South African Liberalism and ‘Friends of Africa’

Abstract

During the inter-war years, segregation developed into an ideology of government that managed to be clearly defined, yet was diffuse enough in meaning to attract a wide body of support. It was often conceptualised as a kind of synthesis between older ideas of ‘equality’ (liberal humanitarians and their ‘civilising mission’) and ‘repression’ or ‘subordination’ (slavery and the social relations of the colonial ‘frontier tradition’). On the whole, international attitudes towards South Africa followed the pattern of the years up to Union, with the metropolitan humanitarian lobby concerned in the main to promote ‘welfare’ and to protect African society from the ravages of industrial modernity. After the First World War, a number of international organisations provided a framework for transnational networks of activists engaged with the issue of South African racial politics. By the 1930s, these networks would stretch along a continuum ranging from the paternalism of liberals and missionaries, through to the (superficially at least) more egalitarian connections on the political left. African Americans continued to provide the most sympathetic support to black South Africans, often drawing on ideas of racial solidarity and the shared experience of white domination.