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- Title
“We met. We talked. But did they listen?” Black South African Leaders’ Participation in African-White Conferences, 1922–1933.
- Authors
Feinberg, Harvey M.
- Abstract
During the early Union period, the so-called “segregation era,” Black South African leaders had unusual access to government ministers, state officials, and influential whites concerned about race policies. The most important examples of this remarkable phenomenon are the conferences which met in the 1920s and early 1930s, events historians have almost completely ignored. This article analyses eleven conferences: the Native Affairs Commission, an official body, sponsored six meetings, and three non-governmental organizations, the Dutch Reformed Church, Joint Councils of Europeans and Africans, and a student organization, the Student Christian Association sponsored the other five conferences, which were integrated. Important African leaders attended one or more conferences, including D.D.T. Jabavu, R.V. Selope Thema, Reverend Z.R. Mahabane, Chief Shadrack Zibi, and Charlotte Maxeke. Ultimately, approximately 450 black men and women attended these conferences during a twelve-year period. This article relies almost exclusively on primary sources, including three black edited newspapers and selected white newspapers, as well as minutes of meetings, speeches and reports of debates and resolutions. These sources enabled me to identify the dominant themes Africans pursued during free-wheeling debates, such as land ownership, unequal justice, segregation, and education funding. I also evaluate the impact of these meetings on government officials, members of parliament, and the African population.
- Subjects
NETHERLANDS Reformed Church; CONFERENCES &; conventions; BLACK South Africans; SEGREGATION; EDUCATIONAL finance; JABAVU, Davidson D. T. (Davidson Don Tengo), b. 1885
- Publication
International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2020, Vol 53, Issue 1, p97
- ISSN
0361-7882
- Publication type
Article