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| Title: | From 'native village' to 'dark city': population growth, class, politics and local administration in Alexandra Township, South Africa, 1933-1943 |
| Author: | Nauright, John |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Periodical: | Historia: amptelike orgaan |
| Volume: | 51 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 87-116 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | class struggle racial conflicts townships local government 1930-1939 |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the period 1933-1943 in Alexandra Township (Johannesburg, South Africa), when the urban landscape changed as thousands of new migrants settled in the urban areas surrounding Johannesburg. Originally viewed by blacks and some whites as a 'native village' for 'thrifty' Africans to settle and own property, the influx of these migrants led to Alexandra being viewed as a 'dark city' on the edge of affluent white settlement. Alexandra's administration also changed dramatically during this period as residents lost their elected majority on the local governing body, the Alexandra Health Committee (AHC), in which the strategy of mass meetings was used to heighten protest. The paper charts a course between the early years of settlement when property owners controlled the political and economic landscape to the beginnings of mass protest movements that emerged during the 1940s. In this process a class struggle took place within Alexandra as property owners and tenants struggled to shape the world in which they lived, while at the same time both groups were marginalized within the wider South African context. Notes, ref., sum. in English and Afrikaans. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
