Afrikaner Nationalism, Apartheid and the Conceptualization of ‘Race’.pdf

(2269 KB) Pobierz
The Journal of African History
http://journals.cambridge.org/AFH
Additional services for
The
Journal of African
History:
Email alerts:
Click here
Subscriptions:
Click here
Commercial reprints:
Click here
Terms of use :
Click here
Afrikaner Nationalism, Apartheid and the
Conceptualization of ‘Race’
Saul Dubow
The Journal of African History / Volume 33 / Issue 02 / July 1992, pp 209 - 237
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700032217, Published online: 22 January 2009
Link to this article:
http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0021853700032217
How to cite this article:
Saul Dubow (1992). Afrikaner Nationalism, Apartheid and the Conceptualization of
‘Race’. The Journal of African History, 33, pp 209-237 doi:10.1017/S0021853700032217
Request Permissions :
Click here
Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/AFH, IP address: 134.176.129.147 on 20 Apr 2015
Journal of African History,
33 (1992), pp. 209-237
Printed in Great Britain
2O9
AFRIKANER NATIONALISM, APARTHEID AND THE
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF'RACE'
BY SAUL DUBOW
University of Sussex
IN recent years our historical understanding of Afrikaner nationalism has
been transformed. No longer is it possible to talk of Afrikaner nationalism in
terms of an unchanging, timeless tradition. Nor can we speak of the
Afrikaner nationalist movement as a socially undifferentiated entity, pur-
suing its own primordial ethnic agenda. We now have a much deeper
understanding of the ways in which Afrikaner identity was forged from the
late nineteenth century and the means by which Afrikaner ethnicity was
mobilized in order to capture state power in the twentieth century.
Gaps in our knowledge nevertheless remain. One such silence concerns the
relationship between Christian-nationalism, apartheid and the concep-
tualization of racial difference. This omission partly reflects a general state
of amnesia about the place of racist ideas in Western thought. In South
Africa it has been exacerbated by materialist scholarship's fear of 'idealism'.
T h e ideology of race has therefore tended to be discussed in terms of its
functional utility: namely, the extent to which racist ideas can be said to
express underlying class interests.
My intention in this paper is not to dispute the ways in which race,
understood as a sociological phenomenon, has been treated in the literature
on Afrikaner nationalism. Rather, it is to consider the content and internal
logic of racist discourse in the context of the formal elaboration of apartheid
from the 1930s to the 1950s. This study focuses on the degree to which an
explicit biological concept of race informed apartheid theory, and how this
related to theological and cultural explanations of human difference.
1
Christian-nationalism played a vital role in this process, providing apartheid
with a rationale distinctive from existing forms of segregation.
T h e argument in this paper is that Christian-nationalism proved flexible
and eclectic in its use of racist ideas. In constructing an intellectually
coherent justification for apartheid, ideologues frequently chose to infer or to
suggest biological theories of racial superiority rather than to assert these
openly. Both for pragmatic and doctrinal reasons, the diffuse language of
cultural essentialism was preferred to the crude scientific racism drawn from
the vocabulary of social Darwinism.
2
This paper forms part of a broader investigation into the ' idea of race' in twentieth-
century South Africa. I have benefited from the comments of Andre du Toit, Johan
Kinghorn, Hermann Giliomee and John Lazar, as well as those of the anonymous readers
of the
Journal.
Earlier drafts of this paper were presented at seminars at the Institute of
Commonwealth Studies, London, and the 1990 African Studies Association conference
in Baltimore. Translations from Afrikaans are my own.
2
This argument ties in with the broad, inclusive definition of racist ideology which I
have adopted. This embraces both the idea of biologically determined superiority and
inferiority, as well as the notion that culture is in some sense an expression of genetic
constitution.
1
2IO
SAUL DUBOW
It is virtually a truism that racism has been, and remains, an inseparable
part of the structure of South African society. Deeply encoded patterns of
paternalism and prejudice are an essential part of the Afrikaner nationalist
tradition. Notions of superiority, exclusivity and hierarchy have long existed
as more or less conscious 'habits of mind'. Together they comprise a
folkloric amalgam of popular beliefs and traditions in which the idea of
human difference appears as part of the natural order of things. Ideally,
patterns of popular racism as experienced on the ground should be analysed
in conjunction with theoretical racism. However, this cannot be achieved
until such time as we have a fuller understanding of the extent to which
theories of racial difference formed part of the ideology of white supremacy
in twentieth-century South Africa. In this connexion — albeit in a different
context - George Fredrickson has drawn a useful distinction between
the explicit and rationalized racism that can be discerned in nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century thought and ideology and the implicit or societal racism that can
be
inferred
from actual social relationships.
3
As Fredrickson points out, the relationship between these two forms of
racism is difficult to unravel. Ideological racism may be an intellectual
response to, or formulation of, popular racist sentiment. It may at the same
time help to construct and maintain such attitudes. In the case of apartheid,
racist ideology both reflected and grew out of already existing notions of
human difference. But, in helping to systematize and rationalize such
assumptions, it also worked to entrench them legislatively and ideologically.
The traumatic experience of the Boer War is generally regarded as having
provided the vital stimulus for the development of Afrikaner nationalism as
a mass movement. Confused and insecure in defeat, leading Afrikaner
nationalist theoreticians sought above all to confront the power of British
imperialism. They devoted their energies during the first three decades of the
twentieth century to issues like republicanism, language equality and the
poor white question. The result was that Afrikaner nationalism was markedly
slow to address directly the relationship between black and white South
Africans. Despite their opposition to the political compromises inherent in
the inter-war segregationist policies of Hertzog and Smuts, Malan and his
followers failed to articulate an alternative, more complete, segregationist
vision when the Native Bills were finally passed in 1936.
This situation changed dramatically with the onset of the Second World
War - an era in which the Afrikaner nationalist movement was effectively
isolated from the centre of political power and, perhaps for that very reason,
became especially receptive to radical ideas. Concerted attempts were now
made by nationalist theorists to reorder systematically and permanently the
existing framework of race relations. However, the process 'which was to
consolidate the common nucleus of their colour consciousness and policy of
differentiation into a national idea or ideology was to take place only in the
1940s.'
4
G. M. Fredrickson,
The Arrogance of Race : Historical Perspectives on Slavery,
Racism and Social Inequality
(New Haven and London, 1988), 189.
4
N. J. Rhoodie and H. J. Venter,
Apartheid: A Socio-Historical Exposition of the
Origin and Development of the Apartheid Idea
(Cape Town, i960), 113.
3
AFRIKANER NATIONALISM
211
It is unlikely that apartheid ideology would have gained political purchase
were it not for the great social ferment occasioned by the war years.
Stimulated by the expanded needs of wartime production, secondary
industry underwent rapid expansion. This resulted in a massive influx of
African workseekers who came to be perceived as posing a major threat to the
privileged position of largely Afrikaans-speaking unskilled and semi-skilled
labour in metropolitan areas. T h e intensification of trade union activity and
community struggles (of which bus boycotts, squatting movements and the
1946 mineworkers' strike are important examples) prefigured a new challenge
to white power on the part of urban Africans. This was confirmed by the
drafting of the seminal policy document
African Claims
in 1943 and the
emergence of the radical Congress Youth League, which together heralded
the transformation of the African National Congress (ANC) into a popular
movement with mass-democratic methods and aims.
It was under these circumstances that apartheid came to be formulated
with particular urgency. Initial stirrings of interest in the apartheid idea from
a specifically Christian-nationalist perspective were already apparent in the
preceding decade. From 1933 a small group of young Potchefstroom-based
Afrikaner intellectuals began to explore questions of race and nationality in
Koers
(Direction), the influential theoretical mouthpiece of the Federation of
Calvinist Student Associations.
5
Articles in this journal by the maverick
politics teacher L. J. du Plessis and his missionary namesake H. du Plessis
represent important early attempts to situate the idea of race within a neo-
Calvinist framework.
6
Also notable was the establishment in 1935 of the
Suid-Afrikaanse Bond vir Rassestudie
which was created as a counter to the
supposedly liberal South African Institute of Race Relations.
7
Rhoodie and
Venter trace the first use of the word ' apartheid' to the
Bond vir Rassestudie.
It was adopted as the organization's political slogan in 1936 to distinguish the
Afrikaner concept of total racial separation from the less rigorous notion of
segregation. Henceforth 'apartheid' began to seep into political discourse.
But the word only came to enjoy common currency from 1943 when D r
Malan, the Nationalist leader, began to employ it with regularity in his
speeches.
8
In 1933 the executive council of the secret Afrikaner Broederbond
formulated a document which recommended the introduction of ' total mass-
segregation' not just as an ideal, but as a matter of immediate practical
policy. This called for the settlement of 'different tribes' in separate areas
Ibid.
145.
L. J. du Plessis, 'Rasverhoudinge',
Koers
(October 1933); H. du Plessis, 'Assi-
milasie of algehele segregasie',
Koers
(June 1935). The latter article made a strong case
for total separation (though without using the term 'apartheid'), as opposed to the 'neo-
liberalism' of Brookes, Rheinallt Jones and Macmillan which was inevitably assimil-
ationist. It also purported to show that racial diversity was biologically and historically
determined by God.
7
Rhoodie and Venter,
Apartheid,
170. The
Bond
lasted for a brief time only. Its first
chair was Mrs E. G. Jansen, wife of the Minister of Native Affairs from 1929 to 1933 and
1948 to 1950. The secretary was M. D. C. de Wet Nel who served as Minister of Bantu
Administration from 1958 to 1961.
8
Rhoodie and Venter,
Apartheid,
171-2. Hexham documents an even earlier use of
'apartheid' in the context of a lecture on Calvinism at Potchefstroom in 1914. See I.
Hexham,
The Irony of Apartheid
(New York and Toronto, 1981), 188.
0
5
212
SAUL DUBOW
which, over time, would assume an increasing degree of self-government
under the supervision of the Native Affairs Department. In such areas
Africans could live and develop themselves in the political, economic,
cultural, religious and educational spheres. Temporary migrants would be
permitted to work on farms or in towns. ' Detribalized' urban Africans
would be encouraged to move to their own areas and those who refused
would be compelled to live in separate locations where they would enjoy no
political or property rights. Though the emblematic word itself is not
mentioned, key elements of apartheid are clearly anticipated in this docu-
ment. Indeed A. N. Pelzer, the Broederbond's official biographer, accords it
great significance as an important statement of the organization's creed;
though he notes that it appears to have been forgotten, since it was never
referred to subsequently.
9
The origins of apartheid have sometimes been linked to developments
within the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) during the nineteenth century,
in particular the Cape synod's sanctioning of divided congregations in 1857
and the creation of a separate mission church in 1881. But, as Johan
Kinghorn argues, such developments represented more of a strategic
concession to a growing sense of racial awareness amongst ordinary church
members than a belief in separation as a consistent principle.
10
Far from
developing a clear position on the question of race, the Cape DRC remained
in a state of considerable ideological flux as it became embroiled in a
confusing conflict between the orthodox ' countryside conservatism' symbol-
ized by G. W. A. van der Lingen, and competing progressive, liberal or
modernizing tendencies within Cape Dutch society.
11
The first extensive pronouncement on the ' native problem' by the DRC
was published in pamphlet form in 1921.
12
This discussion is noteworthy as
the earliest attempt by the DRC to discuss the relationship between blacks
and whites at an inter-synodal level. However, as Carl Borchardt points out,
the statement displayed a rather ambivalent attitude towards segregation and
it did not play an important role in church affairs.
13
Although preference for
strict segregation was declared, it was also recognized that economic
separation was an 'unattainable ideal'. Unashamed support for the principle
A. N. Pelzer,
Die Afrikaner-Broederbond : Eerste
jo
Jaar
(Cape Town, 1979), 163-4.
Given the close links between the Broederbond and the
Bond vir Rassestudie
it is quite
possible that the
Bond's
pronouncement of 'apartheid' after 1935 stemmed from the
Broederbond's 1933 document. This may also account for the 'definite lead' taken by the
Cape nationalist organ,
Die Burger,
from 1933 in rethinking Hertzogite segregation. See
Rhoodie and Venter,
Apartheid,
145.
10
J. Kinghorn. 'The theology of separate equality: a critical outline of the DRC's
position on apartheid', in M. Prozesky (ed.),
Christianity Amidst Apartheid: Selected
Perspectives on the Church in South Africa
(London, 1990), 58-9.
11
J. du Plessis, 'Colonial progress and countryside conservatism: an essay on the
legacy of van der Lingen of Paarl, 1831-1875' (MA thesis, University of Stellenbosch,
1988); A. du Toit, 'The Cape Afrikaner's failed liberal moment, 1850-1870', in J.
Butler
et al.
(eds.),
Democratic Liberalism in South Africa
(Middletown, Connecticut and
Cape Town, 1987).
12
J. du Plessis (convenor),
The Dutch Reformed Church and the Native Problem
(Stellenbosch, 1921).
13
C. Borchardt, 'Die "swakheid van sommige" en die sending', in J. Kinghorn
(ed.),
Die NG Kerk en Apartheid
(Johannesburg, 1986), 80.
9

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin