SOUTH AFRICA’S 1940s: Worlds of Possibilities
edited by Saul Dubow & Alan Jeeves
(Double Storey Books)
All too often an historical epoch of significance is overshadowed by the events of a more important previous or subsequent era – as is the case of South Africa in the 1940s, overshadowed by the politically crucial 1950s decade of resistance to the post-1948 imposition of systematic apartheid. Perhaps, as the essays in this book seem to show, this is doubly ironic, since the era of protest was built upon the lost opportunities, policy choices and ultimately the failure of nerve of the period under examination.
Upon the most obvious level, South Africa in the 1940s was at war. Despite considerable parliamentary opposition Prime Minister Jan Smuts brought the Union into the Second World War and South African troops distinguished themselves in their contribution to the Allied war effort, particularly in North Africa and Italy. Opposition to the war saw the rise of domestic dissent, particularly from Afrikaner Nationalists – some (a minority) of whom participated in activities ranging from propaganda campaigns to low-level pro-Nazi resistance. During the War, too, the moribund African nationalist movements, notably the African National Congress, enjoyed a revival of fortunes. They, together with the black labour movements, watched and waited to see if rumblings and hints of socio-political reform from Pretoria would bear fruit. From 1945 to 1948 the signs were mixed; after the 1948 National Party victory – a shock to everyone, including to many of those who could vote – these hopes collapsed and nascent confrontational protest politics (epitomised by the 1946 African Mine Workers’ Strike) turned into what would become one of the most important decades of resistance in South African history.
Within this conventional outline of the 1940s, the contributors to this fine collection provide for us the complex and fascinating events, persons, organisations and socio- economic forces that shaped the era. As they show repeatedly, the country was certainly faced with ‘worlds of possibilities’, some of which – had they been acted upon – might have considerably altered the decades of conflict that followed. Indeed some of the opportunities missed – particularly in areas like healthcare – have only in the last ten years come to fruition.
Policy planners were seriously considering the creation of a welfare state (essays by Deborah Posel and Jeremy Seekings). Influenced in part by the great depression, by policy proposals in Britain, by the practices of other more enlightened parts of the British Empire, government officials were considering how such policies might be implemented here – some even daring to consider them in terms that deviated from the dominant segregationist ideology. Yet here, as in other areas, the segregationist mentality trumped the voices of reason.
Similarly, there were dramatic proposals for health care reform (essays by Alan Jeeves and Howard Phillips) – a shift towards primary and preventative approaches, with an emphasis on more holistic methods that took account of the economic and social conditions of the poor. Pilot projects were established – notably in Grassy Park (as Phillips recounts) – but these efforts were effectively undermined by those in power who saw their practitioners as leftists and supporters of racial integration.
On a purely political level – if one should still use this term – the decade saw the revival of both African and Afrikaner nationalism. Opposition to the War gave impetus to the revival of fortunes of the National Party (Albert Grundlingh), while the ANC Youth League was founded to a great extent to challenge the movement’s more conciliatory leadership to press for more concrete political reforms. Such a shift in the latter led to the emergence of a new generation of militant leadership within the ANC, the labour movement and the Communist Party, as well as the emergence of sustained if at times uneven grassroots political activism (Robert Edgar, Phillip Bonner, Parvathi Raman).
Allied to the African nationalist cause in the period was the emergence of more militant political discourse within sections of the Christian churches, centred on the controversial Anglican priest Michael Scott (Rob Skinner). Attempts were also made within the Union Defence Force to promote more liberal democratic ideas through the Army Education Service, led by white officers who would later help form movements like the Torch Commando, the Springbok Legion and the Liberal Party; some would event join the Communist Party. For others it was the start of disillusionment at ever convincing whites to adopt a more liberal view (Jonathan Hyslop).
Was then this decade a kind of ‘liberal interregnum’ between segregationism and the apartheid era? On a balance, on reading the many perspectives of these authors, my inclination is to say no, but with a strong qualification: had some of the more radical policy options been taken, had some of the visionaries within a fundamentally segregationist system been listened to, perhaps the 1940s would have sown the seeds of transformation to a democratic South Africa.
The authors of this collection include some of the most distinguished historians, sociologists and political scientists working in contemporary South Africa as well as a number of the ‘new generation’, whose names will soon gain notice. This book itself deserves wide attention, both as a contribution to the study of a largely overlooked period of our history and for the very high quality of its scholarship.