Introduction: Urban Change and Urban Studies in Southern Africa¶
Hilary Sapire; Jo Beall (1995). Introduction: Urban Change and Urban Studies in Southern Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, Special Issue: Urban Studies and Urban Change in Southern Africa. Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1860s–1994 |
| Regions | South Africa, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), Zambia, Mozambique, Southern Africa |
| Themes | demography urbanisation, mining migrant labour, origins segregation, bantustans removals influx, resistance social movements, methods data sources, transition post apartheid, comparative theory |
| Citation key | sapire1995 |
Argument¶
This editors' introduction to a special issue surveys urban change and urban studies in Southern Africa. It argues that the region's urbanisation and urban life were shaped by labour migrancy and by colonial and racialised planning, and that urban histories need to be integrated with rural hinterlands and with wider regional, national and global processes. It reviews the South African urban historiography, which it finds rich empirically but dominated by case studies and a 'history-in-the-city' approach, with an exceptionalist bias and neglect of the city as a whole and of 'histories from above'. It also draws out common themes: ethnicity, gender, urban-rural linkages, and the new international 'urban agenda' and urban poverty under structural adjustment. It closes by presenting cities as dynamic sites of innovation and as prisms for examining larger processes.
Evidence and method¶
Synthesis of the special-issue contributions (Maylam, Mabin and Parnell, Bonner, Bickford-Smith, Barnes, Raftopoulos, Hansen, Grest) and of secondary literature on urban history, anthropology and development policy. Some World Bank figures on Zambian urban poverty are cited. No original data are presented.
Place in the debates¶
- Urban bias thesis (Lipton) in development (see Urban segregation, Group Areas and the apartheid city). Reports a growing challenge to the urban-bias orthodoxy; cities are increasingly seen as sites of economic agglomeration, and the poor within cities lack equal access to resources.
- South African urban historiography: exceptionalism, case studies and 'history-in-the-city' vs 'history-of-the-city' (see Urban segregation, Group Areas and the apartheid city). Endorses Maylam and Mabin and Parnell's critique: the literature is empirically rich but fragmented and racially compartmentalised, and it neglects integrated, comparative and 'from above' studies.
- Pace and nature of African urbanisation on the Rand (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Backs Bonner's challenge to the image of a unilinear, irreversible family move to town. Urbanisation was incremental, and rural ties were retained until the 1940s.
- Ethnicity in urban settings (see Urban segregation, Group Areas and the apartheid city). Treats ethnicity as situational and historically contingent, a product of modernisation and material competition. It stresses rural and regional dimensions beyond the earlier 'retribalisation' view.
- Cape Town's 'special tradition' of multiracialism (see Urban segregation, Group Areas and the apartheid city). Accepts Bickford-Smith's evidence that Cape Town had a special status, while noting that pockets of cross-racial contact existed elsewhere.
Findings¶
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Natural increase has become more important than migration in urban growth, and the 1980s abolition of influx controls altered urbanisation, though effects remain unstudied longitudinally. (p. 2)
natural increase within city populations themselves has become a far more important determinant of Urban population growth.
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Colonial town planning across the region shared the aim of emphasising social differentiation and domination. (p. 3)
shared one key imperative in common: the task of emphasising social differentiation and domination.
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South African urban history is predominantly a history located in cities rather than a history of the city as a whole. (p. 6)
Urban histories in South Africa, Paul Maylam notes, has predominantly been of the 'history-in-the city', rather than 'history-of-the city' variety.
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Emphasis on South African exceptionalism has obscured the shared modernist roots of urban segregation. (p. 6)
The emphasis on South Africa's 'exceptionalism' has had the effect of obscuring from view the extent to which, even in implementing urban segregation, South African urban processes shared much in common with other cities elsewhere
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British planning models shaped apartheid-era township design, which was compatible with racially separated zones. (p. 7)
the creation of coherent communities separated by green belts, together with careful planning of residential and employment sites and the transport links - all were perfectly compatible with the idea of planning racially distinct, separated urban zones.
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Bonner's oral-history work shows African settlement on the Rand was conditional and incremental, with most retaining the option of rural return into the 1940s. (p. 9)
As late as the 1940s urban life remained conditional for most urban dwellers; even outside of the mining compound precincts, most Africans held on to the possibility of return to the rural areas
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Mass housing and common grievances against apartheid intervention in the early 1950s created conditions for mass urban political activism on the Rand. (p. 10)
On the Witwatersrand, it was only with the provision of mass housing in the early 1950s with their homogenising and levelling effects, as well as the emergence of common grievances
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Whole families did not generally move to town together; women migrated singly from the 1920s and 1930s, creating a second urban generation. (p. 10)
Contrary to an earlier image in the South African historiography, whole families did not generally move to the urban areas together. Women migrated singly to the cities
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Urban poverty since the 1980s is partly 'new poverty' from structural adjustment, with Zambian urban poverty-line figures rising from 4 to 17 per cent between 1975 and 1991. (p. 15)
Taking the lowest figure, between 1975 and 1991 it is estimated that the percentage of those living below the poverty line increased from 4 to 17 per cent.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Bank, Zambia Urban Poverty Assessment, February 1994 | international trade or finance data | 1960-1991 | Supplies the estimates of urban poverty rates (17-43 per cent; rise from 4 to 17 per cent 1975-1991) and the claim that a third of urban Zambians were squatters by 1960. |
| Oral testimonies and life histories of urban dwellers collected by Phillip Bonner (Witwatersrand) | interviews oral history | 1930s-1950s | Described as the evidence with which Bonner traces migrants' routes to permanent urban residence, which conventional documentary sources do not reveal. |
| Raftopoulos, 'Nationalism and Labour in Salisbury 1945-1965' (workshop paper, June 1994) | secondary literature compilation | 1945-1965 | Summarised for the phases of migration and immigration and their link to urban political shifts, and for the weaknesses of the RICU. |
| Bickford-Smith, 'A Cape Precedent' (paper) and his article on nineteenth-century Cape Town in this issue | secondary literature compilation | nineteenth century | Summarised for the claim that Cape Town had a distinctive multiracial tradition that limited segregation, and for the construction of 'coloured' identity. |
| Natives (Urban Areas) Registration and Accommodation Act, 1946 (Southern Rhodesia) | legislation gazette | 1946 | Mentioned as the legislation against which men and women protested, per Barnes and Raftopoulos. |
| Theresa Barnes, D.Phil thesis on gender, labour and social reproduction in colonial Harare, 1930-1956 | secondary literature compilation | 1930-1956 | Unpublished thesis underlying the summarised arguments on cohabitation, strikes and social reproduction in 1940s Southern Rhodesia. |
| Becker, Hamer and Morrison, Beyond Urban Bias in Africa (1994) | secondary literature compilation | 1990s projections | Source for the claim that Southern Africa is sub-Saharan Africa's most urbanised region and for projections of urban growth rates. |
Inference¶
Quantification: None.
A synthetic editorial introduction to a special issue. It summarises and compares the contributors' case studies (Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Salisbury, Copperbelt, Mozambique) and reviews the historiography. Claims rest on the contributors' arguments and secondary literature, not on new data analysis.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| South African urban historiography is dominated by case studies and race-compartmentalised accounts, lacking integrated studies of whole cities and 'history-of-the-city' approaches. (p. 5-6) | Historiographical review of Maylam, Mabin and Parnell, and Saunders, Pirie and other critiques; no primary data. | Asserted |
| African urbanisation on the Rand was incremental and conditional rather than a unilinear, irreversible family move from countryside to town; most Africans retained rural ties into the 1940s. (p. 9) | Bonner's oral testimonies and life histories, as summarised by the authors. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Mass housing in the early 1950s and common grievances against the apartheid state created conditions for mass urban political activism on the Witwatersrand, which then faded by the late 1950s. (p. 10) | Contributors' work and unspecified 'range of studies', not cited as data. | Asserted |
| Cape Town's segregation was limited by longevity, demographic and political realities, including the size of Coloured communities and Cape liberal traditions, so it enjoyed a special status. (p. 7-8) | Bickford-Smith's historical study of nineteenth-century Cape Town, as summarised. | Partial data |
| Women migrated singly to cities from the 1920s and 1930s, and urban relationships were shaped by access to municipal accommodation, contrary to earlier images of whole-family migration. (p. 10) | Bonner's and Barnes's contributions, as summarised; sources not specified here. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Urban poverty rose in Zambia and Zimbabwe under structural adjustment, and Zambian poverty below the poverty line rose from 4 to 17 per cent between 1975 and 1991. (p. 16) | World Bank Zambia Urban Poverty Assessment (1994) and Kanji and Jazdowska on Zimbabwe. | Partial data |
| The effects of abolishing influx control and related 1980s legislation on South African urbanisation have not yet been studied longitudinally. (p. 2) | Asserted by the authors with no data cited. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
The authors say the collection offers only a limited sampling of urban research and cannot claim comprehensive thematic or regional coverage. They note that Zimbabwean urban history is early-stage with much work unpublished, and that the effects of the 1980s legislative changes have not been studied longitudinally.
Gaps in the evidence¶
As an editorial introduction it presents no census, archival or survey data of its own, so its generalisations about urbanisation and migration rest on contributors' case studies. Population census series and Native Affairs or municipal administrative records on influx control and urban African population would allow tests of the claims about incremental, conditional urbanisation. Quantitative comparison across cities (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Salisbury) was possible from existing censuses and municipal records but is not attempted.
Replicability: Not applicable.