Collective Rural Identity in Steinkopf, a Communal Coloured Reserve, c.1926–1996

Abstract

Steinkopf, a former coloured reserve located in Namaqualand, Northern Cape Province South Africa, provides an opportunity to explore the resiliency of collective identity across twentieth-century industrial capitalism and the various externally imposed borders, classifications and policies designed to fracture that identity. Ethnographic data reinforce my contention that the notion of local citizenship manifested through communal land tenure strengthened Steinkopf's capacity to problematise ethno-racial classifications through segregation and apartheid. While those who lived through these eras, and who are now elderly, discursively concede a degree of individual and collective hybridity, this seeming fragmentation does not negate a strong collective consciousness, enabling them to mobilise and protect local interests.

Notes

^*I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions on this article.

 1 J. Sharp and E. Boonzaier, ‘Ethnic Identity as Performance: Lessons from Namaqualand’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 20, 3 (1994), pp. 405–15.

 2 P. Carstens, The Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve: A Study of Racial Integration and Segregation in South Africa (Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1966; repr., Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1976), pp. 23–5.

 3 P. Carstens, The Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve: A Study of Racial Integration and Segregation in South Africa. (Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1966; repr., Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood Press, 1976), pp. 55–6.

 4 H. Wolpe, ‘Capitalism and Cheap Labour Power in South Africa: From Segregation to Apartheid’, Economy and Society, 4, 1 (1972).

 5 Carstens, The Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve, p. 51.

 6 See, for example: S. Field, ‘Fragile Identities: Memory, Emotion and Coloured Residents of Windermere’, in Z. Erasmus (ed.), Coloured by History Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities in Cape Town (Cape Town, Kwela, 2001), p. 97; S. Robins, ‘Transgressing the Borderlands of Tradition and Modernity: Identity, Cultural Hybrids and Land Struggles in Namaqualand (1980–1994)’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 15, 1 (1997), pp. 7–22; Sharp and Boonzaier. ‘Ethnic Identity as Performance; J. Sharp, ‘Ethnogenesis and Ethnic Mobilisation: A Comparative Perspective on a South African Dilemma’, in E.N. Wilmsen and P. McAllister (eds), The Politics of Difference: Ethnic Premises in a World of Power (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 85–103.

 7 Carstens, The Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve.

 8 R. Oakley, ‘Gendered Imprints of History and Economy Across the Life Course of an Elderly Namaqualander’, in S. Makoni and K. Stroken (eds), Discourse on Ageing in South Africa (Avebury, Ashgate Publishers, 2002). R. Oakley, ‘Generational and Life Course Patterns of Occupational Retrenchment and Retirement of South African Migrant Labourers’, in V. Marshall, A. Verma, H. Kruger and W. Heinz (eds), Restructuring Work and the Life Course (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2001).

 9 The ‘rural coloured reserves’ are subject to the Transformation of Certain Rural Areas Act (Law 94 of 1998). Under this process the inhabitants will choose whether they want the title to their land to be transferred to a Community Property Association or to the Local. The title currently resides with the Minister of the Department of Land Affairs.

 10 W. Hoernlé, ‘The Social Organisation of the Nama Hottentots of South West Africa’, in P. Carstens (ed.), The Social Organisation of the Nama and Other Essays (Johannesburg, Witswatersrand University Press, 1985), pp. 20–38.

 11 As in Canada, aboriginal ancestry is often traced through the women.

 12 P.W. Carstens. ‘Opting out of Colonial Rule: The Brown Voortrekkers of South Africa and their Constitutions [Part 1]’, African Studies, 42, 2 (1983), pp. 135–52; ‘Opting out of Colonial Rule: The Brown Voortrekkers of South Africa and their Constitutions [Part 2]’, African Studies, 43, 1 (1984), pp. 19–30.

 13 See H. Giliomee, ‘Afrikaners and the Making of a Radical Survival Plan’, Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History, Special Issue: An Apartheid of Souls, XXVII, 3/4 (2003), pp. 112–41.

 14 Carstens, The Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve, p. 137; J.S. Marais, The Cape Coloured People 1652–1937 (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1930), p. 76.

 15 J. Browett, ‘The Evolution of Unequal Development within South Africa: An Overview’, in D.M. Smith (ed.), Living Under Apartheid (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1982), pp. 12–13; C. Bundy, The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry (Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1979); S. Stitcher, Migrant Labourers (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 31–2.

 16 Surplus People's Project (SPP), Land Claims in Namaqualand (Cape Town, SPP, 1995), p. 52.

 17 Carstens, The Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve, p. 137; Marais, The Cape Coloured People, p. 25.

 18 R. Oakley, Aging and the Life Course in Steinkopf, A Rural South African Community (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 1999).

 19 J. Iliffe, The African Poor: A History (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987); P.M. Lawton, ‘To be Black, Poor and Aged in South Africa’, The Gerontologist, 21, 3 (1981), pp. 235–9.

 20 R. Oakley, ‘Local Effects of New Social-Welfare Policy on Ageing in South Africa’, Southern African Journal of Gerontology, 1, 1 (1998), pp. 15–20.

 21 Wolpe, ‘Capitalism and Cheap Labour Power in South Africa’.

 22 Carstens, Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve.

 23 Carstens. Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve, p. 254.

 24 This is a derogatory term derived from the word ‘Hottentot’ which was used to describe all Khoi people. ‘Hotnot’ is used frequently in Steinkopf in both jest and anger but its re-appropriation by the people has defused it of its derogatory power when used by white employers.

 25 The Afrikaans term ‘meid’ is an extremely derogatory term of reference for a woman. In this instance, the ‘Bushman’ and the ‘Hotnot’ women are downgraded while Jan van Riebeeck is depicted as a ‘stud’. The illicit sexuality heightens van Riebeeck's masculinity while simultaneously denigrating the females. This, moreover, is a reflection of a racial attitude. In Joseph's mind, the non-white women are morally suspect while the white man retains his nobility even when implicated in immoral activities.

 26 They noted that after the war the white people were awarded farms and cash, while the non-white soldiers were given a bicycle and a small sum of money.

 27 Afrikaans word for ‘you’ (informal). Used to designate inferior status, or used among equals.

 28 See C. van Onselen, ‘The Social and Economic Underpinnings of Paternalism and Violence on the Maize Farms of the South-Western Transvaal 1900–1950’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 5, 2 (1992), pp. 127–60.

 29 Such as ouma (grandmother), oupa (grandfather), oom (uncle), tannie (aunt), u (you used respectfully).

 30 There are also some old people who describe their European (white) employers in extremely positive terms. They describe being treated as family members, gifts being sent to their parents and other relatives at Christmas time by the white employer, being referred to by name, being well-paid, well fed, clothed and accommodated.

 32 Carstens, The Social Structure of a Cape Coloured Reserve, p. 256 [capitalisation as per original].

 31 But even at this time, the line between race and ethnicity was very fine since the ‘coloured’ category consisted of numerous sub-designations, which seemed roughly to equate with ethnic differences.

 33 Oakley, ‘Gendered Imprints of History and Economy Across the Life Course of an Elderly Namaqualander’.

 34 Oakley, ‘Local Effects of New Social-Welfare Policy on Ageing in South Africa’.

 35 Oakley, ‘The Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk and the Nama Experience in Namaqualand, South Africa’, Special Issue of Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History, ‘An Apartheid of Souls’, 27, 3/4 (2003), pp.189–204.

 36 See Oakley, Aging and the Life Course in Steinkopf, A Rural South African Community.

 37 J. Cock, ‘Defence and Dependence: A Note on the Self Imagery of Domestic Workers’, South African Labour Bulletin 6, 1 (1980), pp. 9–21.

 38 Van Onselen, ‘The Social and Economic Underpinnings of Paternalism and Violence on the Maize Farms of the South-Western Transvaal 1900–1950’.

 39 See also C. van Onselen, The Seed is Mine: The Life of a South African Share Cropper (New York, Hill and Wang, 1996).

 40 I. Goldin, ‘Politics in the Western Cape Region of South Africa’, in L. Vail (ed.), The Creation of Tribalism in South Africa, II (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991), pp. 241–54.

 41 Sharp and Boonzaier. ‘Ethnic Identity as Performance’. Given the distinctive history of the Bosluis Basters and their lack of historical acknowledged affiliation with the Nama, these conclusions may well be correct for the Richtersveld. The Bosluis Basters are new to the region, and have no kinship with the Nama who occupied the region precolonially.

 42 J. Wiebel-Orlando, ‘Indians Ethnicity as a Resource for Aging: You Can Go Home Again’, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 3 (1988), pp. 323–48.

 43 Sharp, who compared ethnic claims among First Nations’ aboriginal people to the Namaqualand coloured people has characterised the problem thus: ‘We are also being faced with the claiming of “otherness” as a weapon in the hands of the weak, and as a means of articulating their demands for recognition, dignity and resources’, (Sharp, ‘Ethnogenesis and Ethnic Mobilisation’, pp. 102–3; Goldin, ‘Politics in the Western Cape Region of South Africa’.

 44 J.B. Peires,. ‘Ethnicity and Pseudo Ethnicity in the Casket’, in W. Beinart and S. Dubow (eds), Segregation and Apartheid in Twentieth Century South Africa (London, Routledge, 1995), pp. 256–83.

 45 W. James, D. Caliguire and K. Cullinan (eds), ‘Now That We Are Free’: Coloured Government in Democratic South Africa (London, Lynne Rienner, 1996), p. 8.

 46 Elderly members of the Namaqualand Burghers Vereniging tried to get the attention of the O'Kiep Copper Company (OCC) by cutting water pipes which led to nine communities. They had been frustrated with the OCC over the latter's refusal to discuss land-use issues with them.