Social and economic underpinnings of paternalism and violence on the maize farms of the south-western Transvaal, 1900-1950

Abstract

For the better part of five hundred years southern Africa has been witness to an epic struggle as a small invading minority of European origin, enjoying all the advantages of military might, literacy and access to superior technology, sought to conquer, dispossess, render subservient and then control members of the indigenous majority. This centuries-long struggle for mastery of the sub-continent has - as members of both the out-going and in-coming nationalists never cease to remind us - been marked by great hardship, endless blood-letting and countless corpses. And, as the white minority now silently laments its possible political eclipse by a black majority, it is perhaps an appropriate moment to reflect on how, during the course of this long and violent struggle, it failed to transform its physical strength into moral legitimacy. For, as Rousseau once observed in a different context but at a not dissimilar moment; 'The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty (1).