South Africa: Is South Africa Near Revolt?
Houser, George M.
When I was in Africa in 1954, I met a white South African business man who was spending a few days in Port Gentil looking after his timber interests. He was a man of realistic and...
...He is protected by the law...
...The Bantu Education Act cannot quench the thirst for learning...
...Educated Africans speak from the depths of frustration and bitterness toward the white man...
...First, it can lead to a complacency not unlike that of many Americans toward the struggle to achieve racial justice here...
...Although these "banned" leaders have no doubt engaged in planning and strategy discussions behind closed doors, they have avoided any open defiance of the limitations placed upon them...
...Conceivably support could come from India, or from countries such as the Gold Coast and Nigeria...
...Three, hope lies with greater education...
...A third factor is the air of impending tragedy which permeates the whole South African atmosphere...
...One was when the government forced the removal of Africans from the western areas of Johannesburg in 1955...
...Although the United Nations will not "intervene" in South African affairs, the General Assembly debates have brought South African policies to the attention of people otherwise unaware of what apartheid involves...
...The major vehicle of their cooperation has been the Congress Of the People...
...The impulse for revolution would naturally come from the African people, against whom the greatest discrimination is practiced...
...II In spite of these factors which seem to make for revolt, an objective appraisal leaves one with the impression that in the near future there will be no basic change...
...Hope for change lies along the following briefly stated Iines...
...1) The Population Registration Act makes it mandatory that all people register by race with the government and carry identification cards...
...Circumstances are pushing toward a revolution, to be sure, but one which cannot be consummated with any rapidity...
...The story of their maneuvers and chicanery, by which they gained a two-thirds major ity in both Houses of Parliament, and 29I a majority in the highest court of the land, has largely been told in the American press and must be familiar to readers of this journal...
...There are some African unions, but legally they have no right to exist...
...Virtually all leaders among the Africans recognize the necessity for some kind of revolutionary change...
...Real participation in the political life of the country is denied the Africans as well as the Colored and the Indians...
...First, the Afrikaner Nationalists are firmly in control of the Government and cannot be effectively challenged by the United Party, the only opposi tion of any significance...
...The Defiance Campaign proved that the non-whites could unite in a concerted movement and that leadership could arise...
...By the end of the year there were closer to 100,000...
...III Undeniably pressures are making for change in South Africa today...
...Under this act the City Council of Johannesburg embarked upon its "Western Areas Removal Scheme" by which some 60,000 Africans in Sophiatown, Newdare, and Martindale are being resettled in the Meadowlands, ten miles further out, so that white people can move into the vacated region...
...The ANC had become a genuine mass movement of potential revolt...
...In South Africa, as elsewhere in Africa, the leaders of the national revolutionary movement are those who have received some education...
...A third reason why things will remain relatively the same in South Africa is the absence of immediate channels for help from outside the country...
...Laws passed since this time are not different in kind from those passed under previous governments, but their rapidity and number have exacerbated an already disturbed situation...
...Finally, there is hope because of the growth of world opinion against South African racism...
...These facts about the weakness of the non-white organizations are pointed out not to ridicule or to blame...
...This cooperation reached its climax in June 1955 when the Congress was held and a Freedom Charter adopted which called for a basic change in the structure of South African life—freedom of organization, opposition to apartheid, rights of labor, an end to the pass laws, etc...
...Leaders of the African and Indian Congresses claimed that the non-whites would have their rightful place of leadership in no more than ten years...
...Somehow it is assumed that because forces are not completely discernible they produce change...
...In 1952 Africans, Indians, and Colored united in a single move—the Defiance Campaign...
...Between 1936 and 1951 the South African urban population has grown from 1,240,000 to 2,310,000...
...At first, sentences for volunteers were comparatively light, those arrested being let off with payment of fines or light sentences...
...In 1952, when the Defiance Campaign began, many people thought this would be the beginning of a revolutionary period...
...The Communist Party has no real strength anywhere on the continent...
...For more than six months this nonviolent civil disobedience movement was carried on...
...This will be just so many less white people we will have to deal with later...
...African movement on the African continent today...
...6) The Criminal Laws Amendment Act makes it a serious offense to be involved in activity in opposition to government policy...
...The campaign was suspended...
...REGINALD REYNOLD: in Cairo to Cape Town non-white groups...
...A few are maintained as auxiliaries to white unions, but under the law the Africans cannot participate in collective bargaining...
...A letter received from a young African who had graduated from secondary school a few years earlier reads in part: "I used to feel sorry when I read of the death of white people in accidents...
...Actually the government's show of force with hundreds of police and armed soldiers kept the protest to a whisper...
...The ANC threatened widespread resistance...
...But the Communist movement can grow only to the extent that nationalism itself lags among the African people...
...Once off the Reserve he has no free dom of movement...
...Still, the clue to the future lies with the African...
...Second, when the forces at work in South Africa are looked at objectively, those making for preservation of the status quo are, also, more immediately formidable than those working for change...
...The African National Congress, the South African Indian Congress, the South African Colored People's Organization are the dominant organizations among the three Throatcufflnq in Capefown Mrs...
...It is impossible to get valid statistics on the growth of the ANC, but this campaign unquestionably awoke the masses in South Africa...
...This act was passed early in 1953 as a means of stopping the 1952 Defiance Campaign...
...It received widespread publicity both when the removal of Africans in the western areas of Johannesburg began and when the Bantu Education Act went into effect...
...One, the trend toward increased urbanization and industrialization in South Africa will unquestionably continue...
...The Colored people have now been taken off the regular roll of voters in the Cape...
...There have been other indications of the ANC's inability to engage in a full-scale challenge of the government...
...At least three factors can be cited for the argument that revolutionary change is imminent in South Africa...
...According to her, he was rather hurt and replied gravely: "No, madame, I should not cut your throat...
...There is an equal determination by most whites, especially Afrikaners, to impose further apartheid on the non whites...
...and even the countries close to self-government are so embroiled in their own internal problems that they have no resources left with which to concern themselves in inter-African affairs...
...Under the land laws, beginning with the definitive Native Land Act of 1913, only about 12 1/2 per cent of the country's territory has been set aside in the Reserves for the African people...
...It is easy for us in the United States to accept the assumption that in ten to twenty-five years, the non-white majority will control South Africa...
...The Nationalist Party came into power in 1948 with a majority of only 7 seats in Parlia ment, even though it did not win a majority of the popular vote...
...Later, as it became evident that this type of protest would not spread, the government rescinded its ruling...
...But by early 1953 it became apparent that this was not the case...
...Under it a guilty party can be fined £500, sentenced to five years in prison, and given fifteen lashes with the whip...
...This Defiance Campaign greatly strengthened the African National Congress...
...The ANC has not kept pace with its rapid development during 1952...
...The nonwhites are about 80 per cent of the population and the great majority of them are African...
...This is working particular hardship on the Colored people of the country, some of whom are light enough to "pass" and some of whom are very dark...
...The lessons of this campaign will not be forgotten...
...Nation alist support is scattered throughout the country and dominates the rural areas where the greater number of seats in Parliament are filled...
...This is three times as fast as that of Britain a hundred years ago...
...Only in Cape Province can African voters participate in elections by choosing three white persons to represent them in the Lower House of Parliament and four in the Senate...
...The Minister of Native Affairs, who ultimately is responsible for the administration of the Act, has said that under it the African is being prepared for a role in the white world no higher than that of servant...
...Another opportunity came in 1956 when the Bantu Education Act finally went into effect...
...A liberal professor at the University of Natal told me that he looked for the Africans to gain political dominance within at least twenty-five years...
...The boy from next door would do that, and I should cut the throat of his madame...
...But now I feel glad...
...Under this act practically the whole effective leadership of such organizations as the African National Congress (ANC) has been removed from open public activities...
...Once in power, the Afrikaners used every available device to increase their majority in Parliament...
...It is also conceivable that the Soviet Union would like to give evidence of its support for the revolutionary potential in South Africa...
...I would suggest three reasons for this...
...There are about 1,000,000 African youngsters in school now...
...We are far enough removed from the actual struggle to be free to think in comforting generalities...
...There is, of course, Communist influence in such movements as the Congress of the People...
...And without indulging in any rosy idealizations, there is every reason to suppose that the continued trend of world affairs, particularly the rivalries between the two great power blocs, will increase the pressure upon South Africa and will multiply the voices crying "Shame...
...These two forces are bound to clash...
...The main support for the Nationalist Party comes from the Afrikaner peo ple, those whose ancestors came prim arily from Holland...
...Some close observers estimated that when it started in June 1952 there were no more than 5,000 members of the ANC...
...Yet as we talked about the current situation in South Africa, he said quite suddenly: "There's no future for the white man in South Africa...
...Both according to the theory of apartheid and within the law, the African has only the privilege, not the right, of being off the Reserve...
...Between 1912 and 1953 the percentage of national income provided by manufacturing industry has grown from 6.9 to 25 per cent...
...Except for the Gold Coast and Nigeria, no colonial countries in Africa, south of the Sahara, can compare in organizational activity with South Africa...
...But during the foreseeable future, these pressures will be contained by the overwhelming power of the South African government...
...But when the potential fine became £500 and the sentence five years in prison, a person could not lightly join the campaign...
...We should be conscious of the fact that a dreadful struggle is shaping up and that, if change comes, it will be at the cost of great suffering...
...Further, African urbanization makes possible the growth of organizations, political and economic, which will be the instruments of change...
...But I feel obliged to challenge this assumption— for two reasons...
...But there is nothing that smacks of a genuine pan...
...It urged non-compliance with the law in each case, but did not receive mass support...
...A multitude of people told me this when I was there— Afrikaners who believed in apartheid, Africans and Indians who were in the non-violent campaign, Englishspeaking South Africans who believed in segregation but opposed the present government...
...However, at this moment in history, the people are not ready for the kind of struggle required to effect such changes...
...Some 7,000 youngsters stayed out of school in compliance with their parents' wishes...
...I discovered that this was a commonly held assumption by people of different races and widely varying political opinions...
...This makes for the sense of impending tragedy...
...he is economically subservient...
...Two, hope for change lies with the growth of resistance...
...The potential for revolutionary change has increased greatly since the Nationalist Party came into power in 1948...
...Many American visitors to South Africa have come back convinced that the treatment of the Africans is so unjust that revolutionary change must come soon...
...The increasing integration of the African into the urban community and industry negates any effective apartheid...
...Almost any South African of any color, when asked what will happen in the next few years in his country, will say: "Bloodshed...
...But only picked and approved volunteers were allowed to participate...
...The Public Safety Act, passed at the same time, suspends civil liberties such as freedom of speech and press during an "emergency" period...
...Nevertheless the cooperation of the three non-white organizations has been continued...
...A second factor which may make revolt seem imminent is the amount of organizational activity among nonwhites...
...I'm going to set my son up in business in Canada...
...It is fear of the nonwhites that makes it possible for the government to pass legislation through Parliament further binding the country to a restrictive racial policy...
...A second reason why the status quo will be maintained for a time in South Africa is that resistance among the non-whites is not yet strong enough to challenge the Nationalist Party...
...He was a man of realistic and conservative opinion...
...An astute observer of South African affairs told me, "The only imminent `revolution' in South Africa is a fascist one...
...There is ferment in South Africa because, compared with other parts of Africa, there is a relatively large group of educated leaders...
...This is explained by the fact that the main strength of the United Party is in the urban areas where relatively fewer seats in Parliament are filled...
...Leaders like Chief Luthuli recognize the Communist danger...
...They have little opportunity to enter the industrialized world built around them, except in the capacity of servant or unskilled worker...
...That the three non-white groups were able to organize and carry out this campaign with the background of bitterness and misunderstanding which separates these peoples from one another was no small accomplishment...
...He must have a pass to buy a railroad ticket, to look for a job, to live' in a city, to stay out after curfew at night, to indicate he has a job, etc...
...Although more than 9000 were arrested, this was a small portion of those who would have been willing to defy the government if there had been a call for wholesale resistance...
...his attitude toward the African would hardly have won him an award from an interracial society...
...First, the conditions of the nonwhites are unbearable...
...Although not himself an Afrikaner, he had all the apartheid prejudices usually associated with the Nationalist Party of South Africa...
...The white man has perhaps only five years left...
...4) Trade union rights are denied African workers...
...The penalties were simply too stringent...
...When the Criminal Laws Amendment Act was passed in January, no further effort was made to urge volunteers to violate the pass laws...
...5) The Reservation of Social Ameni ties Act gives the proprietor of any public place the right to choose his patrons...
...There is a frustrated determination on the part of the non-whites, particularly those who have gone through school, to bring about drastic changes...
...In South Africa not only is it effectively banned but it has an infinitesimal following...
...When I was in Africa in 1954, I met a white South African business man who was spending a few days in Port Gentil looking after his timber interests...
...This may be a necessary strategy at the moment, but no leader can expect the masses to follow where he will not go...
...the result of those maneuvers and chicanery is that no political force can challenge their rule at present, and that no effective challenge can even be observed on the horizon...
...Natural forces are bringing change about and consequently there is no need to push too fast...
...He is the great mass of people...
...Non-whites may not be elected to Parliament...
...No basic change can take place in South Africa through channels other than those the Africans create...
...The government promptly took reprisal action by declaring that these children, together with any teachers who had cooperated with the protest, were henceforth banned from the educational system...
...No natural process enacted above the historical struggle will bring a new day...
...2) The Suppression of Communism Act not only bans the Communist Party, but makes it possible to ban anyone who is thought to be a threat to the government...
...One reason why the African leaders do not want to allow whites to join the ANC is precisely because they recognize this would open the doors for more effective Communist infiltration...
...Who can say with precision what the time span will be...
...No family has yet refused to leave Sophiatown...
...The whites who are in the leadership of the Liberal Party, although people of conscience, are too much a part of the present cultural and economic pattern of life in South Africa to demand the revolutionary changes necessary...
...Apartheid policy cannot reverse industrialization and the need for African labor...
...Among a people who have little formalized training, education becomes a revolutionary factor...
...3) The Bantu Education Act, although not depriving the African of education, brings the apartheid philosophy into the educational field...
...Under the Suppression of Communism Act, the principal African and Indian leaders have been banned from participation in any activities...
...While the extreme Afrikaners will not admit that their power can be effectively challenged by the non-whites, their feverishness in applying apartheid with ever greater sternness reveals the most deep-seated insecurity...
...Schools which have been under mission administration until this Act went into effect in April, 1955, have now been taken over by the government...
...At present international Communism cannot be considered an active or immediate threat in Africa...
...Since 1952 there have been some excellent opportunities for mass campaigns...
...Only in a few communities of the Transvaal was there direct disobedience...
...This same detached attitude cannot, however, be taken in South Africa...
...The ANC was not ready for a showdown, at least by non-violent methods, and there was no chance of carrying on by violence...
...there is virtually no communication between British and French areas...
...The Group Areas Act of 1950 gives the Government the right to delimit areas of the country in which particular racial groups can live...
...But he is politically handcuffed and has no means through ordinary legal procedure to bring about change...
...Y. asked her houseboy whether he would really cut her throat...
...Just as the real drive for integration in the South of the United States had to come from Negroes before segregation could be effectively challenged, so in South Africa it is the African who must give driving power to the forces for change...
Vol. 3 • July 1956 • No. 3
