History Making and Present Day Politics - Stolten's African Studies ...

H i s t o r y i n t h e n e w S o u t h A f r i c a
servants, who were subjected to the threefold suppression of race, class and
gender. Cock became the object of both death threats and an attempted dynamite
assassination after the publication of her book. 46 Walker, Bozzoli,
Unterhalter, Marks and others, also made impressive feminist studies. 47
Resistance to the ideology of Afrikanerdom became an important part of
radical historical studies. Dan O’Meara’s book, Volkskapitalisme, contributed
to the dismantling of more than half a century’s idealisation and romanticisation
of Afrikaner history and struck a blow against apartheid dogma. 48
O’Meara’s investigation persuasively challenged the Boer claim that Afrikanerdom
represented an undifferentiated, timeless, ethnic-cultural “Volks unity”.
He argued that it was primarily economic processes and social interests,
not ethnic conflicts, which formed the historical basis of Afrikaner nationalism.
Even if some of the early structuralist analyses were quite schematic, this
was largely rectified in later works from the radical school. 49
It should be emphasised that the radical tradition did not come out of
nothing. As Magubane demonstrates in his contribution to this collection,
socialism and non-racialism have a long history in South Africa, even if some
of the Neo-Marxists had difficulties committing to that legacy. 50
The many passionate interpretations add fascinating dimensions to historical
research on South Africa. Grassroots activists across the entire political
spectrum have used history as a resource for political engagement. It is
therefore not surprising that popular history was disseminated far and wide
46. Cock, Jacklyn, Maids and Madams, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1980.
47. Walker, Cheryl, Women and Resistance in South Africa, London, Onyx Press, 1982;
Bozzoli, Belinda, “Marxism, Feminism and South African Studies”, Journal of Southern
African Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, Oxford University Press, 1983; Unterhalter, Elaine,
“Class, Race and Gender”, from Lonsdale (ed.), South Africa in Question, London,
1988; Marks, Shula, Not Either an Experimental Doll, The Women’s Press, London,
1988.
48. O’Meara, Dan, Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital and Ideology in the Afrikaner Nationalism,
1934–48, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1983.
49. Dan O’Meara acknowledges this in his later book, Forty Lost Years: The Apartheid
State and the Politics of the National Party, 1948–1994, Ravan Press / Ohio University
Press, 1996.
50. Walker, Ivan L. and Weinbren, Ben, 2000 Casualties. A History of the Trade Unions
and the Labour Movement in the Union of South Africa, Johannesburg, 1961; Bunting,
Brian, The Rise of the South African Reich, Penguin African Library, 1964; Simons,
H.J. and Simons, R.E., Class and Colour in South Africa 1850–1950, Penguin, Harmondsworth,
1969; La Guma, Alex (ed.), Apartheid. A Collection of Writings on South
African Racism by South Africans, International Publishers, New York, 1971.
17