Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Since 1994, however, land reform has been slow. Although white farmers agree land
ownership patterns are unequal, little has been done to change them in any systematic
way. There have been some “heart-warming cases of land restored to communities from
which it had, effectively been stolen” (Johnson 2009, 585-86) but in practice, this has
almost invariably meant a return to subsistence agriculture. The landscape has changed
little in urban areas as well: the blacks still live predominantly in the townships and
squatter camps on the urban fringe, and the whites remain nestled in luxurious accom-
modationbehindhighwallsandbarbedwirefences.However,theriseofablackmiddle
classhasstartedaslowprocessofchangeintheresidentialandcommercialspacesofJo-
hannesburg. As I will show, multiracial environments are increasing, offering new spa-
tial resources to their residents.
The British in South Africa
What of the white British residents in South Africa over this time? How do we under-
standtheirpositionduringthislongperiodofracialandspatialsegregationwhichhasso
blighted South African history? It can be argued that during the period when the coun-
try was governed by the (Afrikaner) National Party, British immigrants and the wider
English-speaking white community (who are largely of British and Irish descent) occu-
pied a politically marginalized and socially ambivalent position (Conway and Leonard,
forthcoming).Indeed,asthecentralpoliticalrelationshipwasbetweenAfrikaans-speak-
ing whites and black Africans, British migrants have been described as playing a “curi-
ous role in a drama cast for two” (Sparks 1997, 46).
Ontheirside,theBritishwereaccusedbytheAfrikanersofbeinguncommitted tothe
nation, as “soutpiel”: having one foot in South Africa, one foot in Britain, and a penis
dangling in the Atlantic. However, the declaration of a Republic in 1961, and the expul-
sion of South Africa from the Commonwealth because of its apartheid regime, marked
the beginning of a rapprochement between the National Party government and English-
speaking whites. The Afrikaners now needed all the white support they could muster.
South Africa's rapid economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s coincided with the rein-
troduction of the assisted passage scheme for skilled white migrants and the active re-
cruitment by the South African government of British people belonging to certain pro-
fessionsandhavingcertainskills.Britishcitizenswhosettledinthecountrydidnothave
any significant political power, but they were rewarded significantly in terms of life-
style and social status. Between 1946 and 1961, 115,394 British emigrants settled in the
countryandattheheightofwhiteimmigration(1961-77),243,000British-borncitizens
settled in the country (Republic of South Africa [RSA] 1989, 101). Between the 1960s
and1975,SouthAfricagainedbetween20,000and35,000immigrantsayear,whichac-
counted for no less than 46% of white population growth (RSA 1989, 85).
