fact, it was in keeping with the capitalist spirit of the age. He was opposed to slavery and forced labour not only because it was cruel, but also because it was economically inefficient. He supported Ordinance 50 not only because it was good ethics but also because it was good business.

The most far-sighted of the British governors, Sir George Grey (governor 1854-1861), agreed with Dr Philip. Grey was critical of the unthinking aggression of the white settlers towards indigenous peoples. He saw, as an alternative to conflict, the full incorporation of African people into the colonial system - in a subordinate role, of course. Grey believed that the only way to keep the “natives” from forever harassing the British was to incorporate them into the way of life that Britain was bringing to the colony.

Such ideas laid the foundation of what was later called “Cape liberalism”. Among its achievements was not only Ordinance 50 and equality before the law, but the colourblind franchiseintroduced when the Cape attained representative government in 1853.

But there was a price to be paid. True, there was a promise of equality and opportunity for all, regardless of the colour of a person's skin. However, although the liberals regarded all human beings as potentially equal, they did not regard all cultures as equal.

They regarded European religion and culture as superior to anything Africa could offer. In order to reach the promised land of equality and opportunity, it was necessary for Africans to sacrifice their culture, their religion, their economy and their system of government. Chiefs and traditional leaders were regarded as dangerous and entrenched obstacles to change (see box on J.C. Warner) .

In conformity with this line of thinking Sir George Grey, the great liberal governor, destroyed the Xhosa nation during the time of the Nongqawuse cattle-killing prophecies, driving the starving people off their lands and sending their chiefs to Robben Island.

In truth, however, many Africans did find the promises of colonial liberalism attractive. In Natal, these people were called amakholwa (the believers). In the Eastern Cape, they were called amagqoboka (converts; literally, people who had been pierced through the heart). During this period many Africans rejected their chiefs, political institutions, beliefs and their culture. They also rejected the traditional African economy based on community ownership and sharing. They lived on mission stations or owned small plots of land. They dressed in European-style clothes and went to church on Sundays. They invested in ploughs and irrigation works, and sold their produce on the colonial market.

Increasing numbers of converted Africans qualified for the vote in the Cape Colony. By 1880, African voters controlled 17 seats in the Cape Parliament, enough to hold the balance of power. This kind of leverage, minimal though it was, mobilised black opinion. During this period we see the first black political party, the Imbumba yamaNyama, founded in Port Elizabeth in 1882, and the first black-owned newspaper, Imvo zabaNtsundu, founded by J.T. Jabavu in King William's Town in 1884.