‘The Black Peril would not exist if it were not for a White Peril that is a hundred times greater’: D.F. Malan's Fluidity on Poor Whiteism and Race in the Pre-Apartheid Era, 1912–1939

Abstract

D.F. Malan is known as the prime minister who instituted apartheid in 1948. His racial prejudice goes without saying. Yet, Malan's perception of race was relatively fluid and was directly related to his development as a politician and his concern about the poor white problem, particularly his notions of poor white agency. During his early career, Malan regarded the poor whites as makers of their own fate and was concerned that their depravity threatened the racial hierarchy of the day. His views of Africans reflected the paternalism of his time, but were relatively tolerant and supportive of African education. However, by the 1920s, Malan joined in a growing tendency to link poor whiteism to cheap African labour and to plead for segregation. Poor whites were now regarded as victims of circumstance. By the 1930s, Malan, who had since become leader of the National Party, tapped into a widespread fear of miscegenation in the wake of the Carnegie Commission and 1938 Centenary to depict Africans as a direct threat to the survival of the white race. The segregationist measures his party advocated during this time would be reflected in the first apartheid laws to be instituted in 1949 and 1950.

Keywords:

• D.F. Malan
• poor whites
• racism
• Afrikaner nationalism
• segregation
• Carnegie commission
• apartheid
• national party
• miscegenation

Notes

1. The author notes that racial designation in post-apartheid South Africa is a contested terrain. This article, apart from direct quotations, uses the more recent terms ‘black’ and ‘African’ interchangeably to denote South Africans who would have been classified as black according to apartheid-era racial categorisation. The word ‘race’ is also used in its contemporary sense, to denote distinctions between black and white, and not to distinguish between English and Afrikaner, as was the custom during the first decades of the twentieth century.

2. See for example, D. Posel, The Making of Apartheid, 1948–1961: Conflict and Compromise (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991); D. Posel, ‘The Meaning of Apartheid before 1948: Conflicting Interests and Forces within the Afrikaner Nationalist Alliance’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 14, 1 (October 1987), 123–139; L. Koorts, ‘An Ageing Anachronism: D.F. Malan as Prime Minster, 1948–1954’, Kronos: Southern African Histories, 36, (November 2010), 108–135.

3. T.D. Moodie, The Rise of Afrikanerdom: Power, Apartheid and the Afrikaner Civil Religion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980); Posel, The Making of Apartheid; ‘The Meaning of Apartheid before 1948’.

4. T.D. Moodie, The Rise of Afrikanerdom: Power, Apartheid and the Afrikaner Civil Religion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980); Posel, The Making of Apartheid; ‘The Meaning of Apartheid before 1948’.

5. C. Bolt, ‘Race and the Victorians’, in C.C. Eldridge, ed., British Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century, (New York: St Martin's Press, 1984), 126–147.

6. University of Stellenbosch, J.S. Gericke Library, Document centre, D.F. Malan collection (hereafter DFM), 1/1/32689, Danie Malan, Herinneringe aan my Vader, 15.

7. University of Stellenbosch, J.S. Gericke Library, Document centre, D.F. Malan collection (hereafter DFM), 1/1/32689, Danie Malan, Herinneringe aan my Vader, 4–5.

8. DFM, 1/1/176, D.F. Malan – Nettie Fourie, 13 February 1902.

9. K. Smith, The Changing Past: Trends in South African Historical Writing (Johannesburg: Southern Books, 1988), 37.

10. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 5–8.

11. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 13, 51.

12. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 14 (my translation from the original Dutch).

13. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 42 (my translation from the original Dutch).

14. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 37–47.

15. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 48.

16. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 49 (my translation from the original Dutch).

17. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 50 (my translation from the original Dutch).

18. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 51 (my translation from the original Dutch).

19. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 76–77 (my translation from the original Dutch).

20. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 77 (my translation from the original Dutch).

21. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland: Een Reisbeschrijving (Stellenbosch: De Christen-Studenten Vereeniging van Zuid-Afrika, 1913), 79–80. These views were typical in DRC mission circles. For more on this line of thought, see H. Giliomee, ‘The Weakness of Some: The Dutch Reformed Church and White Supremacy’, Scriptura, 83 (2003), 212–244; H. Giliomee, ‘The Making of the Apartheid Plan, 1929–1948’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 29, 2 (June 2003), 373–392.

22. D.F. Malan, Naar Congoland, 79–80 (my translation from the original Dutch).

23. Helpmekaar Studiefonds Archive, Kongresnotules Helpmekaarvereniging van die Kaapprovinsie, 1916–1925, Notule Helpmekaar Kongres 28–29 Junie 1916, 6.

24. D.F. Malan, De Achteruitgang van ons volk. De oorzaken daarvan en de redmiddelen (Cape Town: De Nationale Pers, 1917).

25. D.F. Malan, De Achteruitgang van ons volk. De oorzaken daarvan en de redmiddelen, 7 (my translation from the original Dutch).

26. D.F. Malan, De Achteruitgang van ons volk. De oorzaken daarvan en de redmiddelen, 7.

27. D.F. Malan, De Achteruitgang van ons volk. De oorzaken daarvan en de redmiddelen, 8.

28. The original Dutch term is ‘Geuzen’: Dutch Protestants who fought Catholic Spain during the Eighty Years' War.

29. The original Dutch term is ‘Geuzen’: Dutch Protestants who fought Catholic Spain during the Eighty Years' War. 8, 29.

30. The original Dutch term is ‘Geuzen’: Dutch Protestants who fought Catholic Spain during the Eighty Years' War. 9–11, 16–18, 20–21.

31. The original Dutch term is ‘Geuzen’: Dutch Protestants who fought Catholic Spain during the Eighty Years' War. 21–22, 25–27.

32. D.F. Malan, ‘De toestand van achteruitgang en de oorzaken daarvan’, in Inwendige Zending Kommissie der Ned. Geref. Kerk, K.P., Het arme blanken vraagstuk. Verslag van het Kerkelik Kongres, gehouden te Cradock, op 22 en 23 November 1916, 12.

33. Malan, De achteruitgang van ons volk, 27.

34. Malan, De achteruitgang van ons volk, 12–13, 27.

35. Malan, De achteruitgang van ons volk, 27–28.

36. Malan, ‘De toestand van achteruitgang en de oorzaken daarvan’, 10–14.

37. F.W. Reitz, ‘De arme blanke en de naturel – Toespraak’, in Inwendige Zending Kommissie der Ned. Geref. Kerk, K.P., Het arme blanken vraagstuk. Verslag van het Kerkelik Kongres, gehouden te Cradock, op 22 en 23 November 1916, 15–18; J.I. Marais, ‘De arme blanke en de naturel – Toespraak’, in Inwendige Zending Kommissie der Ned. Geref. Kerk, K.P., Het arme blanken vraagstuk. Verslag van het Kerkelik Kongres, gehouden te Cradock, op 22 en 23 November 1916, 1917, 18–19.

38. Reitz, ‘De arme blanke en de naturel – Toespraak’, 15–18.

39. Reitz, ‘De arme blanke en de naturel – Toespraak’, 18; Marais, ‘De arme blanke en de naturel – Toespraak’, 19.

40. University of the Free State, Archive for Contemporary Affairs (hereafter ARCA), P30.7, Gesamentlike Kongres oor die arme blanke vraagstuk in die Raadsaal te Bloemfontein op 4 en 5 Julie 1923 (Bloemfontein: Nasionale Pers Beperk, 1923).

41. D.F. Malan, Die Groot Vlug. ‘n Nabetragting van die Arm-Blanke-Kongres, 1923, en van die Offisiële Sensusopgawe (Cape Town: Nasionale Pers, 1923), 6; Inwendige Zending Kommissie der Ned. Geref. Kerk, K.P., Het arme blanken vraagstuk. Verslag van het Kerkelik Kongres, gehouden te Cradock, op 22 en 23 November 1916 (Cape Town: De Nationale Pers, 1917).

42. See L. Korf, ‘Podium and/or Pulpit? D.F. Malan's Role in the Politicisation of the Dutch Reformed Church, 1900–1959’ in Historia, 52, 2 (November 2007), 214–238.

43. D.F. Malan, ‘Dorpwaartse Stroom’, in Gesamentlike Kongres oor die Arme Blanke Vraagstuk in die Raadsaal te Bloemfontein op 4 en 5 Julie 1923 (Bloemfontein: Nasionale Pers Beperk, 1923), 6–9.

44. J.B.M. Hertzog, ‘Wat die Staat kan doen’, in Gesamentlike Kongres oor die Arme Blanke Vraagstuk in die Raadsaal te Bloemfontein op 4 en 5 Julie 1923, 4–5.

45. N.J. van der Merwe, ‘Kompetisie tussen blank en gekleurd’ in Gesamentlike Kongres oor die Arme Blanke Vraagstuk in die Raadsaal te Bloemfontein op 4 en 5 Julie 1923, 11–15.

46. N.J. van der Merwe, ‘Kompetisie tussen blank en gekleurd’ in Gesamentlike Kongres oor die Arme Blanke Vraagstuk in die Raadsaal te Bloemfontein op 4 en 5 Julie 1923, 16.

47. Malan, Die Groot Vlug.

48. Malan, Die Groot Vlug, 11–12.

49. Malan, Die Groot Vlug, 5, 7–8.

50. Malan, Die Groot Vlug, 8 (translated from the original Afrikaans: author's translation).

51. Malan, Die Groot Vlug, 9 (my translation from the original Afrikaans).

52. Malan, Die Groot Vlug, 9–10, 12.

53. Malan, Die Groot Vlug, 20-1 (my translation from the original Afrikaans).

54. Malan, Die Groot Vlug, 21.

55. Malan, Die Groot Vlug. (my translation from the original Afrikaans).

56. Malan, Die Groot Vlug. (my translation from the original Afrikaans).

57. Malan, Die Groot Vlug.

58. Malan, Die Groot Vlug.

59. Malan, Die Groot Vlug.

60. See J. Seekings, ‘“Not a single white person should be allowed to go under”: Swartgevaar and the Origins of South Africa's Welfare State, 1924–1929’, Journal of African History, 48 (2007), 375–394.

61. D.F. Malan, ‘Toespraak deur Dr. D.F. Malan, L.V.’, in P. du Toit, ed., Report of the National Conference on the Poor White Problem, held at Kimberley, 2nd to 5th Oct., 1934 (Cape Town: Nasionale Pers, 1934), 122–125.

62. Coetzer and Le Roux, Die Nasionale Party Deel 4: Die ‘Gesuiwerde’ Nasionale Party, 1934–1940, (Bloemfontein: Instituut vir Eietydse Geskiedenis, 1986), 59, 89–91, 94.

63. Coetzer and Le Roux, Die Nasionale Party Deel 4: Die ‘Gesuiwerde’ Nasionale Party, 1934–1940, (Bloemfontein: Instituut vir Eietydse Geskiedenis, 1986), 24.

64. Coetzer and Le Roux, Die Nasionale Party Deel 4: Die ‘Gesuiwerde’ Nasionale Party, 1934–1940, (Bloemfontein: Instituut vir Eietydse Geskiedenis, 1986), 43; W. Beinart, Twentieth-Century South Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 123–124.

65. Coetzer and Le Roux, Die Nasionale Party Deel 4, 42–53, 57–58, 68–72.

66. ARCA, Cape National Party collection, PV 27, file 8/2/1/1/1, ‘De Nationale Partij: Beginsels, Constitutie, Statuten. Uitgegeven namens ‘t Bestuur daartoe benoemd door Speciaal Kongres gehouden te Bloemfontein, 7–9 Jan., 1914’, 8; ARCA Cape National Party Collection, PV 27, file 8/2/1/2/1, ‘Die Nasionale Party van die Kaapprovinsie. Program van Beginsels en Konstitusie (1930)’, 8; ARCA, Cape National Party collection, PV 27, file 8/2/1/2/2, ‘Die Nasionale Party van die Kaapprovinsie: Program van Beginsels en Konstitusie (1934)’, 9–10; DFM, 1/1/1111, ‘Konsep Program van Beginsels van die Nasionale Party’ [1935]. The programmes of principle cited here are representative of the collection of such documents in the Cape National Party Collection at ARCA. From 1914–1934, the principle with regards to Africans, Indians and coloureds remained unchanged.

67. DFM, 1/1/1111, ‘Konsep Program van Beginsels van die Nasionale Party’ [1935], 4 (my translation from the original Afrikaans).

68. DFM, 1/1/1189, ‘Die wekroep van ons leier’, 22 September 1936.

69. DFM, 1/1/1236, P.H. van Huyssteen – D.F. Malan, 2 September 1937.

70. DFM, 1/1/1280, ‘Eleksie-Manifes van die Nasionale Party’ [1938].

71. For a detailed discussion on the 1938 election, and the broad range of issues that were debated, see Coetzer and Le Roux, Die Nasionale Party Deel 4, 126–178.

72. For a detailed discussion on the 1938 election, and the broad range of issues that were debated, see Coetzer and Le Roux, Die Nasionale Party Deel 4, 144, 149–150, 151–153, 168, 170–171.

73. For a detailed discussion on the 1938 election, and the broad range of issues that were debated, see Coetzer and Le Roux, Die Nasionale Party Deel 4,, 172–173.

74. N.M. Stultz, The Nationalists in Opposition, 1934–1948 (Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1974), 57.

75. See D. Mostert, ed., Gedenkboek van die Ossewaens op die pad van Suid-Afrika, Eeufees: 1838–1939 (Cape Town: Nasionale Pers, 1940).

76. See D. Mostert, ed., Gedenkboek van die Ossewaens op die pad van Suid-Afrika, Eeufees: 1838–1939, 64–70, 79–80, 101, 381–389.

77. Free State Archives, N.J. van der Merwe Collection, A 110, Volume 2:5, D.F. Malan – N.J. van der Merwe, 18 June 1938.

78. D.F. Malan, ‘Die Groot Beslissing’, in S.W. Pienaar and J.J.J. Scholtz, eds, Glo in u volk: Dr. D.F. Malan as Redenaar, 1908–1954 (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1964), 110 (my translation from the original Afrikaans).

79. D.F. Malan, ‘Die Groot Beslissing’, in S.W. Pienaar and J.J.J. Scholtz, eds, Glo in u volk: Dr. D.F. Malan as Redenaar, 1908–1954. (translated from the original Afrikaans: author's translation).

80. D.F. Malan, ‘Die Groot Beslissing’, in S.W. Pienaar and J.J.J. Scholtz, eds, Glo in u volk: Dr. D.F. Malan as Redenaar, 1908–1954, 113.

81. W.K. Hancock, Smuts II: The Fields of Force, 1919–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), 264–266.

82. D.F. Malan, ‘Die Groot Beslissing’, 116 (my translation from the original Afrikaans).

83. D.F. Malan, ‘Die Groot Beslissing’, 117–118.

84. Coetzer and Le Roux, Die Nasionale Party Deel 4, 71–73.

85. On the matter of segregation, Patrick Duncan wrote to Lady Maud Selborne that ‘Hertzog […] has begun to talk vaguely about segregation […] What he means by it no one knows – possibly himself as little as any one. It is an attractive word, however, the very sound of which seems to relieve the minds of people who are vaguely troubled about the present state of things’: Patrick Duncan – Maud Selborne, 7 October 1912, in D. Lavin, ed., Friendship and Union: The South African letters of Patrick Duncan and Maud Selborne 1907–1943 (Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society, 2010), 136.

86. Deborah Posel has demonstrated that this attempt at systematisation was nevertheless fraught with contractions. See Posel, ‘The Meaning of Apartheid before 1948’, 123–139.

87. See Koorts, ‘An Ageing Anachronism’.

88. D. Posel, The Making of Apartheid, 62–75.