The Problems of Plural Societies with Special Reference of the Urban Blacks of South Africa

Abstract

South Africa regards the South African problem as unique, but when one examines it as a sociological phenomenon it soon becomes apparent that in its genesis it is part and parcel of colonialism, the dominant feature of the recent history of the African continent. To a greater or lesser degree, all nations are ashamed of their colonial past. Vernon Bartlett, in his ‘The colour of their skin’, describes how, because of this sense of shame, Britain, France and Belgium with varying degrees of haste or dignity withdrew from Africa in the fifties and sixties of this century.