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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The 1913 Natives Land Act in South Africa: Politics, Race, and Segregation in the Early Twentieth Century |
Author: | Feinberg, Harvey M. |
Year: | 1993 |
Periodical: | International Journal of African Historical Studies |
Volume: | 26 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 65-109 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | apartheid property rights Law, Human Rights and Violence Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/219187 |
Abstract: | Why the South African Parliament passed the Natives Land Act in 1913 is a matter of substantial debate. The Act, repealed only in 1991, was so important because it was the first major piece of legislation that would later comprise the legal structure of apartheid in South Africa. This paper explores the political debate about the Natives Land Act, to determine why certain elements within South African society forcefully promoted the law, and to explain why the overwhelming majority of the members of the House of Assembly allowed a small group of zealots, predominantly from the Orange Free State, to sway their votes. The author has built on a wide foundation of resources, including private diaries and letters, newspapers, and church records, as well as official letters and reports. The evidence supports the conclusion that the most pressure for the introduction and ramming through of the Natives Land Bill came from the Orange Free State. The government yielded to this pressure to appease those people who were attempting to impose their racial ideology on the rest of the nation. The ministry feared the consequences of a political split among Afrikaners and the loss of support from Orange Free State parliamentarians. The government bowed to Free State pressure to achieve the goal of political survival. Notes, ref. |