The Racial Division of Gordonia, 1921-1930

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Periodical article

Title:	The Racial Division of Gordonia, 1921-1930
Author:	Legassick, Martin
Year:	1998-1999
Periodical:	Kronos: Journal of Cape History
Issue:	25
Pages:	152-186
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	Coloureds segregation History and Exploration Ethnic and Race Relations Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/41056432
Abstract:	In the Gordonia settlement, established in 1880, Basters (Bastards) had been granted farms along the north bank of the Orange River near Upington, South Africa. Subsequently, they had lost most of this land. In 1921 a petition signed by 259 Baster men from Gordonia was submitted to the South African parliament, in which they asked to restore their previous rights. The petition, however, became reinterpreted by successive South African governments in line with policies of segregation. It catalysed, in fact, the racial division of the territory of Gordonia, and led, in the end, to the establishment of two 'coloured reserves', Ecksteenskuil in 1923 and Mier in 1930. The establishment of reserves for coloureds was thus far unprecedented in the Union of South Africa. It shows that segregation was the creation of the South African Party (SAP) government, and that the post-1924 Pact government (an alliance of the Labour Party and the National Party (NP)) merely elaborated on this policy.