History of Southern Africa

292 Pages·1987·68.889 MB·English

by  J.D. Omer-Cooper

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in 2017 with funding from
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HIS TOR Y OF
SO UTHERN AFRICA
Indian Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
0 100 200 300 400 500 km
1 1 1 \ t
Contemporary Southern Africa
HISTORY OF
SOUTHERN AFRICA
JD. Omer-Cooper
Professor of History
University of Otago, New Zealand
James Currey
■ LONDON
Heinemann
■ PORTSMOUTH N.H.
James Currey Ltd
54b Thornhill Square, Islington
London N1 1BE
Heinemann Educational Books Inc
70 Court Street, Portsmouth
New Hampshire 03801
©J.D. Omer-Cooper 1987
First published 1987
Picture &Map Research by Clare Currey
Edited by Roger Thomas
Design by James Currey and Ingrid Crewdson
Layout and paste up by Tamsin Currey
Typesetting by Anna Taylor
Page make up by Edgell Marland and Gail Tandy
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Omer-Cooper, J.D.
History of Southern Africa .
1. Africa, Southern - History
I. Title
968 DT740
ISBN 0-85255-010-3
ISBN 0-85255-011-1 Pbk
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Omer-Cooper, J.D. (JohnD.)
A history of Southern Africa
Bibliography: p.
Includes index
1. South Africa - History. 2. Africa, Southern
-History. I. Title.
DT766.044 1987 968 86-32007
ISBN 0-435-08010-5
The paper in this book is acid free and meets the guidelines
for permanence and durability favoured by the British Library
and the Library of Congress
Typeset in Itek Garamond
by TNR Productions Ltd 19 Westbourne Road Islington London N7 8AN
and printed in Great Britain
Contents
Maps viii
3 New wine in old bottles:
Illustrations ix
the Cape Colony 1795-1834 35
Preface xi
The first British occupation of the Cape,
1 The Khoisan peoples &
1795-1802 36
Bantu-speaking settlement 1
Attempts to bring peace to the frontiers - Frontier
revolt and Khoi rebellion
The environment 1 Christian missionaries 38
Conflicts of interest
The earliest peoples 2
The rule of the Batavian Republic,
The San - The Khoi
Iron Age peoples 8 1803-6 41
The Nguni - The Sotho-Tswana - Other Bantu- The return of the British, 1806 42
speaking groups - Social, economic and political
Labour shortages - Labour laws and the Khoi
organisation - Chiefdom structure and
Struggle for the zuurveld 44
organisation - Patterns of expansion - Bantu-
Khoisan relations The ‘ceded’ territory
The drive for closer settlement 46
2 The establishment The 1820 settler scheme
Closer ties with Britain: judicial reform 47
& early development
Ordinance no. 50
of the Cape Colony 17
Expansion across the Orange 49
Griqua claims - Frontier relations
17
The first European settlements
The drive towards colonisation - Local
administration - Conflicts of interest between
Company and settlers
The introduction of slave labour:
4 The mass migrations of the
expansion in farming 22
mfecane & the Great Trek 52
Alternatives to agrarian farming - The loan farms
system
Colonial expansion in the eighteenth The rise of the northern Nguni states 54
century 25 Shaka: the military leader - Shaka: the
consolidation of power - The end of Shaka’s reign
Settlement in the north - Settlement in the east
The mfecane/ mass migration 59
Khoisan reactions to the European
The Nguni - The Ngwane and the Hlubi - Sotho-
presence 26
Tswana upheavals - Moshoeshoe and the
Development of commandos establishment of the Lesotho kingdom - Mzilikazi
Racial attitudes at the Cape 30 and the Ndebele - Struggles between survivors
The effects of the mfecane 65
The rise of the Griqua
Racial attitudes in the interior 32 Political change - European observations
The sixth Xhosa war of resistance 68
The last years of Company rule 3 2
Queen Adelaide Province
Xhosa resistance wars
The Great Trek 70 Xhosa war on the eastern frontier 111
The progress of the Trek - Military tactics - Early The ninth Xhosa resistance war - The escalation of
trekker groups - Trekker government — Leaders of conflict
the trek - Ndebele pressed into migration -
The Zulu War 112
Dingane and Retief - Continued conflict - The
Imperial desires - Zulu recovery - Faction
battle of Blood river - The death of Dingane
struggles in the kingdom - Cetshwayo succeeds
Mpande - Frere seeks war - The British invasion of
5 Boer republics, African states
Zululand - The battle of Isandhlwana - The
significance of the Zulu victory - The end of the
& the British
82
war
(
Sot ho resistance: The Gun War’ 116
Developments after the Great Trek 82
The Phuthi are driven to rebellion - Moorosi
British legislation over trekker lands - The besieged - Sotho disarmament
republic of Natalia - British annexation of Natal - Parallel resistance to confederation 119
Land and settlement schemes in Natal - Conflicts
Resentment in the Transvaal
of interest in the Vaal/Orange rivers area - British
British policy on withdrawal 1 20
Kaffraria - The Orange River Sovereignty
Arrangements with the Transvaal - The Cape
The reversal of British policy 88
abandons Lesotho
Abandonment of the Sovereignty
New era: industrial revolution in the
Changes in British policy 91
diamond fields 121
Sir George Grey: the eastern frontier and the
interior Amalgamation of the diamond fields - Increased
control of African working conditions - The many
The Orange Free State 9 3
ambitions of Cecil Rhodes - New states, new
Formation and early history - Increasing instability
boundaries
-The question of federation
Consolidation in the Transvaal 95
7 Gold & the unification
Unification of the South African
of South Africa 126
Republic 95
Final separation between the Orange Free State
Initial changes caused by gold
and the South African Republic - Economic
weaknesses in the South African Republic mining 126
War between the Orange Free State and
Reactions in the Transvaal volksraad
the Kingdom of Lesotho 97 The nature of the Rand deposits 127
King Moshoeshoe urges British intervention - The Effects of boom on the industry - The rush to
political outcome of the war build rail links
The politics of capitalism: Cecil Rhodes 131
6 Diamonds & the first British Mining concessions from Lobengula - Rhodes’s
‘pioneer column’ - Political tactics in the Cape -
attempt to unify South Africa 101
Changes in Rhodes’s fortunes
Organised opposition in the Transvaal 136
The significance of the diamondfields 101 Rhodes’s plan to overthrow the Transvaal
government - The Jameson raid
Increased competition - The beginnings of
migrant labour Ndebele and Shona uprisings 139
Rival claims to the diamond deposits 103 Rhodes profits from peace talks
The Keate awards: Britain takes the diamond fields The South African War 141
Responsible government status for Continuation of conflict in the Transvaal - Kruger
consolidates his position in the Transvaal - Milner
the Cape 105
and the Transvaal - Agitation for a show of force -
The nature of responsible government-
Moderates attempt negotiation - The course of the
Continued stress in Griqualand West
war - The Vereiniging peace terms - Betrayal of
The Langalibalele affair 107
African interests
The issue of confederation 108 Rost-war reconstruction 148
The London confederation conference - Labour exploitation and social problems -
Alternative means of achieving confederation: the Importation of Chinese mine labour - White
Transvaal - Annexation of the Transvaal opposition to Milner’s policies
African political activity betiveen the
Political developments 151
wars 178
The foundation of political parties - Elections
Economic developments 152 The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union-
Non-whites and the franchise issue -The All
Increased pressures on Africans in Natal -
African Convention - The revival of the ANC
Bambatha’s rebellion
South Africa and the Second World War 181
White political unity 154
The Afrikaner nationalist response - The
The need for a closer union - The draft constitution
economic impact of the war - Social changes
- The Cape franchise - Attitudes to the
arising from industrial growth - Afrikaner politics
constitution
in the war period - The struggle between the
National Party and the Ossewabrandwag - Smuts’s
1943 election victory - African nationalism in the
Second World War: the recovery of the ANC -
8 From Union to apartheid:
African trade union activity - The Natives’
the politics of segregation 158 Representative Council protests
The 1948 general election and its
background 188
A changing society 158
The policies of the United Party - Smuts and the
The politics of migrant labour
United Nations - The National Party and its
The first Union governments 159
apartheid policy - The 1948 apartheid election
The break-up of the South African National Party
-Afrikaner nationalism under Hertzog
9 The three phases of
The development of African nationalism 160
apartheid 193
Early political associations - The establishment of
the African National Congress (ANC) - The 1913
Land Act
Baaskap apartheid 1948-61 193
Indian protest: the origins of Satyagraha
The legal framework of apartheid - The impact of
in South Africa 163 baaskap apartheid on black and brown South Africans
- White opposition to apartheid - The Torch
White labour unrest 164
Commando - Black-led opposition to apartheid: the
The First World War 165
mass defiance campaign - The Congress of the
Afrikaner opposition - The conquest of German People and the Freedom Charter - The ANC splits:
South West Africa - Smuts and the League of foundation of the Pan-Africanist Congress - Other
Nations Mandate system forms of black protest and resistance - The
Post-war political developments 167 Sharpeville massacre - The opening of armed
struggle - South Africa becomes a republic and
White party politics - The birth of the
leaves the Commonwealth
Broederbond - The ANC and the struggle for
From baaskap apartheid to separate
African rights on the Rand 1918-20
The legal foundations of urban segregation development 211
New policy for the Bantustans - Constitutional
and influx control 169
development of the Bantustans - Economic
The Bulhoek Israelites and the
development of the Bantustans - The outward-
Bondelswarts 169 looking policy - The other face of separate
development: forced removals and tightened
Race relations in the Rand mining work
labour controls - Heightened police repression -
force 170 White opposition in the period of‘separate
development’ - The division of Afrikanerdom: the
Pauperisation of rural Afrikaners: the poor-white
first split in the National Party - Black opposition
problem - The Rand rebellion - The Labour-
to separate development - Steve Biko and the rise
National Party alliance - Increased labour
of the black consciousness movement - Changes in
discrimination
the central-southern African region
South Africa becomes independent 173
From separate development to multiracial
The response of the Broederbond and Afrikaner
co-opt ion 222
nationalists - The ‘Black Peril’ election - The
formation of the United Party and destruction of The revolution in Portugal and the strategic
the Cape franchise transformation of the central African region - The
Afrikaner nationalism 175 Soweto explosion - Repression and militarisation:
the martyrdom of Steve Biko - Changes in policy
The voortrekker centenary
towards urbanised Africans - The other side of the
co-option policy: independence for the Bantustans -
Black opposition after Soweto - Government and
Appendix 2 Namibia 262
white opposition after 1974 - The ‘Muldergate’
affair: P.W. Botha becomes prime minister-
Botha’s managerial style of government and the
Population 262
new dominant elite - The development of regional
Inter-ethnic conflict and European
policy - The introduction of the multiracial
constitution intervention 263
The German administration of South
Appendix 1 The enclave
West Africa 265
states, Lesotho, Swaziland
South West Africa (Namibia) under
& Botswana 237
South African rule 266
The creation of the South African Mandate -
The style of Mandate administration: social
The kingdom of Lesotho 237
effects - The repression of the Bondelswarts -
A breakdown in unity: Cape administration 1871-
South African schemes to absorb or partition
83 - The return to British administration:
South West Africa - United Nations protest and
development of the economy - Social inequality -
its effects - The 1971 strike - Further UN
Towards political reform - The rise of the
pressure - Effects of the Turnhalle Conference -
Basutoland Congress Party - Independent Lesotho
South African reactions to Namibia’s future
- The 1970 coup
Swaziland 247
The system of government - Frontier losses and
concession hunters - Constitutional change - Postscript 274
Swaziland as a High Commission Territory -
Sobhuza II: first political moves - Economic
development - An absolute monarchy Bibliography 278
255
Botswana
Index 286
From chiefdoms to national politics - Political
parties - The independence era
Maps
5.1 The Trekker Republic and the Boer communities of
frontispiece: Contemporary Southern Africa ii
the Transvaal 83
1.1 South Africa, showing relief and rainfall and the
5.2 White encroachment on Basutoland (Lesotho) 98
probable migration routes of the Khoi 2
6.1 Rival claims to the diamond fields 104
2.1 Expansion of the Cape colony: approximate areas
1652, 1710 and the 1798frontier 27 7.1 The consolidation of white rule and the extinction of
African independence in southern Africa: the situation
3.1 The progressive expropriation of the Xhosa,
in 1897 139
1812-20 46
7.2 The South African War, 1899-1902 144
4.1 Approximate directions of major movements during
the mfecane in southern Africa and the main directions 9.1 Contemporary South Africa, showing the Bantustans
of movement of the Boer Great Trek 65 (Homelands) 214