The day of the passage of the act of union (called the South Africa Act) was an ill one for the South African native. Cape Colony, the one benevolent and fair-minded state, could not help but be over-ruled by the three states whose policy toward the native was one of oppression and political non-representation. Hence the South Africa Act (1909) contains the following provisions:
"IV.—(26) The qualifications of a senator shall be as follows—
He must .............
be a British subject of European descent.. . . . . . . . .
36. ... the qualifications of parliamentary voters, as existing in the several colonies, at the establishment of the Union, shall be the qualifications necessary to entitle persons in the corresponding provinces to vote for the election of members of the House of Assembly.
. . . . . . . . .
44. The qualifications of a member of the House of Assembly shall be as follows—He must ... be a British subject of European descent."[9]
In other words, no native can be a member of the South African Parliament. Even if the natives of Cape Colony, who have the right of franchise under section 36 above; for they had it "at the establishment of the Union"—even if they should elect one of their number to represent them, such duly elected person could not be seated. Under the laws of the Union, then, the Cape Colony right of franchise has been nullified and "the Bantu and coloured people in the Provinces of Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State are unrepresented in the Union Parliament, and those of the Cape Province are but indirectly represented. The five million coloured peoples in the Union have no direct representation, and the one million, five hundred thousand white people have all the representation and say."[10]
Now, although the natives are not eligible for election to the South African Parliament, they have a deliberative body, known as the South African Native National Congress, to which native representatives are sent from all districts. With no legislative authority, however, this body can only discuss legislative measures which have been proposed before the South African Parliament when such measures affect the natives, and it may use "all available constitutional methods" for or against the proposed measures. But of what avail to protest against a law when the persons to whom the protest must be made are those who have enacted the law? An appeal to the British government would be useless, for the British government has declared that the Union of South Africa is "self-governing."
Such, in brief, is the political status of the Negro in British South Africa, and the government of Great Britain, having set up "self-governing South Africa," has thus far refused to come to the rescue of the natives. As a member of the British Parliament said during the debate on the Union Bill, "it [the proposal for unification] is the unification of the white races to disfranchise the coloured races, and not to promote union between all races in South Africa." The passage of the Union Bill sounded the political death knell of the South African native.
His economic condition is equally as disheartening. When the Union was set up, native employees of the government in the railway, post office, telegraph and civil service systems were discharged in large numbers and their places were given to Europeans. Enforced labor of natives is statutory in Natal, and a tax upon natives, from which they are exempted upon certification that they have worked for a certain number of months during the year, is levied throughout Cape Colony. The most iniquitous feature of the economic status of the native South African, however, is that which resulted from the passage, in 1913, of the Natives' Land Act "to take effective measures to restrict the purchase and lease of land by natives" by setting apart certain areas in which natives were not permitted to acquire land. It assigned approximately 21,500,000 acres of land to the 5,000,000 natives, reserving 275,000,000 acres for the 1,500,000 white inhabitants. Natives who were living within the area set aside for white inhabitants had to sell their grain and stock and either move their families to an area assigned to natives or hire themselves out to white men. This condition has existed, moreover, since 1913. Recently, however, the Natives' Land Act has been declared to be without effect, because its provisions conflict with those of the original South Africa Act; but, as Mr. Molema remarks, the South Africa Act is easily amended. There is nothing in the past record of the Union to indicate that an amendment to cover the Natives' Land Act will not be incorporated in the Constitution, thus making the natives' serfdom permanent.
Since the native South African is a political and economic nonentity, it is not surprising to note that, socially, he is on one side of a great gulf fixed between him and his white neighbors. The South African native is indeed a social outcast. Portions of the following extract, describing social relations in South Africa, should ring familiarly in American ears:
"The peculiar colour-prejudice of South Africa ... finds expression everywhere—in the streets, in the public buildings, in the public conveyances, in the press, nay, in the church itself. Thus, if a black man were to try to get into an hotel, let his education be what it will, he would be refused admission; but supposing he did manage to enter somehow, if he appeared at table, all the whites would leave it.... All over South Africa whites will not mix with blacks in railway compartments, tramcars or post-carts....
"Bantu children and European children are provided with separate schools.
" ... On that lavatory you see written 'Gentlemen,' and there only white men may go. On that other lavatory you see written 'Amadoda' (men), and this is meant for black men.
"One would expect that the distinction would not go the length of the church, but it does so with sober earnestness....
"The average white man in South Africa would never think of shaking hands with a black man. The ordinary terms of courtesy are purposely avoided by him, and such a prefix as 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.' in association with a black man's or woman's name never escapes his lips....
"'A single case of marriage between white and black by Christian rites will fill the newspapers with columns of indignant protest, but illicit intercourse, even permanent concubinage, will pass unnoticed.'"[11]
The American Negro, it may be said, habitually thinks of himself as the most unfortunate of God's creatures, but his South African brother is still more unfortunate. Separate schools, separate churches, separate waiting-rooms, "jim crow cars"—with these the American Negro is familiar. With few exceptions, however, he may work independently, unlike the South African native, and at his own calling. He may acquire as much property as he can pay for. If he will "go North" for his education, he may sit at the feet of the best scholars his country produces. Direct representation in state legislative bodies is not unknown to him, and direct representation from some districts to the National Congress seems to be at hand. The trend of the American Negro is upward, but the South African native remains on an unchanging plane of misery and oppression. For the American Negro, in spite of discrimination, lynching and riot, the star of hope shines with ever-increasing luster, but its beams, at the present time, seem scarcely to reach his South African brother. The British protectorate of self-governing South Africa has not been a boon to the South African native, for the home government has abandoned him to the hands of his oppressors.
D. A. Lane, Jr.