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The Origins of African Political Consciousness in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

The origins of African political consciousness in Southern Africa can be traced back to the first half of the nineteenth century, to the impact of the Christian missions and to the development of a non-racial constitution in the Cape. As the century progressed, mission-educated Africans came to exercise a limited but real influence within Cape politics, and the Native policy of that Colony was seen to contrast favourably with those policies developing in the Boer Republics and Natal. By the turn of the century a new African élite had emerged, committed to non-racial ideals gleaned from Christianity and supported by the theory, and to some extent the practice, of Cape politics.

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

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Page 587 note 2 Ibid. C. 139/8: Jabavu to Chesson, 21 June 1886.

Page 587 note 3 Ibid.

Page 587 note 4 A.P.S. Papers, C. 139/12: Jabavu to Chesson, 17 July 1887.

Page 587 note 5 Foreman, ‘Birth of the Congress Movement’, in New Age, 17 July 1958.

Page 588 note 1 A.P.S. Papers, C. 139/13: Jabavu to Chesson, 25 July 1887.

Page 588 note 2 Ibid. C. 153: Holland (Downing Street) to Native Committee (Cape Town), Copy No. 108, 24 October 1887. This precedent was not conclusive. Responsible government still involved reserved powers where an aboriginal population was concerned. While the Act was within the Cape Legislature's competence, it was not legally a piece of racial discrimination.

Page 588 note 3 A.P.S. Papers, C. 139/19: Jabavu to Chesson, 28 November 1887.

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Page 594 note 3 South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903–1905, pp. 743, 791, 974, 294, 725, 856, and 862.

Page 594 note 4 Ibid. pp. 389 and 294.

Page 594 note 5 Ibid. pp. 455–61.

Page 594 note 6 Ibid. p. 537.

Page 595 note 1 M. Benson, op. cit. p. 24. Rev. W. Rubusana had also argued for a South African university ‘after the fashion of Tuskegee in America’; The Natives of South Africa, p. 332.

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Page 598 note 2 Ibid. p. 799. See also Izwi Labantu (East London), 16 04 1909.Google Scholar

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Page 600 note 3 Tengo Javabu later established his Cape Native Convention, circa 1908. Blue Book on Native Affairs, 1907 (Cape Town, 1908), ‘Reports of District Commissioners,’ pp. 1637.Google Scholar

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Page 601 note 1 South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903—1905, pp. 369–78, evidence of the Native Vigilance Association, Orange River Colony.

Page 601 note 2 Trapido, S., ‘A Preliminary Study of the Development of African Political Opinion, 1884–1955’ (B.A. dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand), 1959, pp. 10 and 35Google Scholar. The tendency to form small tribal associations was confirmed by Trapido in an interview with T. D. Mweli Skota.

Page 601 note 3 Mining Industry Commission (Pretoria, 1908), Minutes of Evidence, pt. IV, p. 1445.Google Scholar

Page 601 note 4 The Natal Congress does not appear to have taken up this issue by petition. There is some evidence that Natal was more hesitant on wider SouthAfrican issues; e.g. Rev.John Dube was due to accompany the 1909 South African Native Congress delegation to London but declined under pressure from the Natal Government. Cape Times (Cape Town), 7 07 1909Google Scholar. The Glen Grey Act with its council system also exercised considerable attraction for Natal Africans and tended to divert attention to local self government. Report of Deputation Commissioned by the Department of Native Affairs to Observe the Operation of the Glen Grey Act as applied to the Transkeian Territories (Natal Government Notice No. 420, 1908). This Commission comprised F. B. Bridgeman, M. N. Lutuli, P. J. Gumede, and recorded ‘their unanimous and enthusiastic endorsement of both the land tenure and council system as administered in the Transkeian Territories.’

Page 602 note 1 A.P.S. Papers, G. 198: ‘Cape Native Petition’.

Page 602 note 2 Ibid. S22 G. 198: Orpen to Sec. A.P.S., 2 July 1906, attaching ‘Native Petition, Orange River Colony’. In his covering letter Orpen drew attention to a petition from the head office of the Transvaal Native Congress, which Jesse M. Makhothe had dispatched directly to the A.P.S.

Page 603 note 1 Walker, , (ed.), Cambridge History, VIII, p. 647.Google Scholar

Page 603 note 2 Hansard, 28 February 1906, quoted in ‘The Honour of the British Parliament and the Englishman's Word,’ see A.P.S. Papers, S 19, D3/s 1: Harris to Thema, 10 September 1919, and Harris to Gumede, 13 September 1919.

Page 604 note 1 Hancock, W. K., Smuts: the sanguine years, 1870–1919 (Cambridge, 1962), p. 234.Google Scholar

Page 604 note 2 Calata, J. A., ‘A Short History of the African National Congress’ (mimeo, 1947), p. 2.Google Scholar

Page 604 note 3 Thompson, L. M., The Unfication of South Africa, 1902–1910 (Oxford, 1960), p. 215.Google Scholar

Page 604 note 4 W. P. Schreiner Papers, 1424 a: ‘The Résumé of the Proceedings of the South African Native Congress and the South African Native Convention,’ undated manuscript.

Page 605 note 1 Imvo Zabantsundu (Kingwilliamstown), 6 October 1908, quoted in Thompson, op. cit. pp. 214–15.

Page 605 note 2 Izwi Labantu, 16 April 1909, ‘Special Convention Number’, available in A.P.S. Papers, MSS Brit. Emp. S 24: ‘South African Cutting Book 1909–1910’.

Page 605 note 3 ‘The Natives and the Constitution,’ Cape Times, 24 February 1909. Sir Richard Solomon used the same argument in a letter to W. P. Schreiner; he regretted the clause on European descent but felt ‘we shall personally see the Cape policy extending over the whole of South Africa.’ Schreiner Papers, 1469: Sir Richard to Schreiner, 18 June 1909.

Page 606 note 1 Izwi, 16 April 1909.

Page 606 note 2 Proceedings of the Transvaal Native Congress, 24 June 1909, Resolution No. 2, available in Schreiner Papers.

Page 606 note 3 Cape Times, 21 July 1909; Imvo, 13 April 1909.

Page 606 note 4 Cape Times, 30 June 1909. Gandhi sailed at the same time, concerned about the Asiatic struggle in the Transvaal. He also held that ‘the union should not merely be a union of the White British subjects, but of all British subjects who were domiciled here’.

Page 606 note 5 Cape Times, 7 July 1909.

Page 607 note 1 Cape Times, 17 February 1909 See also Walker, , Schreiner, pp. 155–69.Google Scholar

Page 607 note 2 Morning Post (London), 28 07 1909Google Scholar. See also ‘An Appeal to the Parliament and Government of Great Britain and Ireland’, in The Times (London), 6 07 1909.Google Scholar

Page 607 note 3 The Nation (London), 14 08 1909.Google Scholar

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Page 608 note 1 Schreiner Papers, 1583: Mapikels to Schreiner, 19 November 1909.

Page 608 note 2 Umieteli wa Bantu (Johannesburg), 18 07 1936.Google Scholar

Page 608 note 3 Launched in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress, in 1925 it became the South African African National Congress.