Week 2 notes.pdf

Week 2 Reading - Native Life in South Africa, Before and Since the European War and the Boer Rebellionà Sol T. Plaatje Prologue Context ◦ “most of whom had never seen the mouth of a mine, congratulated them on the fact that "under the strain of war and rebellion the gold industry had...

Week 2 Reading - Native Life in South Africa, Before and Since the European War and the Boer Rebellionà Sol T. Plaatje Prologue Context ◦ “most of whom had never seen the mouth of a mine, congratulated them on the fact that "under the strain of war and rebellion the gold industry had been maintained at full pitch," - Wars being WW1 and Anglo-boer. - Anglo-boer caused a lot of poverty - WW2 there is a poor white question that is in play - Emergence of Afrikaner nationalism in 1912 and formed their part the South African Nationalist party in 1914. o Independent state and they wanted Dutch to be recognised as a national language. o Wanted to see government more about the poor white people. - Land was not just a tool that was used for ownership, but part of the colonial strategy to run the Africans powerless. o The Africans were run off their land through taxes and they were forced to go work. o They found work in the mines. ◦ Page 17 - Similarly, if you see your countrymen and countrywomen driven from home, their homes broken up, with no hopes of redress, on the mandate of a Government to which they had loyally paid taxation without representation — driven from their homes, because they do not want to become servants; and when you know that half of these homeless ones have perforce submitted to the conditions and accepted service on terms that are unprofitable to themselves - Driven from homes because they did not want to become servants. - Process of turning them into servants can be understood in a South African context. Why did he write this book (page 15-18) ◦ I have endeavoured to describe the difficulties of the South African Natives under a very strange law, so as most readily to be understood by the sympathetic reader. - He did not want the experience to disappear. - Put ourselves in the shoes of those were impacted by the law. Tools he is using to make an argument à Page 15 1. Observation and sites (ethnographic) ◦ The information contained in the following chapters is the result of personal observations made by the author in certain districts of the Transvaal, Orange "Free" State and the Province of the Cape of Good Hope. In pursuance of this private inquiry, I reached Lady Brand early in September, 1913, when, my financial resources being exhausted, I decided to drop the inquiry and return home. 2. Document (list of people evicted and newspaper articles) ◦ Mr. Msimang toured some of the Districts, compiled a list of some of the sufferers from the Natives' Land Act, and learnt the circumstances of their eviction. His list, however, is not full, its compilation having been undertaken in May, 1914, when the main exodus of the evicted tenants to the cities and Protectorates had already taken place, and when eyewitnesses of the evils of the Act had already fled the country - How reliable your source is that you use is important 3. Newspaper (secondary data (page 18) ◦ The writer is indebted for much of the information in these five chapters to the Native Press and some Dutch newspapers which his devoted wife posted to him with every mail. These papers have been a source of useful information. - Look at contextual analysis Content He begins the chapter by using the term: not a slave but a pariah. This is the most cited quotation of his work. Pg 21 ◦ Awaking on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African Native found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth. ◦ But the great revolutionary change thus wrought by a single stroke of the pen, in the condition of the native, was not realized by him until about the end of June. As a rule many farm - Plaatje talks about how man has always had relationship with land. o The land act was passed to make the peasant a servant and take their land. - Dependant on a master for survival. - Pariah was where the native didn’t find himself a slave but a pariah. - Here a man who owns land becomes a pariah. o He becomes an outcast, a reject. You not recognised as the owner of the land. - Plaatje talks about a Revolution that was imposed from above from authorities that disrupted the lives of South Africans forever. - Marx says man-made thinker own history but under circumstances they choose. - Imposed.  - Natives made history as they did not design conditions that land act was passed but they made history as pariahs, individuals in the land of their own birth. The meaning of the concept- squatter p21 ◦ The 4 500 000 black South Africans are domiciled as follows: me and three-quarter million in locations and reserves, over half a million within municipalities or in urban areas, and nearly a million as squatters on farms owned by Europeans. - When the land was passed it was given to 1.5 million whites. - Specific locations of land marked from the black peoples. - Turned to squatters living on Europeans farms. ◦ How does the act affect you understanding - A squatter in south Africa is a native who owns some livestock and having no land of his own, hires a farm or grazing and ploughing rights from a landowner, to raise grain for his own use and feed his stock. Hence, these squatters are hit very hard. Irony: only black people knew about the law and how to implement is pg 22 ◦ unwittingly accorded them. It was only when they went to register the new tenancies that the law officers of the Crown laid bare the cruel fact that to provide a landless native with accommodation was forbidden under a penalty of £100, or six months' imprisonment. Native locations (page 24) ◦ They are the native location which were reserved for the exclusive use of certain native clans. They are inalienable and can out be bought or sold, yet the act says that in these ‘Scheduled Native Areas’ natives only may buy land. The areas being inalienable, not even members of the clans, for whose benefit the locations are held in trust, can buy land therein. The areas could only be sold of the while clan rebelled: in that case the location would be confiscated. ◦ Again, the locations form but one-eighteenth of the total ared of the Union. Theoretically, then, the 4 500 000 natives may 'buy land in only one eighteenth part of the Union, leaving the remaining seventeen parts for the one million whites. (Pg 24) - Squatters and the reserves - Find in some provinces natives could rent land but in others there wasn’t. o The law needed to fix this. - Speaks to social loves at natives, South Africans at the time. - Natives had to buy land. What was the impact of the las on black people ◦ That right is only limited to white men, so that a large number of the members of Parliament who voted for this measure have no responsibility towards the black races. - Need the parliament to make law but Africans did not been have the right to vote. Parliament did not have anyone representing black people.  ◦ dare enforce against the native people then under them. With the formation of the Union, the imperial government, for masons which have never been satisfactorily explained, unreservedly handed over the natives to the colonists, and these colialists as a rule, are dominated by the Dutch Republican Object of the bill- saving poor whites? à Pg 27-28 ◦ None of the non-European races in the provinces of Natal, Transvaal and the Free state can Exercise the franchise. They have no say in the selection of members for the Union parliament. That right is only milities ti white men, so that a large number of the members of parliament who voted for this measure have no responsibility towards the bald races. ◦ government gazetted another Bill in January 1911, to amend an anomaly which, at that time, was peculiar to the 'Free' State: an anomaly under which a native can neither purchase nor lease land, and native landowners in the 'Free' State could only sell their land to the white people. (Pg 25) - Poor whole question that is not addressed that affected the whites who spoke Dutch. - A government who promoted the British agendas but the poor whites needed to be promoted and their poverty needed to be addressed. - Hertzhog is the middle man that is there to unite the Dutch and the English. o But people thought he would fix the natives. - Botha was concerned about the instability building up in the country as the low affected the white population differently. - Hertzhog targeted the English and their state. o Replace the English whites with the Dutch whites. Dissatisfaction about policy. Afrikaner nationalism- poor white? ◦ Lack of Dutch as language being recognised ◦ They thought of eliminating these issues of the poor white they will take away one problem at a time. - First of all, General Hertzog, the new Minister o Native Affairs, travelled up and down the country ecturing farmers on their folly in letting ground to) the Natives; the racial extremists of his party hailed him as the right man for the post, for, as his conduct showed them, he would soon "fix up" the Natives. A one or two places he was actually welcomed as the future Prime Minister of the Union. On the other band, General Botha, who at that time seemed to have become visibly timid, endeavoured to ingratiate himself with his discontented supporters by joining his lieutenant in travelling to and from, denouncing the Dutch farmers for not expelling the Natives From their laras and replacing them with poor white ◦ How was the Act used to save the poor whites from English domination? - The uncertain tenure by which Englishmen on the public service held their posts became the subject of debates in the Union Parliament, and the employment of Government  servants of colour was decidedly precarious. They were swept out of the Railway and Postal services with a strong racial broom, in order to make room for poor whites, mainly of Dutch descent. Concession after concession. - “From platform, press, and pulpit it was suggested that General Botha’s administration was too English and needed overhauling.” - “To the bitter sorrow of his admirers, general Hertzog, who is the fearless exponent of Dutch ideals, “ The act divided white people- eliminating black ◦ What is the central argument of Mbuso? people from farming? Pg 30 ◦ What is dispossession? ◦ What are the synergies and differences ◦ Campaign to take away blacks were not between Mbuso and Plaatje? always well received as land owners made use of the blacks renting land to farm. ◦ The whites were divided. ◦ Whites were not a homogeneous group. - The campaign, to compass the elimination of the blacks from the farms, was not at all popular with landowners, who made huge profits out of the renting of their farms to Natives. What is the take-home?: 1. The land act changed the lives black people and made them pariahs, not slaves, an important distinction. 2. The act exacerbated the racial tension. 3. The act also was bolstered by the colour bar employment. 4. All these laws, according to Plaatje, were to “eliminate ” black people and “save” the white poor. Reading: The fight for land: these potatoes look like humans: the contested future of land, home and death in South Africa. à uMbuso weNkosi (2023) Think about the 3 questions 1. What is the central argument – understand it ◦ Concepts and meanings à where are they located 2. What is the context ◦ Looking at land ◦ Why is the language used 3. Understand the tools ◦ The facts collected ect – to make the argument Tools ◦ Observation  ◦ Interviews ◦ Documents ◦ Newspapers (pg35) ◦ Forensic/ archival evidence (pg 39). Whose eyes are looking at history ◦ The process of dispossession; [subjective, He begins the chapter by citing on of experienced, emotional] - temporal - whether Plantje's observations he told in the book historical or present, it is the same noting how the Kaobadi family had no - A women carried a baby on her back when title deed and, hence had to trek in they were evicted (dispossession) and this search of a place with a sick child who baby died. They didn’t know where to bury eventually died along the way. it. - It is subjective. Each persons account is Now, they had to find a grave to bury the different of their eviction. child. Stolen grave. à PAGE 31 - It is traumatic. It is emotional. Loosing livelihoods, children and land. ◦ Remember Plaatje said one became a pariah not a slave in their own country. - Umbuso talks about a slave and criminals when you are dispossessed. ◦ Mbuso here notes, conceptualised dispossession (pg 32) "once people are removed from the land, not only do they become slaves, they also become "criminals" as their journey is nowhere. - There is a process of becoming slaves and criminals. - Society creates these concepts and terms. They are sociological constructs. Meanings rooted in society. - You are made to become a slave. Society created slaves and criminals. - It is the act of defiance that makes you a criminal. Act of the legislation that makes you a slave. ◦ Which definition do you prefer and why? Mbuso defines dispossession in two concepts: 1. ontological nowhereness and 2. eschatological gaze (pg 32). Keyword: he notes that dispossession expresses ontological nowehreness. ◦ It is how dispossession creates the burden of not belonging to the land, not having a place called home. Thus, ◦ When the Kgobadi were trekking the land they were facing their past, present and future. - Sense of estrangement. o They are separate from the land. o They have no claim to the land, what you called home and other concerns.  o Such as where your bury your loved ones when they die. - Didn’t have a title deed even if you have access to land. - If you trespass you become a criminal. o The law defines your behaviour as such. - Sense of belonging is disrupted. - Plaatje writes about how the Dutch were given a few minutes to get off the farm before they were destroyed. o They also suffered loss. ◦ PAST à violent dispossession ◦ PRESENT - denial / refusal to accept ◦ FUTURE - hope ◦ Expanding on the eschatological, he notes that in lethal people arque that potatoes look like humans ◦ He says this claim emergence from trauma, "difficulties to accept dispossession". Keyword: the Kgobadi family were looking as the land through as eschatological gaze. à This was a spiritual look at land. (Pg33) ◦ The meaning of land runs deeper- the destiny of their spirit. ◦ Create home and burial; - the dead demand freedom. ◦ Different agents- - Sangomas o The sangoma had visions of being returned to certain places where they will be buried. o It is the spiritual eye. - traditional healers - diviners. ◦ Contrary to view- land/farming as an economic activity (pg 33-34). - Violence of dispossession- law discredit land ownership by black people Page 35 refers to white liberals. Remember, Plaatje made a distinction between Dutch and English. ◦ He uses the metaphor of the eye to explain: 1. the authority of the farmer. ◦ In Bethel, the possession of the farmer became important in minting law and order. ◦ Who do you allow in or not. 2. the farm labourer as the ontological nowhere.  ◦ They lose their identity. Humanity removed. ◦ Seen as a tool to be used to by the farmer. ◦ If you resist you are subject to violence. ◦ If you do not comply you become a criminal and move around. 3. as a measure of time, earlier mentions and defines time as past, present and future. ◦ Story of farm killing in the newspaper of farm killing in Bethel. ◦ Use of forensic evidence for the state. ◦ Need hard facts. ◦ Went through the farm and interviewed (tool). - To find out how killed etc. ◦ Found a lot of people of died after digging up bones of people who were killed. ◦ They saw the violence that was inflicted on the bodies before these people die. ◦ Violence becomes interlinked with dispossession. ◦ Instrument OT render labour complacent. ◦ The graves were not marked. The bones were nameless, faceless and homeless. - What dispossession has done due to the state according to Mbuso. 4. the spiritual eye of the dead (eschatological gaze). ◦ Starts with the sangoma. ◦ Dead people were demanding freedom. ◦ Need to free the dead persons spirit. ◦ The role of the sangoma is import at here. - The ones who have contacted with the dead, spirits etc. ◦ White liberal road. How does he theorise the eye? (pg49) ◦ The eye is an analytical tool he uses in his definition of dispossession. ◦ Page 49 shows: - It is used to question representation, ethics, and ◦ Recognition/misrecognition of the other - already argued white people, regardless of if they are liberals or not, do not see nor understand the ontological anywhere) ◦ Liberals socialized to see a black person as forever in need of white aid; comforted by their altruism ◦ For black people - who was disposed and whose plight was represented spiritually, the fact of not belonging to the land meant that the disposed had no place to call home, no place to die