Neoliberalism and the State of Belonging in South Africa by Derick A. Becker

Author:Derick A. Becker
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030399313
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The Union of South Africa: The Politics of the Poor Whites and Afrikaner Nationalism

By the end of British colonial rule in 1910, what was then known as the Union of South Africa was characterised by a mix of de facto and patchwork de jure segregation that made its presence felt politically and economically. The wealthiest sections of society were dominated by the English while Afrikaners were largely relegated to rural poverty. This intra-white inequity presented a notable political problem for the young state, much as it had the colonial state: it propelled Afrikaner nationalism and a number of economic and political organisations that would rise to prominence during the interwar period. Blacks and coloureds in the now Union of South Africa, on the other hand, were largely and legally disenfranchised throughout the Union. They enjoyed some representation and freedoms in the Cape Provence that were not fully struck down until the 1950s. Rather than address the racial issues prior to decolonisation, Britain chose to let things be. Social segregation, which had its effects in politics and certain laws banning property ownership for blacks, was for the most part not codified.3 But it was essential to the economy of South Africa before and after obtaining dominion status.

Much of the nineteenth century disputes, however, turned on the question of racial dominance and the formation of a white country with such stark socio-economic differences amongst whites themselves. The problem of ‘poor whites’ did not emerge after the Anglo-Boer War; it had long been an issue but with the existence of the boer Republics it was easy to ignore; the poor could migrate as they always had. But with the defeat of the boer republics the problem leaped to the fore and presented a serious challenge to the colonial state. Indeed, the British High Commissioner for the South African colonies following the Anglo-Boer war made fighting white poverty central to making South Africa into a white country. The problem would also prove to be a key element in organising the Afrikaner community politically. Though the stirrings of communal organisation began as early as the 1870s, the move to political organisation only gained pace in the twentieth century. Three trends can, however, be discerned over this period that are relevant to both the creation of an Afrikaner identity and the ways this was translated into a nationalist political ideology with major ramifications for the young state. The first are the long cultural processes fostering a distinct identity separate from the English. These processes are as much linguistic (the formation of a more coherent Afrikaans language and grammar aided and abetted by the rise of Afrikaans newspapers) as they are religious and intellectual. But these religious and intellectual developments that fostered a singular, separate identity fed off the economic inequality between whites that left people feeling culturally and economically separate. Efforts to address this economic, and ultimately political, isolation constitute the second, perhaps most important, trend too. The final trend is one of international engagement in techno-ideological networks.

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