Relative deprivation: a component of transformed political awareness in Cape Town, 1976–1983

Abstract

In the years before the Soweto disturbances the South African government's prevailing view of Coloureds as politically malleable, went largely unchallenged. The Theron Commission and especially the Morse and Peele study (1974) fostered the view that because of their peculiar social location in South Africa, embourgeoisement would occur amongst Coloured people. This article challenges the Morse and Peele conclusions. It presents data that have direct bearing on the incidence and structure of relative deprivation in the Cape Peninsula, in a framework that permits comparisons over time and between races. The main findings are that relative deprivation profiles (1) can be factored into manifest and latent components, (2) differ significantly at different times and for different races, and (3) that the incidence of relative deprivation amongst Coloured people is almost unrelated to age and class. Thus the government was wrong to suppose that the socio‐economic development and upliftment of the Coloured people would have a peaceful rather than a politicizing effect on them. These findings are commensurate with the much broader participation of Coloured people in the waves of unrest in the decade following Soweto.