5 The end of the century
5.4 The end of the century
This range of different methods of social engineering and segregation eventually resulted in the Durban System, the blue print of urban segregation in South Africa, in the twentieth century.103 The port city established a system of urban segregation and social control, dealing with the perceived alcohol problem by monopolising beer brewing and sales, using these revenues to pay for 'native administration'. Compulsory residence in barracks, compounds, and hostels was also a part of this system. °4 This not only made the African labourers pay for their own oppression, it also robbed many people on the fringes of the towns of their livelihoods, especially women, as brewing was a women's job.105 This of course could not be implemented without conflict and when the Durban Corporation wanted to build a new beerhall in an area with a lot of shebeens, male consumers and female brewers found each other in a boycott of and protest against the brewing monopoly.106
While the countryside was starting to look more like what settlers hoped it would look like, the cities, and Durban in particular, did not. The growth offered non-whites a number of opportunities to secure a more or less sustainable livelihood without adapting to the colonial ideal of a dependent, cheap and subservient African labourer. The consequences of the mineral revolution made the dream of a white city with only a docile black labour force unattainable. Durban -just like Cape Town - became de facto a multiracial city; and the white population was frantically looking for ways to deal with this. The labour market that was created by urbanisation had to be supplied, but nobody wanted to deal with the consequences of this. As Swanson puts it: 'the underlying question is one of overall social control: how to organize society to provide for the mutual access of black labourers and white employers in the coming industrial age without having to pay the heavy social costs of
urbanization or losing the dominance of white over black.'
Notes
1 Natal Mercury, 11 October 1892, p. 3.
2 Statistical Year Book, 1896, A2.
3 Ibid.. 1896, A2; S.W. Silver and Co., "Handbook to South Africa", published in: D.H. HOUGHTON, J.
DAGUT, op. cit, pp. 273-274.
4 J.J.A. EDLEY, op. cit., p. 212.
5 H. HEYDENRYCH, op. cit, p. 61.
6 Statistical Year Book, 1896, A2
7 Natal Witness, 1 September 1888, p. 7.
8 Natal Witness, 9 February 1892, p. 2.
9 Natal Witness, 24 March 1894, p. 3.
10 R. OVENDALE, "The politics of dependence, 1893-1899" in: A. DUMINY, B. GUEST (eds.), Natal and Zululand from earliest times to 1910: a new history, Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1989, pp. 325- 326.
" Ibid., pp. 327-329.
12 Ibid., p. 332; B. GUEST, "the new economy", p. 316.
13 J.F. INGRAM, Natalia, p. 63.
14 Ibid., pp. 63-65.
15 B. GUEST, "Colonists, confederation and constitutional change" in: A. DUMINY, B. GUEST (eds.), Natal and Zululand from earliest times to 1910: a new history. Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1989, p.
146.
16 Natal Witness, 11 August 1848, p. 2.
17 B. GUEST, "Colonists, confederation and constitutional change", p. 147.
18 Natal Witness, 7 February 1880, p. 5.
19 M.W. SWANSON, The rise of multiracial Durban, pp. 262-263.
20 J.F. INGRAM, Natalia, p. 64.
21 H. SLATER, "Land, Labour and Capital in Natal", p. 275.
22 Except for the two short stretches along the coast North and South from Durban, which were built in the 1870s. B. GUEST, "The new economy", p. 306.
23 A.J. CHRISTOPHER, "The closer-settlement movement in Natal", p. 575.
24 S. BHANA, op. cit, p. 246.
25 B. GUEST, "The new economy", p. 303.
26 A.J. CHRISTOPHER, "The closer-settlement movement in Natal", pp. 570-572.
27 Statistical Year Book, 1896, A2.
2 8See:NLCC, op. cit.
29 A.J. CHRISTOPHER, "The closer-settlement movement in Natal", pp. 574-575.
30 C. BALLARD, G. LENTA, op. cit., p. 128; J.F. INGRAM, Natalia, pp. 77-78.
31 Natal Mercury, 6 February 1893, p. 3.
32 J.F. INGRAM, Natalia, p. 78.
33 Ibid, p. 77.
34 It was Colin Bundy who set the milestone in this debate by challenging the liberal/conservative 'dual economy' model of South African agriculture in his book 'The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry'.
Bundy showed that - contrary to the idea of a backwards peasantry - for a considerable period of time there was an innovative and dynamic peasantry in South Africa. He attributed this to their responsiveness to the newly created markets for food crops. The reasons for the fall of the peasantry were the capitalisation of settler agriculture, a government that repressed non-white cultivators and gave a lot of support to the white farmers and the labour-hunger of the goldmines. Even though this work has been recognised as a landmark by most scholars, it has also been much criticised. Some of the main criticisms are that Bundy has a deterministic conception of the market; that he overstates the general prosperity of the peasantry - in other words he mistakes a large output with prosperity - and that his thesis is functionalistic. Despite these criticisms the thesis remains important and influential. See: C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall; some reviews of this thesis: F. COOPER, "Peasants, Capitalists and Historians: A Review Article" in: Journal of Southern African studies, vol. VII, 1981, no. 2, pp. 284-314; J.
LEWIS, "The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry: A Critique and Reassesment" in: Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. XI, 1984, no. 1, pp. 1-24.
35 C. BALLARD, G. LENTA, op. cit., p. 140.
36 J.J.A. EDLEY, op. cit, p. 213; B. GUEST, "The new economy", p. 314.
37 J.J.A. EDLEY, op. cit, p. 212; H. SLATER, "Land, Labour and Capital in Natal", p. 275.
38 C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall, pp. 188-189.
39 W.M. HARTLEY, op. cit, pp. 13-14.
40 H. SLATER, "Land, Labour and Capital in Natal", p. 275.
41 C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall, pp. 184-186.
42 C. BALARD, G. LENTA, op. cit., pp. 140-141; C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall, p. 188.
4.! R. CALLEBERT, op. cit, p. 39.
44 A.J. CHRISTOPHER, "The closer-settlement movement in Natal", p. 575; C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall, p.
137.
45 C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall, p. 190.
46 This illustrates M. Morris's parallel with the Prussian path to agricultural capitalism, which stresses the repressive nature of rural labour relations in South Africa. M. MORRIS, "The Development of Capitalism in South African Agriculture: Class Struggle in the Countryside" in: Economy and Society, vol. V, 1976, pp. 293- 343.
47 C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall, p. 181; B. FREUND, Insiders and Outsiders, p. 15.
48 C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall, p. 182.
49 Ibjd, pp. 190-191.
50 B. FREUND, Insiders and Outsiders, p. 24.
51 C. BALLARD, G. LENTA, op. cit, p. 143; B. FREUND, Insiders and Outsiders, pp. 23-24.
52 C. BUNDY, The Rise and Fall, p. 191.
53 Ibid., p. 185.
54 C. BUNDY, "The Transkei Peasantry, c. 1890-1914: 'Passing through a Period of Stress'" in: R. PALMER, N.
PARSONS (eds.), The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa. London, Heinemann, 1977, p.
215.
55 M.W. SW ANSON, The rise of multiracial Durban, p. 461.
56 Ibjd, p. 269.
57 Blue Book, 1870, W6; Statistical Year Book, 1896, El4.
58 J.F. INGRAM, The Colony of Natal, p. 93; p. 187.
59 J.J.A. EDLEY, op. cit, p. 216.
60 J.F. INGRAM, The Colony of Natal, pp. 231-232.
61 Ibjd, p. 132; p. 153; p. 199; p. 223.
62 M.W. SWANSON, The rise of multiracial Durban, p. 271.
63 J.F. INGRAM, The Story of an African City, pp. 73-82.
64 F. COOPER, "Introduction", p. 8.
65 K.E. ATKINS, op. cit, pp. 108-109; B. FREUND, Insiders and Outsiders, pp. 34-35; H. BRADFORD, "'We Women Will Show Them': Beer Protests in the Natal Countryside, 1929" in: J. CRUSH, C. AMBLER (eds.), Liquor and labor in southern Africa. Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1992, pp. 210-211.
66 B. FREUND, Insiders and Outsiders, p. 34.
67 K.E. ATKINS, op. cit., p. 11 Iff.
68 Ibid, p. 61.
69 M.W. SWANSON, The rise of multiracial Durban, p. 328.
70 K.E. ATKINS, op. cit, pp. 117-118.
71 M.W. SWANSON, The rise of multiracial Durban, pp. 367-369.
72 K.E. ATKINS, op. cit, p. 118.
73 Ibid, p. 405.
74 Ibjd, p. 406.
75 M.W. SWANSON, "Urban Origins of Separate Development" in: Race, vol. X, 1968, no. 1, p. 39.
76 K.E. ATKINS, op. cit, p. 131.
77 Ibid., p. 133.
78 Ibid., p. 134.
79
80 M.W. SWANSON, The rise of multiracial Durban, p. 318.
These were not the first barracks for jobbers in Durban.
81 M.W. SWANSON, The rise of multiracial Durban, p. 350; p. 366.
82 Ibid, p. 350.
83 M.W. SWANSON, "The Asiatic Menace", p. 408.
Ibid., p. 411; M.W. SWANSON, The rise of multiracial Durban, pp. 348-349.
85 M.W. SWANSON, "The Asiatic Menace", pp. 409-410.
86 This does certainly not mean that earlier governments were not susceptible to these demands.
87 Ibid., pp. 413-414.
88 P.P. SMIT, op. c i t . p . 51.
89 M.W. SWANSON, "The Asiatic Menace", p. 418.
90 A.C. BJORVIG, op. cit, p. 267.
91 D.P. SMIT, op. cit., p. 57.
92 C. VAN ONSELEN, op. cit, p. 163.
93 Ibid., p. 164; A C . BJORVIG, op. cit., p. 271.
94 K.E. ATKINS, op. cit, p. 107; p. 113; pp. 127-128.
95 Ibid., p. 122ff.
96 Ibid, p. 74.
97 Ibid, pp. 112-113.
98 Ibid., p. 129; M.W. SWANSON, "The Asiatic Menace", p. 406.
99 K.E. ATKINS, op. cit., p. 130.
100 Hindi for laundryman.
101 Near Durban.
102 K.E. ATKINS, op. cit., pp. 135-139.
103 B. FREUND, "City Hall and the Direction of Development", p. 18.
104 M.W. SWANSON, "The Durban System", pp. 173-175.
105 H. BRADFORD, op. cit, p. 211.
106 Ibid, p. 212.
107 J.F. INGRAM, The Colony of Natal, p. 34; p. 47.
108 L. HEYDENRYCH, op. cit, pp. 39-40; B. GUEST, "The new economy", p. 310.
109 N. WORDEN, E. VAN HEYNINGEN, V. BICKFORD-SMITH, Cape Town, The Making of a City, Cape Town, David Philip Publishers, 1998, pp. 211-213.
110 M.W. SWANSON, "The Sanitation Syndrome: Bubonic Plague and Urban Native Policy in the Cape Colony, 1900-1909" in: The Journal of African History, vol. XVIII, 1977, no. 3, p. 394.