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6 - South African Society and Culture, 1910–1948

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2011

By
Philip Bonner
Edited by
Robert Ross ,
Anne Kelk Mager  and
Bill Nasson
Philip Bonner
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand
Robert Ross
Affiliation:
Universiteit Leiden
Anne Kelk Mager
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Bill Nasson
Affiliation:
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
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Summary

The Act of Union of 1910 provided the keystone to the edifice of white supremacy. It consolidated efforts that had been under way through the period of reconstruction, and more particularly responsible government (1907–1910), to reestablish white colonial hegemony after the shocks it had sustained during the South African War by putting an end to debilitating interstate competition over railways, labour and a variety of other issues. It provided a basis on which this could be systematically extended through the policy of segregation. Union facilitated the prosecution of two complementary and closely related programmes – the upliftment of poor whites and the subjugation of Africans. These two themes – poor whites and poor blacks – are generally treated separately from each other and have their own segregated historiographies, yet they are intimately related and constantly refract off each other. An attempt is made in this chapter to discuss them together.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of South Africa , pp. 254 - 318
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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