THE CENTENARY OF THE 1913 NATIVE LAND ACT
19 June 2013 will rightly be commemorated as a key point in the dismal story of the dispossession of the land of the black population of South Africa.
The process began in 1652 with the first settlement of the Cape by the Dutch East India Company. Despite Jan van Riebeeck's instructions to live in amity with the Khoi Khoi population of the Cape, the rapid expansion of the settlement soon led to conflict over land.
When the Dutch asked the Khoi Khoi to relocate because their proximity to the colony disturbed the Dutch settlers, their leader, Autshumato, told Van Riebeeck that "this is our land - not yours. We will place our huts wherever we choose, and if you are not disposed to permit us to do so, we will attack and kill you with the aid of many people from the interior." He later asked Van Riebeeck, "If the country is too small, who has the greater right, the true owner or the foreign intruder?"
During the 19th century British domination was extended throughout the region: in 1871 Britain annexed the diamond fields of the northern Cape; by 1887 it had incorporated Zululand; by 1894 it had completed the annexation of the Transkei. Finally, in 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War, the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State were annexed.
So, at the beginning of the 20th century, the British found themselves in possession of a ragbag of territories in Southern Africa - most of which were troublesome - and few of which were profitable. What to do with them? The solution was to set up a union or federation - as they had successfully done with their colonies in Canada and Australia. In 1908 they convened a National Convention and in 1910 the Union of South Africa was born. Whether or not it was conceived in sin the new country signalled the birth of South Africa as we know it today.