Abstract:
'Race relations' in the South African countryside have never made for a
particularly pretty picture. Several recent studies, including, for
example, a finely etched portrait of the notorious Abel Erasmus have
served to remind us that the birth pangs of commercial agriculture in
the Transvaal during the late 19th century were characterised by
considerable violence between white landowners and black tenants (1). Nor
did matters improve significantly over the half century that followed.
In the course of an exceptionally sensitive study of black protest on
the land during the late twenties it is suggested that: ' . . .fists,
whips and guns were central in maintaining master-servant relationships
on farms' (2). And, while writing what was the classic work of its genre
in the mid-thirties, I.D. MacCrone was moved to comment on 'cases of
violent physical treatment which are such a feature of the relations
between white and black in country districts' (3).
