The history of White colonial land dispossession did not begin with the passing of the Native Land Act in 1913, it spans back to the expansion of Dutch colonial settlements in the Cape. Land and livestock dispossession resulted in wars between the Khoikhoi, San, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho and a number of other ethnic groups against the colonial settlers. With increasing conquest of Africans came the issue of how to deal with African people, which the government termed the “Native question.” In a nutshell, the term was loosely defined in the 1903 Intercolonial Conference as “embracing the present and future status of all aboriginal natives of South Africa, and the relation in which they stand towards the European population.” While the initial part of land dispossession began with annexation and division of territory, over time proclamations were made and laws were enacted by both the Afrikaners and the British to dislodge African people from their land while consolidating areas of White settlement. Thus, by the time the Land Act of 1913 was enacted, South Africa was already moving in the direction of spatial segregation through land dispossession. One of the key legislations that laid down the foundation for a spatially divided South Africa was the Glen Grey Act passed in 1894. After the end of the South African War, the British and Afrikaners began working on establishing the Union of South Africa, which was accomplished in 1910. However, black people were excluded from meaningful political participation in its formation and future. The British and Afrikaner land owners and industrialists set in motion a process that would consolidate their wealth while excluding Black people through legislative means.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 10:59:25 +0000
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