The Ambiguities of Protest in South Africa: Rural Politics and the Press during the 1920s¶
Les Switzer (1990). The Ambiguities of Protest in South Africa: Rural Politics and the Press during the 1920s. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1. Boston University African Studies Center.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | mixed |
| Period studied | 1919–1929 |
| Regions | Eastern Cape, Ciskei, Transkei, Witwatersrand, Port Elizabeth |
| Themes | origins segregation, resistance social movements, politics ideology elections, unions strikes, agriculture land |
| Citation key | switzer1990 |
Argument¶
Switzer uses the Xhosa-English weekly Imvo Zabantsundu, edited by Alexander Jabavu, to show how the mission-educated African petty bourgeoisie of the eastern Cape reacted to Hertzog's segregationist policies in the 1920s. The paper's preferred reading was constitutional, petitionary protest, loyal to white liberal 'friends of the natives' and hostile to strikes, millenarian movements and popular resistance. The author argues this outlook was ambiguous. Its news content was mostly non-political, but it was laced with protest, and it rejected militancy even as the petty bourgeoisie was being pushed down into the ranks of the working poor. He combines a random-sample content analysis (two issues a year, 1919-1929) with qualitative reading of the editorials and with the regional political context.
Evidence and method¶
Content analysis of a random sample of 22 issues of Imvo Zabantsundu (1919-1929) from microfilm, with a qualitative reading of English-language editorials from 1918-1930. Also the minutes of the Ciskeian Missionary Council, parliamentary and government material as reported in Imvo, and secondary literature (Bradford, Beinart and Bundy, Bonner, Edgar, Trapido, Couzens and others).
Place in the debates¶
- Class position and ideology of the African petty bourgeoisie (radicalisation vs. accommodation) (see Resistance and liberation movements). Argues that class boundaries were fluid and that the petty bourgeoisie was fragmenting downward. It sometimes made common cause with workers and peasants, but the eastern Cape elite and its press stayed constitutionalist and condemned popular resistance. It warns against ascribing fixed class-based meanings to these texts.
- Liberalism and segregation (the 'small tradition' of Cape liberalism) (see Resistance and liberation movements). Treats Cape African liberals as faithful to Trapido's 'small tradition'. They relied on white trusteeship and the Joint Councils, which were led by whites and accommodated segregation, while the African press grew increasingly disillusioned with white parties.
Findings¶
-
Hertzog's pact government pursued legislation aimed at making all Africans minimum-wage labour, threatening the African petty bourgeoisie with proletarianisation. (p. 4)
in the next fifteen years a series of legislative measures were implemented with the aim of reducing the entire African population to the status of minimum wage labor.
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The Cape African franchise was concentrated in the eastern Cape and was already declining under central-government pressure by the late 1920s. (p. 4)
An estimated 10,453 of 14,912 African voters in the province in 1926
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The 1920 Port Elizabeth wage strike campaign ended in a police massacre, which resonated through the Ciskei hinterland and fed rural ICU organising. (p. 9)
Masabalala was jailed in the midst of a campaign to mount a general strike over low wages, and the police fired on a crowd of 3,000 who were demanding his release.
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The Israelites at Bulhoek (1921) were crushed by the state with great loss of life, and Imvo defended the government. (p. 10)
When the shooting finally ceased, 163 were dead and 129 wounded while the police had suffered one casualty.
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Imvo's circulation was small and falling, though its readership was broader than the sales figures suggest. (p. 11)
they had apparently dropped from a high of 4,000 before 1910 to between 1,000 and 2,000 during this decade.
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Reserve peasants held plots too small for subsistence, and the Native Farmers' Association complained of being treated as a reservoir of cheap labour. (p. 15)
peasant household heads who were restricted to sub-economic plots averaging six acres (dubbed the Isikonkwane)
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The 1925 Native Tax Act sharply raised the tax burden on rural Africans. (p. 17)
the basic African tax from 10 to 30 shillings a year, was a crippling burden to peasants in rural areas like the eastern Cape.
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The 1927 Native Administration Act threatened Ciskeian individual land titles and with them the qualified franchise, which provoked protest. (p. 18)
the power to investigate all individual land titles that did not conform to the 1894 Glen Grey Act and proclaim them invalid.
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Imvo gave more coverage to government-sponsored consultative bodies than to independent black political and trade-union bodies. (p. 19)
Government-sponsored consultative bodies for Africans, moreover, actually received more coverage than the activities of independent black political and trade union organizations.
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Imvo rejected forms of protest not led by the petty bourgeoisie, treating strikes and millenarian movements as illegitimate. (p. 22)
Imvo undoubtedly expressed the feelings of the voting community in steadfastly refusing to recognize any political action that was not identified with the petty bourgeoisie.
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Popular resistance was reported only when it could not be ignored, a stance common to the 'responsible' African press. (p. 23)
Popular resistance in any form, however, was publicized only when it could not be ignored.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imvo Zabantsundu (Native Opinion), random sample of 22 weekly issues, 1919-1929, plus selected English-language leader pages 1918-1930 | newspapers periodicals | 1919-1929 (editorials 1918-1930) | Primary source for the content analysis of newshole categories and for quotations showing the paper's editorial stance on politics, protest, the ICU, Israelites and Garveyism. |
| Content-analysis coding of the Imvo sample (Nxumalo 1984 Rhodes University honours study, recoded by the author) | author survey or fieldwork | sample drawn from 1919-1929 | Supplies the item counts and percentages in Figure 1 and Tables 1-3 (368 items in seven categories, reclassified into three). |
| Klein, 'African Responses in the Eastern Cape to Hertzog's Representation of Natives in Parliament Bill 1926-1936', Appendices A and B | secondary literature compilation | 1926-1927 | Source of Cape African voter registration figures (16,481 in 1927; 10,453 of 14,912 in 1926 in the eastern Cape). |
| Ciskeian Missionary Council, Minutes, October 1925 - November 1951 | union or movement records | 1925-1951 | Cited for the composition and affiliates of the Ciskeian Missionary Council. |
| Karis and Carter, eds., From Protest to Challenge, vol. I Document 29 (Pelem's presidential address to Bantu Union, 26 Feb 1919) and vol. IV | secondary literature compilation | 1919 | Documentary evidence on the founding and leadership of Bantu Union. |
| Report of the commission investigating the 1920 Port Elizabeth riots (as reprinted in Imvo) | commission or official report | 1920 | Mentioned only as having been reprinted in full by Imvo, as evidence of the paper's official-line coverage of the riots. |
| Official reports of the Bulhoek massacre, 1921 (as relied upon by Imvo) | commission or official report | 1921 | Cited as the basis of Imvo's account exonerating the government, not analysed directly. |
| Statutes and bills reported in Imvo (Native Affairs Act 1920, Glen Grey Act 1894, Native Administration Act 1927, Native Tax Act 1925, Native Education Tax Bill) | legislation gazette | 1894-1927 | Provides the legislative context of segregation that Imvo's coverage and protest responded to. |
| Rex v. Ndobe (Supreme Court appeal on Glen Grey land titles) | other | 1929-1930 | Illustrates the outcome of the land-title challenge against the Native Administration Act. |
| Other African and nationalist newspapers quoted in Imvo (Abantu-Batho, Workers' Herald, Ilanga lase Natal, Umteteli wa Bantu; Christian Express) | newspapers periodicals | 1920s | Used for comparison to argue Imvo's treatment of popular resistance matched other 'responsible' African journals; Umteteli letter for Ncwana, Christian Express for the Israelites. |
| Unpublished theses used for background (Odendaal 1983; Edgar 1977) | secondary literature compilation | 1880-1921 | Background on earlier African political mobilisation and the Bulhoek events. |
New data¶
Content-analysis dataset built from a random sample of 22 issues of the weekly Imvo Zabantsundu (two per year, 1919-1929), coding 368 news items into categories and sub-categories (A: 238 items, B: 84, C: 46); the coding was done initially by Nxumalo and recoded by the author, with a qualitative supplement from editorials 1918-1930.
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Single-newspaper case study combining a random-sample quantitative content analysis (percentage distributions of newshole categories) with qualitative reading of editorials and leader pages, set in a Marxist-inflected class framework of the petty bourgeoisie. Claims are established by showing the proportions of coverage and quoting editorial language, then comparing Imvo to other African papers and to protest events.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Imvo's newshole was dominated by non-political general-interest news of the mission-educated elite, with black political and trade union activity a small share. (p. 97) | Content analysis of a 22-issue random sample coded into Figure 1 and Tables 1-3. | Systematic data |
| Imvo treated popular resistance (strikes, Israelites, Wellingtonites, Herschel dissidents) hostilely or ignored it, accepting the official line, and covered it only when unavoidable. (p. 106) | Quotations from Imvo editorials and D. D. T. Jabavu on the 1920 Port Elizabeth riots and Bulhoek, and the fewer than 1 percent direct-action stories in the sample. | Partial data |
| Imvo's stance on white party politics shifted from support for Smuts's SAP to bitter opposition to Hertzog, and it led opinion against the franchise and Glen Grey land measures. (p. 102) | Dated Imvo editorials and leaders 1921-1929 on Smuts, Hertzog, the Native Administration Act and Rex v. Ndobe. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Government-sponsored consultative bodies received more coverage than independent black political and trade union organisations. (p. 104) | Counts of issues in the 22-issue sample mentioning each type of body (9 for government bodies vs 7 ANC, 4 regional, 4 ICU). | Systematic data |
| Imvo's circulation fell from about 4,000 before 1910 to 1,000-2,000 in the 1920s, and the paper ran at a loss. (p. 96) | Inferred estimates (circulation figures stated to be unobtainable) and a debt figure reported in Imvo on Tengo Jabavu's death. | Asserted |
| Native Farmers' Association and teachers' associations used Imvo to voice grievances and acted as an element of the protest agenda (33 progressive farmers' groups with roughly 1,400 members by 1926). (p. 100) | Imvo reports of meetings and attendance figures. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
The author notes that Imvo circulation figures are unobtainable, that the newspaper was available only on microfilm, and that independent coders were not available for the Xhosa-language stories (coder reliability was checked only on the English stories, within 2 percent). Attendance and membership figures are given as approximate ('apparently', 'roughly').
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument about the 'preferred reading' and readers' responses lacks audience evidence (circulation, readership, letters beyond the sample) and a comparison sample from other African papers (Abantu-Batho, Umteteli), which exist on microfilm. A sample of only 22 issues (368 items), mostly from page 5, limits inference about shifts over the decade, and the Xhosa-language coding was unverified. Archival records of the Native Affairs Department, police and the Jabavu papers, which exist, could test the claims on organisational strength and on official responses.
Replicability: Data described but not public.