Africans’ Growing Nationalism Owing to Exploitation

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22868, 11 February 1949, Page 5

Africans’ Growing Nationalism Owing to Exploitation

(From Reuter’s Correspondent.) DURBAN. A growing sense of African nationalism, combined with the economic exploitation of the African population by the Indian, and aggravated by the Malan Government’s plans for racial segregation, is regarded by observers here as the root cause of the recent riots in Durban. Africans today are going through a difficult period of transition from a settled tribal life to life in the towns. The impact of western civilisation upon them is tremendous, especially as they have to absorb it in an environment where they have few opportunities for unfettered development. Forced To Take Inferior Place Both Africans and Indians in the country have from the early days been forced by the domination of the white population to occupy an inferior position in the national life. The African today finds himself economically in a position far inferior to that of the Indian, whom in any case he regards like the European, as an interloper. The situation is particularly acute in Durban, where the Africans are less urbanised than in many other cities of the Union. The majority of them here are Zulus, the premier warrior nation of South Africa before the white population forced them into peaceful ways during the last century. With the breakdown of tribal life and the massing of Africans of all tribes in Durban, there is growing up here today, as elsewhere, a spirit of African nationalism which has been led into unhealthy channels by the restrictive policies of successive Governments. This general policy of restriction and consequent exploitation of both African and Indian has had a disturbing influence in Durban whose population is composed of 128,000 Indians, 109,000 Europeans, 100,000 Africans. Africans’ Small Holdings About 80 per cent of the wealth and living space in the town is in the hands of Europeans, 15 per cent is possessed by Indians and only 5 per cent by Africans. The European exploits both the Indian and African. The Indian derives his 15 per cent share mainly from exploiting the .African.

Most Indians and all Africans are poorly housed in outlying suburbs, badly served with transport and inadequately equipped with such amenities as shops and sanitation. There is the question of transport, for example. Most bus services to these areas are owned and operated by Indians. Africans have to wait for hours in dense queues to be taken to and from work. They are hurried on to the buses by Indian ticket collectors who often refuse to give change, insisting that the exact fare must be tendered as they are too busy to bother about change. The Indian bus driver, for his part, can hardly wait for the last African to board the bus before he moves on.

Such incidents may appear trival but these, and many others like them added up endlessly over the years have left a strong imprint upon the primitive African mind. The number of Indian buses wrecked during the riots is significant of the result. Many Africans, too, want to run bus services but licenses are invariably granted to Indians who have a wider knowledge of business procedure and a far quicker grasp of the business possibilities of any given situation. Indian Traders More Alert It is the same with shops. The Indian trader invariably gets ahead of the African in opening a shop in any given locality because he has more foresight and provides a capital outlay. He also caters with considerable acumen for the needs of Africans and, therefore, gets their custom before Europeans. Indians, too, will open shops in the worst slum areas. They are the chief black market operators and the most consistent' violators of price control. This means that the African is frequently overcharged, which adds to his general resentment.

As the African becomes more educated and drifts to Durban and other towns in growing numbers he is becoming increasingly aware of and more vocal about his under-privileged position. He sees authority as a. purely restrictive force providing him with almost none of the civic benefits which are enjoyed by the white population. He has no voice in running the country, or the town in which he lives, and he is exploited by Indians as well as Europeans.

The Africans’ deep and growing resentment against exploitation was touched off in Durban during this month’s riots. It needed only a common assault upon a young African boy by an Indian market stallholder to bring this resentment to the surface.