Colonial Economy and Society economies identities settlers January

Colonial Economy and Society: - economies - identities - settlers January 30 – February 3

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies “No domestic animal can be as still as a wild animal. The civilized people have lost the aptitude of stillness, and must take lessons in silence from the wild before they are accepted by it. ” “Up in this air [Kenya] you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be” Karen Blixen (Out of Africa) [‘deleted clips’ from film Out of Africa]

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies East, South, North, Central Africa knew large European populations: - Central Africa: attached to companies, company interests -- not ‘permanent’ for most part. - Elsewhere: Europeans came as Settlers – they came to stay

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Settlers: demanded. . . - land, transport facilities, African labour - protection against African competition . . - that colonial governments meet their needs. But at same time -- increasingly wanted power to rule themselves!

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Settler regimes everywhere were marked by: - some form of ‘local government’ - restrictions on Africans’ land access - special exemptions from taxes (especially transport taxes) - special taxes levied on Africans

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Laws specifying forced labour from Africans: - ‘taxation’ or an exchange for rights to land Enforcement: - threats of violent punishment - segregated living: therefore, ‘pass laws’ controlling movement of African labourers

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies PASS LAWS: “Millions of man hours are spent annually at pass offices, registration centres and post-office counters throughout South Africa. ” Although set in South Africa, this scene could be anywhere in East or Southern Africa.

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Native Reserve in South Africa, 1940 s

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Settler regimes also marked by: - ongoing political conflict with colonial regime: interests mostly related to ‘indigenous Africans’ under colonial ‘protection’ - ongoing social conflict with Africans who resisted laws and restrictions in various ways

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Generated by persistent fear: - Africans outnumbered Europeans in all settler colonies: Africans preyed upon that – major source of ‘power’ - increasing competition from Africans in agriculture and commerce (accelerated as Africans became educated, experienced in new cropping etc. ): led to increasing racism

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Muthaiga Country Club (British East Africa) [L. ] Government House [R. ] Nairobi Street (C. 1920? ) [L. ]

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Karen Blixen and her Servants (from Out of Africa) Blixen’s Servants: headed by Farah, a Somali. Behind: Kikuyu farmhands

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Settler Society as “African” market: - European residents -- whether temporary colonial troops, big game hunters or permanent plantation owners and commercial agents/merchants: they created market for products, services. - European merchants, travel agents, real estate developers, industrialists – all targeted the new ‘European African’ as a growing, affluent constituency

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Handbook of British East Africa, 1912

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies East and Central Africa: - in settler colonies, no need for professional teachers, lawyers, administrators (they were all Europeans) - Colonial education created large semi-skilled class: technicians, civil servants, office workers - most had a ‘glass ceiling’ to career advancement determined by race

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies South Africa: - longer history of Mission educated Africans: professionals numerous but segregationist laws applied - 1912: South African Native National Congress founded (forerunner ANC): believed in British ideals, ‘Protection’ against Afrikaners - 1923: ANC was small, elite group; internal dissensions impeded progress

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Typical of early educated elite, these men were as alienated from fellow Africans as from British they failed to impress

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Natives Representative Council, 1936 This council was established in to consider legislation affecting the Native Peoples of the South African Union.

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies An irony of colonialism was the creation of a new European, a ‘colonial’ one -- most noticeable in ‘settler colonies’: a new ‘tribe’ created through its – - interactions with Africans - fears of Africans - doubts about themselves - attempts to be African in some new ‘civilized, modern’ way!

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies Although in a more privileged way: European ‘Africans’ were as hybrid and displaced as those they purported to rule.

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies South Africa– Afrikaners (‘Boers): “I have only been an Afrikaner always, but I don’t exactly know what it is, ” said Dominee Jan van Rooyen, chuckling. The main thing, he said is that he is Afrikaans-speaking and has a culture that “differed from the English. When he was growing up in the thirties, that was the Nationalists’ political emphasis. But if “you go to England, you find out how English we all are in South Africa. ” [quotes from Heart of Whiteness: Afrikaners Face Black Rule in New South Africa]

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies South Africa: A special case? Or just a longer History? “The first Oosthuizen came to South Africa in 1691, the third of April. So we’re here for more than three hundred years. My grandchildren are ninth generation. There are many old families that have been here that long, coming mostly from Holland, some from Germany. . . ”

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies White Supremacist and African? “We’re a mass of deep conflicts. ” Take Eugene Terreblanche, the neo-Nazi right-wing leader and founder of the African Resistance Movement (Afrikaner Weerstansbeweging, AWB). At first Terreblanche will “tell you all this white supremacy bullshit. ” Then switch off the tape recorder and he will “tell you he’s an African militarist. ” His hero is Shaka Zulu, the Zulu military leader who ravaged other African tribes in central South Africa during the nineteenth century. ” • [Max du Preez speaking of himself and other Afrikaners}

Colonialism III: Settler Colonies “[In South Africa], only one European child in a thousand has a European ‘Nanny’. ” (1947) What did this mean for next generation of South African ‘whites’? What did this mean for the evolution of South African racism?