What major changes occurred in South Africa because of the decision to join the war in 1939?
A lot of events led up to what South Africa is today but I believe many major changes happened because of their decision to enter World War II in 1939. The decision to join the war divided the already fragile country in two. The division between the two groups that were white became even bigger as the Afrikaners and English speaking whites did not see eye to eye on this matter at all. Many Afrikaners did not see anything wrong with Hitler and his agenda. Instead of a united country fighting against Germany, South Africa became a country fighting against itself.
The black population saw with their own eyes that the whites were not invincible and that they could be fought against. Their fight for freedom really took off when their eyes were opened to that fact. The war gave them the courage and knowledge to be able to stand up to the white suppressors who had kept them down for centuries.
When we think about World War II, a European war, we don’t automatically think of South Africa as being a part of that. At the bottom of the African continent is the small country of South Africa. This country once inhabited only by the native hunter-gatherers population has gone through many transformations to what it is today. Around the 17th century the Dutch East India company decided to create a refreshing station at what is now called the Cape of Good Hope for their many merchant ships who would pass there on route to India. The population of Dutch started to expand as they didn’t feel anyone had a legitimate claim on the land. The British decided they wanted to colonize that area as well and at the beginning of the 18th century they took over Cape Colony and started their expansion over the land. As the British moved further inland they expelled the Africans from their own land pushing them further and further away from the best fertile grounds. Whether the natives to the land liked it or not, they had to come to the conclusion that they were now part of a new colony that was determined to rule over them. The new settlers had formed their own government in South Africa at this point and were ruling with British law. Very quickly the British had assumed control and authority over everyone living in the area. The white man would hold all the power while the black man would do the manual labor to keep the country going. The British enacted many laws to keep the black population down and dependent on the white settlers. For example, white gold miners annual cash earnings were 11.7 times the cash wages of black gold miners in 1911. (Thompson pg 156) Not seeing a way they could overcome this oppression, many black Africans took to living day by day in order to survive. More laws and acts were passed that limited what black Africans could do and where they could live. Segregation spread over the land as the white settlers saw themselves as the rightful inhabitants. This did not stop the black population from desiring to be treated equally and so they would come to see themselves as African Nationalists fighting for their share of a land they once occupied alone. In 1911, Pixley ka Isaka Seme called on Africans to forget the differences of the past and unite together in one national organization. He said: “We are one people. these divisions, these jealousies, are the cause of all our woes today.” (History – ANC) And so in 1912 the African National Congress, the first black liberation movement fighting for political emancipation, was established in South Africa. They started to fight for the rights of black Africans. Their struggle would continue on for a long time as the white government would enact law after law restricting the black population and keeping them from achieving any type of freedom.
So what propelled these people forward as they looked for ways to become free? What kept them motivated to keep going when everyone else seemed to be against them?
Ethiopia, which is located on the African continent on the East side, is one of the oldest independent countries in Africa. Other African countries looked to Ethiopia and wanted what they had, freedom from oppression and the white man. Black South Africans saw Ethiopia as the country they wanted to eventually become one day. This all changed in 1935 when Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist leader, decided to invade that country. This act of war was seen as possibly being one of the reasons for the start of World War II. (Encyclopædia Britannica 2018) Although that war didn’t officially start until September 1st 1939, other African countries could sympathize with the people of Ethiopia as they had always seen them as a fiercely independent country who was now in distress and in need of help. South Africans had fought in World War I as they were part of the British Empire and thus obligated to although many didn’t want to. When World War II started again many wanted to remain neutral as they remembered the last war, but they could see their brothers in need of help. Jan Smuts wanted the country to do more than just continue to be bystanders. Hitler’s and Mussolini’s racist tirades against people of color conveyed to Africans the necessity of supporting the Allied powers. (Falola pg 51) Fascism was to Smuts an absolute evil, which had to be fought at every point, and unlike any other member of the fusion government he had extensive and detailed knowledge of European issues. (Welsh pg 419) The House of Assembly put it to a vote and 80 votes against 67 were in favor of joining the war. The current Prime Minister Hertzog resigned and Jan Smuts became Prime Minister to help navigate the war they had now declared against Germany. While the country was fighting all-out against Hitler in the military sphere, there were local organizations that campaigned for the establishment of a national socialist state. This presented a serious internal embarrassment for a government at war. (HJ Martin pg 324) Jan Smuts had seen the rise of problems for the black people living in the country over the years. He was in favor of white supremacy, race purity and residential separation - but not by unnecessary force. (Wessels pg 10) He knew that segregation was not the answer but during the war he chose not to address any of those issues. A lot of laws had been enforced to keep the black population in their place before the war and now some of those policies were less rigid as the black Africans were needed to fight.
South Africa did not have a large army, maybe 5000 men, and so volunteers were crucial if they were going to join the war. Over a third of the European population in South Africa decided to fight in the war. Black and Coloured African soldiers fought in the war as well but they would be posted in different areas and would serve as laborers and transport drivers. A few were trained in South Africa as gunners, but the white reaction was intense. Nationalist party leader D.F. Malan railed in parliament against the employment of “Kaffir soldiers,” and they were not used in combat. (Thompson pg 177) The white men who had oppressed the blacks for so long did not want them to learn how to use weapons or get any ideas that they could stand up for themselves. Little did they know that fighting alongside them in other capacities would already ignite a spark of rebellion that would continue on after the war. 100,000 black South Africans would sign up to fight in the war hoping to make more money than they would working elsewhere but they came to realize quickly that they were only paid half of what a white soldier would be making. Many came from areas in the country that were experiencing a drought and so they saw this as their one opportunity to earn a living. Black soldiers started to experience military life and they could see how fighting for basic human rights was important and necessary no matter where they lived. The idea of using force and weapons to get their point across would remain in the backs of their minds and they would bring these ideas home after the war. They could finally see a glimmer of hope as they fought against evil dictators oppressing basic human rights. Eventually South African forces drove the Italians out of Ethiopia and Somaliland and the Vichy French from Madagascar before joining the Allies in North Africa and Italy. (Welsh pg 420) Their defenses of the Cape and the water surrounding South Africa would become vital during the war as virtually all Allied personnel and supplies had to be sent to North Africa via the Cape route. (Wessels pg 15)Their victories during the war gave them the courage and hope for a better future for themselves and their families when they would make it back home.
In the economic sphere, by the 1920s, African economies and their production patterns had been structured in such a way that they exported their primary commodities to Europe and imported manufactured goods. This meant that Africa had been effectively integrated into the global capitalist commercial network. As a result, African economies began to be subjected to the economic cycles of the Western World. (Falola pg 11)During the Second World War there was rapid expansion in South Africa’s manufacturing industries. A lot of job opportunities for black Africans presented itself when the war started. This was partly because the war prevented imports from Europe. South Africa had to manufacture its own food, drink, clothing, textiles, chemicals, machinery, and tools. (Shillington pg 157)By the time the second World War was being fought, the amount of produce produced in the country had doubled. Between 1911 and 1936, the government spent 112 million pounds on agriculture, in the form of direct assistance and subsidies, tariff protection, research, administration, and dissemination of information. Nearly all of this assistance went to white farmers; scarcely any went to black Africans in the reserves. (Thompson pg 166) The gold mines were what made the most money in South Africa. When World War II started, gold was producing one-fifth of the country’s net income, contributing to more than two-fifth of the revenue, accounting for three-fourths of the exports, and providing the nucleus for a rapid growth of the manufacturing industry. ( Thompson pg 167)All of this was done on the backs of the black miners who were not being paid what they were worth as the work was very dangerous and damaging to their health. The African mines produced minerals for the Allies such as gold, platinum, and uranium. Factories in South Africa also produced munitions, food, clothing, and cigarettes. Black Africans started to see that they had become an important part of the war even back home. Manufacturing boomed with the building of battleships and other vessels for the war. They also converted whalers and trawlers into minesweepers and anti-submarine patrol vessels. ( Wessels pg 16) They started manufacturing ammunition not just for their own soldiers but also for the other Allies. The country was full of some of the best grade raw materials to make lots of things for the war effort. Armored cars, howitzers, bayonets, hand-grenades, mortar bombs, aerial bombs, and other items once imported were now made proudly in South Africa. There were also more openings for black workers as many white workers had joined the army. These job openings were higher paying and for skilled and semi-skilled work. White workers were usually favored for these positions but since there were not many around because of the war, many black workers were able to get jobs usually out of their reach. They would still not be paid the same as a white worker would and the cost of food was rising because of the ongoing war which kept many black workers still very poor. Many black African women started to work in the factories as well and were able to up production of necessary war items. With the influx of black workers looking to fill open vacancies many squatter towns were set up quickly around the larger towns such as Johannesburg. Black Africans started to form unions as they could see they were needed but not being compensated enough to live on. They started to realize that they could demand freedoms and basic human rights even here at home and not just out on the battlefields. Outrage from the white government sent a lot of the unions underground while they were still trying to help the black workers. Because of the war there were more black workers than ever working in factories and mines to produce the items necessary. This fast rise in black workers coming to the larger cities was one of the reasons white people started to fear black domination.
The defeat of Nazi Germany may have helped to discredit racism, but that message apparently did not get through to many white South Africans. And so the 1948 election ushered in the long-term political (and some of the other) consequences of World War II for South Africa: the era of apartheid. (Wessels pg 24) The white Afrikaners in South Africa became more bitter against the black people living around them. Increased attacks on the rights of black people and the rise of extreme Afrikaner nationalism created the need for a more militant response from the ANC. (History – ANC.) Because of the war black Africans had learned that they could stand up for themselves and did not need to be oppressed by anyone. They had learned many military techniques that they could now use to fight for the freedoms they should have been granted a long time ago. The freedom movement that started then surged on for years with many roadblocks and uphill battles. They fought against extreme odds to be free from oppression. It would take until the 1990s for them to finally find their rights being accepted and seen and for black South Africans to finally be somewhat equal to others living around them.
The heroic efforts and selfless acts that many black Africans experienced during the war helped them to realize that their lives were just as valuable as the ones they were fighting to liberate in other countries and on other continents. With a renewed vigor to fight injustice at home soldiers returned ready to speak up and stand up for their own rights. Black African workers in South Africa realized how valuable their hard work was for the country and that as a united front they could possibly make permanent changes for everyone living there. Many different groups besides the ANC were created as they tried to voice their frustrations and gain the ability to have a say over their own lives. Because of their involvement in World War II, whether abroad or at home, the people of South Africa were ready to start their long journey to freedom. They knew this would be an almost impossible uphill battle with many more tears and blood being shed, but they were ready to do so.
Bibliography
Falola, Toyin. 2000. The End of Colonial Rule : Nationalism and Decolonization.
“History – ANC.” n.d. African National Congress. https://www.anc1912.org.za/history/.
HJ Martin and ND Orpen, South Africa at war: military and industrial organization and operations in connection with the conduct of the war, 1939-1945 (Cape Town, 1979)
Shillington, Kevin. 2004. History of Southern Africa.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. 2018. “Italo-Ethiopian War | Causes, Summary, & Facts.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Italo-Ethiopian-War-1935-1936.
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Welsh, Frank. 2000. A History of South Africa. London: Harpercollins.
Wessels, Andre. South Africa and World War II: The Decisive First Two Years On The Home Front (September 1939 - September 1941) Department Of History, University of the Orange Free State.
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