Abstract
The year 1934 marked a turning point for South Africa. The rise of Fusion government coincided with key changes in the political-economic environment. The doubling of the gold price after 1932 made it possible for the mining industry to finance industrial diversification, but the impact of urbanization and the demands of industrial capitalists led the government to relax its implementation of race policy. The latter changes intensified the Afrikaner nationalists’ opposition toward the Fusion government. Tensions between leaders dominating the NGK and the state grew during the 1930s and 1940s as the NGK increasingly expressed its solidarity with the Afrikaner community.
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Notes
See John Pampallis, Foundations of the New South Africa (Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman, 1991), 139–40
See T.R.H. Davenport, South Africa: A Modern History, 3rd edn (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987), 302–14.
Newell M. Stultz, Afrikaner Politics in South Africa, 1934–1948 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974), 24.
T. Dunbar Moodie, The Rise of Afrikanerdom: Power, Apartheid, and the Afrikaner Civil Religion (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975), 116–45.
The unique class basis of the PNP and the differences among the four provincial parties is elaborated in Dan O’Meara’s Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital and Ideology in the Development of Afrikaner Nationalism, 1934–1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 49–56.
Nigel Worden, The Making of Modern South Africa (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), 91.
See FA. Johnstone, ‘White Prosperity and White Supremacy in South Africa Today’, African Affairs 69, no. 275 (1970): 124–40
Harold Wolpe, ‘Capitalism and Cheap Labour-Power in South Africa: From Segregation to Apartheid’, Economy and Society 1 (1972): 425–56.
William Minter, King Solomon’s Mines Revisited: Western Interests and the Burdened History of Southern Africa (New York: Basic Books, 1986), 83.
For more information on the AAC, see Peter Walshe, The Rise of African Nationalism in South Africa: The African National Congress, 1912–1952 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971)
Tom Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (London: Longman, 1983).
A considerable amount of scholarship exists concerning the influence of radical right ideas within the National Party during the Second World War. For more information, see Patrick J. Furlong, Between Crown and Swastika: The Impact of the Radical Right on the Afrikaner Nationalist Movement in the Fascist Era (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1991)
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J.D. Omer-Cooper, History of Southern Africa (London: James Currey, 1987), 182–3.
One of the reasons the 1946 strike occurred was the dissatisfaction felt by Africans over the Lansdown Commission’s (1943) recommendations that mineworkers’ wages did not need to be increased because of the reserve economy. See Dan O’Meara, ‘The 1946 African Mineworkers’ Strike and the Political Economy of South Africa’, Journal of Commonwealth and Political Studies 13 (1975): 146–73.
Dan O’Meara, Forty Lost Years (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1996), 33.
Kenneth Heard, General Elections in South Africa, 1943–1970 (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), 42–4.
Dubow, Racial Segregation, 15. For more details on Smuts’ political perspectives, see W.K. Hancock, Smuts: The Sanguine Years and Fields of Force (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962, 1968)
Kenneth Ingham, Jan Christian Smuts: The Conscience of a South African (New York: Martin’s Press, 1986).
J.C. Smuts, The Basis of Trusteeship (Johannesburg: R.L. Esson & Co., 1942), 9.
Saul Dubow, ‘Afrikaner Nationalism, Apartheid and the Conceptualization of “Race”’, Journal of African History 33 (1992): 216.
L. Thompson, A History of South Africa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 185–6.
Deborah Posel, ‘The Meaning of Apartheid before 1948: Conflicting Interests and Forces within the Afrikaner Nationalist Alliance’, Journal of Southern African Studies 14 (1987): 123–39.
Deborah Posel, The Making of Apartheid, 1948–1961: Conflict and Compromise (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
P.J. Viljoen, ‘Die Politieke Situasie’, Die Kerkbode 34 (1934): 232–3.
Hermann Giliomee, ‘The Growth of Afrikaner Identity’, in Segregation and Apartheid in Twentieth-Century South Africa, ed. William Beinart and Saul Dubow (London: Routledge, 1995), 190.
For a review of church-state meetings on the ‘poor white’ problem, see P.J. Perold, ‘Samewerking Tussen Kerk en Staat Insake Armeblankedom’, De Kerkbode 26 (1930): 412–13
J.A. Loubser, The Apartheid Bible: A Critical Review of Racial Theology in South Africa (Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman, 1987), 27–9.
See A.H. Murray, ‘Voorwaardes vir Voogdyskap’, Op die Horison 2 (1940): 7–11
B.J. Marais, ‘n Oproep’, Die Kerkbode 45 (1940): 645–6.
Jaap Durand, ‘Afrikaner Piety and Dissent’, in Resistance and Hope, ed. Charles Villa-Vicencio and John W. de Gruchy (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1985), 42–5.
For the influence of the GK on the development of apartheid ideology, see Irving Hexham, The Irony of Apartheid: The Struggle for National Independence of Afrikaner Calvinism against British Imperialism (New York: Edwin Meilen Press, 1981).
For a good summary of Abraham Kuyper’s ideas, see Loubser, The Apartheid Bible, 38–47. Also read Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism (Grand Rapids: William Eerdmans, 1931).
See Geoffrey Cronje, ‘n Tuiste vir die Nageslag: Die Blywende Oplossing van Suid-Afrika se Rassevraagstukke (Stellenbosch: Pro-Ecclesia Drukkery, 1945)
N.J. Diederichs, Nasionalisme as Lewensbeskouing en sy Verhouding tot Internasionalisme (Bloemfontein: Nasionale Pers, 1936)
Geoff Eloff, Rasse en Rassevermenging (Bloemfontein: Nasionale Pers, 1942).
Charles Bloomberg, Christian-Nationalism and the Rise of the Afrikaner Broederbond in South Africa, 1918–48, ed. by Saul Dubow (London: Macmillan, 1990), 13–23.
J.G. Strydom, ‘Segregasie of Gelykstelling’, Die Gereformeerde Vaandel 6 (1938): 306–9
J.G. Strydom, ‘Die Naturellebeleid van die Christen Afrikaner’, Die Basuin 15, no. 1 (1943): 1–2
J.H. Kritzinger, ‘Rasse-Apartheid in die Lig van die Skrif’, Op die Horison 9 (1947): 22–31
J.D. Vorster, ‘Die Rassevraagstuk volgens die Skrifte’, Die Gereformeerde Vaandel 15 (1947): 4–6.
A.J. Botha’s Die Evolusie van ‘n Volksteologie (Bellville: UWK Drukkery, 1984).
Afrikaans text: ‘Assimilasie beteken een word van die twee rasse, een in taal, een op sosiaal gebied en een in elke opsig... Ook die ware Christene onder die naturelle wil die suiwerheid van die ras behou. Ons skryf van ‘n Christelik-nasionale standpunt en ons glo dat God aparte nasies en tale ens, gewil het en dat die vernietiging daarvan nie tot welsyn van daardie betrokke nasies kan dien nie. Assimilasie is dan ‘n oppervlakkige en tewens gevaarlike beskouing.... [Differensiasie] is nie verdrukking nie. Dit erken die aparte rasse en wil huile elk die regte en voorregte gee wat huile toekom maar die differensiasie en segregasie is in die werklike belang van beide rasse.’ J.G. Strydom, ‘Ons Sendingbeleid Nogeens’, Die Basuin 8, no. 4 (1937): 1–3.
J.D. du Toit, ‘Die Godsdienstige Grondslag van ons Rassebelied’, Inspan 4, no. 3 (1944): 7–17.
Afrikaans text: ‘Apartheid strek horn uit oor die hele gebied van die volkslewe.... Die beginsel van apartheid tussen rasse en volke, ook die van aparte sendinge en sendingkerke, is wel in die Skrif voorhande. Uit die ryke verskeidenheid van volke wat almal saam die een Here dien, word sy Naam meerdere eer toegebring (Openb. 7: 9, v.; Fil. 2: 9–11). E.P. Groenewald, ‘Die Apartheid van die Nasie’, Die Gereformeerde Vaandel 16 (1948): 9–10.
To explore these issues further, see Patrick Furlong, ‘Improper Intimacy: Afrikaans Churches, the National Party and the Anti-Miscegenation Laws’, South African Historical Journal 31 (1994): 55–79
Etienne de Villiers and Johann Kinghorn, Op die Skaal: Gemengde Huwelike en Ontug (Kaapstad: Tafelberg-Uitgewers, 1984)
D.J. Barnard, ‘Grondslag en Doel van Onderwys’, Die Kerkbode 60 (1947): 484–5
D.F. Erasmus, ‘Manifes in sake Christelike Nasionale Onderwys’, Die Gereformeerde Vaandel 3 (1935): 116–17
Peter Kallaway, ed., Apartheid and Education: The Education of Black South Africans, 5th edn (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1991).
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© 1999 Tracy Kuperus
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Kuperus, T. (1999). NGK-State Relations during UP Governance (1934–47). In: State, Civil Society and Apartheid in South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373730_3
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