Browsing by Author "Bundy, Colin"

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    The bouquet of freedom : social and economic relations in the Stellenbosch district, c1870-1900
    (1987) Scully, Pamela; Bundy, Colin
    The thesis explores the effects on the wine growing district of Stellenbosch of the transformations in the political economy of the Cape Colony in the late nineteeth century. It is the first in depth study of Stellenbosch District and also contributes to other historical analyses concerned with the impact of industrialisation on rural society. Primary sources used include archival records, newspapers and the annual reports of the district branch of the Standard Bank. Labour legislation passed in the aftermath of slavery was most successful in tying labour to the farms when the labour market was confined to the agrarian sector. The mineral and transport revolutions of the late nineteenth century brought about the first major reformulation of social and economic relations in the Western Cape since emancipation. Between cl878 to 1896 wine farmers were hit by the general recession of the 1880s, by the excise tax on brandy, by phylloxera and by periodic labour shortages. Farmers, especially those capitalising their agricultural production, looked to the Zuid Afrikaansche Boere Beskermings Vereeniging and later the amalgamated Afrikaner Bond to press for state aid to wine farmers. In the late nineteenth century farmers finally experienced the implications of the proletarianisation of the rural underclass. Many labourers left to work in the growing urban sector, on the Public Works or in self employment as market gardeners. Farmers in Stellenbosch, like their peers in other societies confronting the implications of industrialisation, regarded labour mobility as illegitimate. They felt threatened by outbreaks of arson and theft, but also by the labourers' new assertiveness. For a time labour relations on the farms took place in a context where labourers had a measure of leverage against the power of the farmer. By 1910 the farmers' world had been righted and this was no longer the case.
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    Govan Mbeki and the place of ideas in the national liberation struggle
    (2013) Bundy, Colin
    The mode of an 'organic intellectual' wrote Antonio Gramsci, who formulated the concept, consists not in mere eloquence, but 'in active participation in practical life, as constructor, organiser, ""permanent persuader”…’. Govan Mbeki was distinctive within the leadership of the ANC for his belief that the movement should engage with rural people and their struggles and for his writings, produced over fifty years, which sought to link theory with practice, ideas with actions. For anyone with an interest in SA history.
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    The Hurutshe in the Marico district of the Transvaal, 1848-1914
    (1990) Manson, Andrew; Bundy, Colin
    The Hurutshe are a Tswana-speaking chiefdom who lived in the vicinity of the Marico (Madikwe) river on the South African Highveld and emerged as an identifiable community with a distinct political structure about 350 years ago. They enjoyed periods of political and economic dominance in the mid-to late seventeenth century and again in the late eighteenth century. Following the economic and political disruptions attendant upon European commercial activities and the growth of more centralised and powerful African states in South Africa, they were propelled from their homeland in 1822-23. They returned only in 1848 to face the difficulties of Trekker overlordship. After a decade of political and economic pressures the general patterns of precolonial life were restored in their new reserve. A re-integrated Hurutshe social order provided the basis for agricultural innovation and expansion. The encroaching colonial order and the merchant and industrial economy inexorably drew them in to closer relations with these systems, and into direct involvement in the contest between Boer and Britain for control of the South African hinterland. Consequently the nature of reserve life changed as men, women and chiefs extended or took up new occupations and activities which cut across or restructured previous social, political and economic relationships. After the South African War new challenges and opportunities presented themselves as a consequence of the qualitatively different nature of British colonial rule and the increased economic scope afforded to rural African producers. Thus a combination of factors - a favourable environment, a cohesive society and the lack of competitive white agriculture - provided the basis for economic stability and even accumulation among certain categories of Hurutshe producers until well into the twentieth century. Hurutshe society was not untouched however, for subsequent events near the middle of the century were to reveal the depth of social distinctions and antagonisms that undoubtedly had their roots in the earlier years of their history.
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    Miserable hovels and shanties on waterlogged wasteland : political-economy of peri-urban squatting around greater Cape Town, circa 1945-1960
    (1993) Kondlo, Kwandiwe Merriman; Bickford-Smith, Vivian; Bundy, Colin
    This thesis is an intended contribution to the store of historical knowledge on Cape Town. Its title 'Miserable Hovels and Shanties on Waterlogged Wasteland'; political economy of peri-urban squatting in Cape Town, 1945 - 1960, has been decided on the basis of the following facts: (iv) l(i) Very little has been written on this subject especially during the period I have chosen. As a result, a lacuna exists in our understanding of 20th century Cape Town. So this thesis is an effort whose significance and value is that it seeks to provide an account of peri-urban squatting within the framework of political economy. By so doing a wide variety of factors, essential enough to have coloured the epoch, are captured and weaved together. (ii) Most historical works have not adequately examined the economic issues which underpin the phenomenon of peri-urban squatting. They have focussed more, instead, on the political aspect, emphasising the unequal distribution of political power between races. Here in this thesis I have attempted to strike a balance between the two factors (political and economic factors), hence I adopted the concept of political economy. To highlight the economic aspect I have used statistical data, (which I do not claim is entirely accurate) to show the wage, levels between races and also expose the pervasive state of underemployment of most Black people, whilst at the same time showing the political aspect through an examination of government legislations.
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    Raymond Mhlaba and the genesis of the Congress Aliance : a political biography
    (1993) Orie, Thembeka; Saunders, Christopher; Bundy, Colin
    The dominant and current theory about the African National Congress in the 1940s is that the Youth League in particular, led by the young, aspirant middle-class intellectuals, radicalised the organisation: that it was a bourgeois revolution within the ANC that led to its rejuvenation. This thesis presents an alternative viewpoint. The study reveals that in Port Elizabeth, there was a distinctively communist-trade unionist oriented group which revolutionalised the ANC: It was this group which consolidated racial and class co-operation against the apartheid system in the mid-1940s and early 1950s. This thesis postulates that in Port Elizabeth it was the working-class activists such as Raymond Mhlaba, with their militant working-class ideologies that gave the ANC a new lease of life and gave the organisation its broad mass appeal. The thesis therefore examines Raymond Mhlaba as an actor in the founding of the Congress Alliance in Port Elizabeth. It looks at how Mhlaba succeeded in building a firm alliance between the trade union movement, the Communist Party and the ANC. It is through this alliance that we learn about the political transformation of the ANC 'from below', that is, from a working-class cadre of activists rather than the middle-class leadership. Mhlaba himself was involved in all three formations and thus played a key role in the alliance politics. Chapter one examines the period before 1941 in order to provide background to the central focus of the study. It looks at the history of the Eastern Cape, Mhlaba's birth place Fort Beaufort, and his early life in the context of the subject of enquiry, the national struggle in its wider context, and the political economy of the period between 1910 to 1941. Through these perspectives the study is able to examine and show the changing forms that the struggle takes at different periods of time. It gives an understanding of the influence of those historical developments on the period and of the form that the struggle took during the period under study. Chapter two looks at the period 1942 to 1946, the years of Mhlaba's early involvement in the labour and political movements. It examines how, when and why Mhlaba got involved in these movements. The study considers the relationship between the Council of Non-European Trade Unions (CNETU) trade unionists, the communists and the ANC activists. (Mhlaba belonged to all three formations.) It looks at how the ANC leadership was changed from a middle into a working class and Mhlaba's role in this transformation. Also the study examines how mass action in this period reflected racial and class co- operation; and the emergence of a distinctively working class leadership. Chapter three examines Mhlaba's leadership role in the ANC and the Communist Party. It looks at examples of mass action and a selection of important events that took place between 1947 to 1952, in order to demonstrate how the foundation of the broad Congress Alliance solidified. That unity was influenced by the changing polity, post war conditions, and new leadership which included Mhlaba, in Port Elizabeth. Chapter four examines the clandestine conditions in which Mhlaba operated, from 1953 until his imprisonment at Rivonia in 1963. It looks at: the transition from open mass organisation to underground mobilisation; the implementation of the M-Plan; the activities of the Communist Party underground. At the same time it examines the sustenance of the mass organisation through the formation of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and the use of strategies such as stayaways and consumer boycotts in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The chapter also looks at repression by the government, which led to Mhlaba's departure to China, and finally his arrest at Rivonia in 1963.
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    A study of agricultural change in the Ntabazinduna Reserve with particular reference to the colonial period 1923-1939
    (1990) Masuku, Fuller; Bundy, Colin
    This thesis delves into the agricultural past of the Ntabazinduna Reserve which is part of the Bubi District in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The main purpose of this case study is to investigate whether or not there was a significant agricultural change in this Reserve, particularly in the colonial period 1923-1939. The Ntabazinduna area was sparsely populated before 1918. After the First World War the African population and number of livestock increased rapidly in the Reserve because of new immigrants from the Insiza District and natural accession. Then, the African cultivators were often faced with serious problems of congestion, poor harvests and overstocking. Oral and written sources do not suggest that there was tension between the new immigrants and the local population. In response to a general realisation that the Reserves generally were deteriorating alarmingly, the Colonial State intervened in the African agrarian sector between 1920 and 1939. The White Settler Government's chief agents of change in this area were Alvord, the Agriculturalist for Natives, the NC of the Bubi District and a trained African Agricultural Demonstrator. These men went out to the Reserve where they carried out agricultural experiments in the inter-war period. It was hoped that after they had delivered lectures and conducted these experiments, then the African cultivators would abandon their old ways of farming and adopt new, scientific agricultural methods which were introduced into the Reserve by the Colonial State's agents of change. As African cultivators used these new agricultural techniques, it was assumed that they would probably be in a better position to grow enough food for local consumption. In that way some of the above economic problems could be solved. This dissertation attempts to measure the responses of the African cultivators to the agricultural experiments conducted by Alvord and the demonstrators in the Ntabazinduna Reserve. In addition, this case-study will make use of new oral evidence collected by certain individuals and submitted to the National Archives of Zimbabwe. This new material will be checked against published and unpublished sources or vice versa. Oral evidence which I collected from some elderly people of the Ntabazinduna Reserve between 1983 and 1988 will also be used to throw light on the subject of agricultural change.
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    The University of the Witwatersrand History Workshop and radical South African historical scholarship in the 1970's and 1980's
    (1992) Tatham, Gayle Kirsten; Bundy, Colin; Saunders, Christopher C
    The thesis examines the History Workshop at the University of the University of the Witwatersrand in the context of radical South African historical scholarship. Not only is the History Workshop shown to mirror developments in radical scholarship but it is seen to guide and stimulate particular directions of research. The history of the Workshop is traced and its academic as well as popularising activities are examined. The Marxist social history approach, which was encouraged by the Workshop, is considered with reference to the social and political environment in which it emerged, and the international and local historiographical context. The issues, themes and concepts reflective of that approach are unpacked and some thought is given to their impact on Marxist categories of analysis. The History Workshop is seen to reflect and to have some influence on the direction pursued in labour and urban as well as rural history. In labour history, it pursued concerns of the social history of labour. Labour history was to take two different paths in the 1980's due partially to the influence of the Workshop group. Urban history grew rapidly as a field in the 1980's. The triennial Workshops reflected that development while the Workshop group particularly encouraged social history concerns within that field. The development of Marxist social history is seen in the change from an economistic approach in some of the papers presented at the first History Workshops to a broader social history emphasis in many of the later papers. The themes and issues arising out of urban Marxist social history are considered, as is their impact on the understanding of South Africa's urban history in general. The Workshop reflected and encouraged social history themes in rural history studies, which was another expanding field of research in the 1980's. These themes incorporated Africanist insight as well as an emphasis on oral history and local history. The Marxist social history studies, which were presented at the triennial Workshops, produced new insights into the rural history of South Africa which challenged earlier theories. The History Workshop with its materialist social history approach acted as a forum and as such, a catalyst for a radical scholarship in South Africa. The triennial workshops reflected what was happening in the terrain of Marxist social history. These Workshops, which attracted a large gathering of local, as well as foreign academics, legitimised that research and gave the Marxist social history scholars a certain standing within the local academic community. Although the study of South Africa's past may have similar directions in the late 1970's and 1980's without the presence of the Workshop, that presence gave a coherence and an added impetus to those routes of Marxist social history.
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    With criminal intent: reading detective fiction
    (2014-09-29) Bundy, Colin
    This course will consider how detective fiction/crime novels relate to the societies and periods in which they are set. It will regard this work not as mere escapist entertainment, but as a useful lens through which to examine broader issues. The first lecture will give an account of the ‘golden age’ of British crime fiction (essentially the interwar years), note its characteristics and conventions – the amateur sleuth, the cosy settings, the limited cast of suspects – and briefly consider some key practitioners: Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh. The second lecture will consider two major American additions to the crime fiction library: the ‘hard-boiled’ or ‘private eye’ genre represented by Dashiel Hammet, Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald and the ‘police procedural’ (like Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series). The course will then consider the prominence of Oxford as a setting for British crime fiction and include discussion of the Inspector Morse novels and television series. The final lectures will look at South African crime fiction, referring to novels by James McClure and Deon Meyer, with police officers at the heart of their novels: Tromp Kramer and Sergeant Mickey Zondi in McClure’s series, and Mat Joubert, Bennie Griesel, Mbali Kaleni and their colleagues in Meyer’s books.