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Africans in Cape Town : state policy and popular resistance, 1936-73

This local history focusses on Cape Town's black African population, the development 'Native' (later 'Bantu') policy, as well as the escalating organised resistance which arose in response. The study relies as far as possible on archival sources to disaggregate these themes. On this basis, it provid...

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Main Author: Kinkead-Weekes, Barry H
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Historical Studies 2016
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access_status_str Open Access
author Kinkead-Weekes, Barry H
author_browse Kinkead-Weekes, Barry H
author_facet Kinkead-Weekes, Barry H
author_sort Kinkead-Weekes, Barry H
collection Thesis
description This local history focusses on Cape Town's black African population, the development 'Native' (later 'Bantu') policy, as well as the escalating organised resistance which arose in response. The study relies as far as possible on archival sources to disaggregate these themes. On this basis, it provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of policy with regard to influx control, squatter control and residential segregation in the local context. Escalating resistance is discussed in a similarly-nuanced focussing particularly on mounting tensions between the pragmatic 'united frontists' of the Communist Party and the progressive wing of the local ANC, and 'principled' political opponents to the left and the right. Considerable continuity in 'Native Policy' is revealed over what used to be seen as the great divide of 1948, when segregation was supposed suddenly to have given way to something qualitatively different named apartheid. The regionally-specific policy of 'Coloured Labour Preference' is shown to have been, in practice, nothing but empty rhetoric employed in a failed attempt to justify a cruel policy aimed at safeguarding the racial exclusivity of the franchise, while at the same time providing cheap and tractable labour. The thesis calls into question a common assumption that class-concepts best explain changing patterns of resistance in the urban areas of South Africa. Ideological and strategic tensions, irreducible to class-differences are shown to have played a significant role in retarding the struggle for national liberation.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Department of Historical Studies
publisherStr Department of Historical Studies
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21624 Africans in Cape Town : state policy and popular resistance, 1936-73 Kinkead-Weekes, Barry H Historical Studies This local history focusses on Cape Town's black African population, the development 'Native' (later 'Bantu') policy, as well as the escalating organised resistance which arose in response. The study relies as far as possible on archival sources to disaggregate these themes. On this basis, it provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of policy with regard to influx control, squatter control and residential segregation in the local context. Escalating resistance is discussed in a similarly-nuanced focussing particularly on mounting tensions between the pragmatic 'united frontists' of the Communist Party and the progressive wing of the local ANC, and 'principled' political opponents to the left and the right. Considerable continuity in 'Native Policy' is revealed over what used to be seen as the great divide of 1948, when segregation was supposed suddenly to have given way to something qualitatively different named apartheid. The regionally-specific policy of 'Coloured Labour Preference' is shown to have been, in practice, nothing but empty rhetoric employed in a failed attempt to justify a cruel policy aimed at safeguarding the racial exclusivity of the franchise, while at the same time providing cheap and tractable labour. The thesis calls into question a common assumption that class-concepts best explain changing patterns of resistance in the urban areas of South Africa. Ideological and strategic tensions, irreducible to class-differences are shown to have played a significant role in retarding the struggle for national liberation. 2016-09-01T07:11:54Z 2016-09-01T07:11:54Z 1993 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21624 eng application/pdf Department of Historical Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Historical Studies
Kinkead-Weekes, Barry H
Africans in Cape Town : state policy and popular resistance, 1936-73
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Africans in Cape Town : state policy and popular resistance, 1936-73
title_full Africans in Cape Town : state policy and popular resistance, 1936-73
title_fullStr Africans in Cape Town : state policy and popular resistance, 1936-73
title_full_unstemmed Africans in Cape Town : state policy and popular resistance, 1936-73
title_short Africans in Cape Town : state policy and popular resistance, 1936-73
title_sort africans in cape town state policy and popular resistance 1936 73
topic Historical Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21624
work_keys_str_mv AT kinkeadweekesbarryh africansincapetownstatepolicyandpopularresistance193673