Bread and honour: White working class women and Afrikaner nationalism in the 1930s

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 26, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 61-78

  Vincent, Louise ^a  

^a RHODES UNIVERSITY   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GENDER ROLE; NATIONALISM; SOCIAL HISTORY; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 0034112003     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/030570700108388     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. Die Klerewerker (October 1938), p. 9 (translation).
2. C. Walker, 'The Women's Suffrage Movement', in C. Walker (ed). Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (Cape Town, David Phillip, 1990), p. 322.
3. While the rural white population was just over 51 per cent of the total white population in 1920, by 1931 this figure had fallen to under 39 per cent. See E. Brink, ' "Maar Net 'n Klomp Factory Meide": Afrikaner Family and Community on the Witwatersrand during the 1920s', in B. Bozzoli (ed), Class. Community and Conflict: South African Perspectives (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1987), p. 178.
4. Union of South Africa Yearbooks, Nos. 4-21,
5. cited in E. Brink, 'The Afrikaner Women of the Garment Workers' Union' (M.A. Dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, 1986), p. 45.
6. L. Kruger, 'Gender, Community and Identity: Women and Afrikaner Nationalism in the Volksmoeder Discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931)' (M.A. Dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1991), p. 127.
7. E. C. Van der Lingen, 'Onse Dogters', Die Huisgenoot (22 January 1926), p. 35.
8. M. Jacobson, 'Introduction to the Garment Workers' Collection' (University of the Witwatersrand), p. ix.
9. But as Martin Nicol has pointed out, most of these were members simply by virtue of a clause in the industrial council agreement that TCMA members could only employ trade union labour. Martin Nicol, ' "Joh'burg Hotheads" and the "Gullible Children of Cape Town": the Transvaal Garment Workers' Union's Assault on Low Wages in the Cape Town Clothing Industry, 1930-1931', in Bozzoli, Class, Community and Conflict, p. 211.
10. Ibid.
11. E. S. Sachs, 'Ten Years in Service of the Garment Workers', The Garment Worker (November 1938), p. 3.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. The Garment Worker (February 1939), p. 4.
15. The Garment Worker (October 1936), p. 1.
16. Ibid.
17. I. Berger, Threads of Solidarity. Women in South African Industry, 1900-1980 (Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press; London, James Currey, 1992), p. 104.
18. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 276.
19. In 1875, a Dutch Reformed minister, S. J. Du Toit, the school teacher C. P. Hoogenhout and six others founded the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Society of True Afrikaners) (GRA) to rescue the Afrikaans language from its association with poverty and to obtain recognition for Afrikaans as the language of 'the Afrikaner people' which, the GRA argued, was a distinct ethnic group. The GRA popularized its aims through its newspaper. Die Patriot (the Patriot), and the publication of a nationalist history, a grammar and several school texts. In 1880, Du Toit founded the Afrikaner Bond (Afrikaner League) (AB) with the aim of co-ordinating the activities of the GRA and the newly-founded Boeren Vereniging established by Jan Hofmeyr in 1878. Various other Dutch-Afrikaans cultural and language organizations and debating societies were also set up in this period. Together, all this activity subsequently came to be referred to as the Eerste Taal Beweging (First Language Movement). As Marijke Du Toit, 'Women, Welfare and the Nurturing of Afrikaner Nationalism: A Social History of the Afrikaanse Christelike Vroue Vereniging, c. 1870-1939' (DPhil Dissertation, University of Cape Town, 1996), p. 20, points out, women were largely absent from this early Afrikaner ethnic politics.
20. Talia (pseudonym), Die Huisgenoot (May 1919), p. 11.
21. Langenhoven's Die Vrouw van Suid-Afrika. Dramatiese Fantasie which first appeared in 1918, dealt with 'the role played by the woman in the adventures of the Afrikaner People and her history of suffering and struggle and wandering, from the time when the Voortrekkers left Natal to the time of the last English War'. Reviewed in Die Huisgenoot (November 1918), p. 543.
22. Langenhoven's Die Vrouw van Suid-Afrika. Dramatiese Fantasie which first appeared in 1918, dealt with 'the role played by the woman in the adventures of the Afrikaner People and her history of suffering and struggle and wandering, from the time when the Voortrekkers left Natal to the time of the last English War'. Reviewed in Die Huisgenoot (November 1918), p. 543.
23. Postma's 1918 book was entitled Die Boerevrouw. Moeder van haar Volk (The Boer Woman, Mother of her Volk).
24. Die Huisgenoot (May 1920), pp. 6-8.
25. The organization was launched as the Zuid Afrikaansche Vroinve Vereeniging (ZAVV) in 1904, renamed the Zuid Afrikaansche Christelyke Vrouwe Vereniging (South African Christian Women's Organization) soon after, but came to be known as the Afrikaanse Christelyke Vroue Vereniging or ACVV from 1906. Du Toit, 'Women, Welfare and the Nurturing of Afrikaner Nationalism', pp. 80-88.
26. Du Toit, 'Women, Welfare and the Nurturing of Afrikaner Nationalism, pp. 122-123.
27. Kruger, 'Gender, Community and Identity', p. 239.
28. E. Walter, 'Moederskap', Die Huisgenoot (1 April 1927), p. 49 (translation).
29. Die Huisgenoot (27 March 1925), p. 28 (translation).
30. Memorandum submitted by the GWU to the Wage Board Investigation into the Clothing Industry of South Africa (August 1946), p. 2.
31. Undated statement prepared for press release circa 1940. Garment Workers' Collection, Bcf 3 (Press Statements 1931 to 1956), William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand.
32. Ibid.
33. The Garment Worker (June 1939), p. 9.
34. Eminent Dutch Reformed churchman J. D. Kestell was a leading figure in the formation of the Afrikaner nationalist cultural mythology. In 1916, he was appointed chairman of the Dutch Reformed Church's bible translation project. In 1920, he become rector of Grey College, Bloemfontein where he 'did all he could to make this institution Afrikaner in character' (Dictionary of South African Biography, Vol. 1). He was one of the key-note speakers Footonote 32 continued at the Great Trek centenary festivities in 1938. On these and other occasions he propagated the idea that 'a nation saves itself through ion' - a notion which he sought to put into practice with the establishment of the Reddingsdaadbond in 1938. He died in 1941 and was buried in the enclosure of the national women's monument alongside General de Wet and President Steyn.
35. T. D. Moodie, The Rise of Afrikanerdom (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1975), p. 49.
36. Undated statement prepared for press release ca 1940. Garment Workers' Collection, Bcf 3 (Press Statements, 1931 to 1956). William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand.
37. Brink, 'Maar net 'n Klomp Factory Meide', p. 292.
38. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 70.
39. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 125.
40. As Iris Berger has pointed out, 'if these young women guided their actions by any ideological prescriptions at this time, it was not yet as socialists, but as "rebels' daughters", the offspring of Afrikaner men who had led an armed uprising against British domination in 1915-16'. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 102.
41. Undated statement prepared for press release ca 1940. Garment Workers' Collection, Bcf 3 (Press Statements, 1931-1956). William Cullen Library, University of the Witwatersrand.
42. A. Jacobs (Vice-President of the Germiston branch of the GWU), 'Die Vyande van die Werkendeklas'. Die Klerewerker, (February 1940), p. 4 (translation).
43. H. Cornelius, 'Ons Werkers in Agterbuurtes en Waarom?', Die Klerewerker (October 1938), p. 3.
44. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 87.
45. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 91.
46. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 125.
47. P. Furlong, Between Crown and Swastika. The Impact of the Radical Right on the Afrikaner Nationalist Movement in the Fascist Era (Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press, 1991), p. 20.
48. E. S. Sachs, 'Our Policy', The Garment Worker (October 1936), p. 1.
49. The Ossewabrandwag was a paramilitary organization formed as an outgrowth of the 1938 Great Trek centenary celebrations. It was to become a key vehicle of fascist sentiment in South Africa (Furlong, Crown and Swastika, p. 111).
50. Ossewabrandwag pamphlet. Garment Workers Collection, University of the Witwatersrand (undated), p. 1 (translation).
51. Ossewabrandwag pamphlet, p. 19.
52. A. Jacobs, Die Klerewerker (February 1940), p. 3.
53. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 123.
54. Mentz had lost his seat to the right-wing nationalist Oswald Pirow in 1924. He also failed in his attempt to win the Swartruggens constituency for the S AP in 1929. He became a National Party supporter shortly before his death in 1938 (Dictionary of South African Biography, Vol. 111).
55. Communist Party pamphlet, 'South Africa - Fascism or Democracy', Garment Workers' Collection, University of the Witwatersrand (undated), p. 6.
56. Die Klerewerker (August 1938), p. 4.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. Johanna Cornelius, for example, was the daughter of poor farmers from the Lichtenburg district. Her father had fought in the South African War on the republican side and her mother had been interned in a concentration camp. It was thus with justification that women such as Cornelius laid claim to the volksmoeder heritage.
60. Die Klerewerker (August 1938), p. 4.
61. Furlong, Between Crown and Swastika, p. 99.
62. Furlong, Between Crown and Swastika, p. 100.
63. Marijke Du Toit points out that the ACVVs relationship with the DRC was a complex one: 'The ACVV had remained independent of church structures - occasional requests that it should submit to the synod's authority were met with polite refusals .... But although branches also maintained separate structures at the parish level, local Dutch Reformed churches depended heavily on ACVV women to help needy parishioners and sometimes also to boost the coffers of the church.' See Du Toit, 'Women, Welfare and the Nurturing of Afrikaner Nationalism', pp. 310-311.
64. Du Toil, 'Women, Welfare and the Nurturing of Afrikaner Nationalism', p. 271.
65. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 82.
66. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 113.
67. Berger, Threads of Solidarity, p. 114.
68. Die Klewerker (November 1938), p. 5 (translation).
69. S. Johns, 'Chasing White Votes. The Communist Party of South Africa and Elections in the 1940s', Paper presented at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, 16 August 1996, p. 1.
70. Johns, 'Chasing White Votes', p. 2.
71. H. Kohn, Nationalism (Princeton, NJ, D. Van Nostrand, 1955), p. 74.
72. L. Chisholm, 'Gender and Deviance in South African Industrial Schools and Reformatories for Girls, 1911-1934', in Walker, Women and Gender, p. 300.
73. J. Hyslop, 'White Working Class Women and the Invention of Apartheid: "Purified" Afrikaner Nationalist Agitation for Legislation Against "Mixed" Marriages, 1934-1939', Journal of African History, 36 (1995), p. 60.
74. Hyslop, 'White Working Class Women', p. 76.
75. Liga vir die Instandhouding van Volksregering (League for the Protection of Volk Government) pamphlet, 'Die Eeufees - Die Hede. Die Verlede' (December 1938), p. 15, Garment Workers' Collection, University of the Witwatersrand.
76. Die Klerewerker (September 1938), p. 4 (translation).
77. Moodie, The Rise of Afrikanerdom, p. 3.
78. Moodie, The Rise of Afrikanerdom, p. xvii.
79. Liga vir die Instandhouding van Volksregering pamphlet, 'Die Eeufees', p. 27.
80. Moodie, The Rise of Afrikanerdom, p. 111.
81. H. Cornelius, Die Klerewerker (October 1938), p. 4 (translation).
82. Ibid.
83. Initially, the idea of women dressing up in Voortrekker clothing was regarded with some amusement. Mrs Steyn called on women to abandon this attitude: 'It is regarded by many people as a sort of joke [but] if all the Mothers and daughters would go out of their way to wear some distinctive item of Voortrekker clothing on Dingaan's Day, this would go a long way Jowards adding lustre to the festivities and would help us to enter into the history of our volk which must remain for us enduring inspiration.' 'Dingaan's Day and Voortrekker Costume', Die Huisgenoot (13 September 1929), p. 43 (translated).
84. H. Cornelius, Die Klewerker (October 1938), p. 4 (translation).
85. Ibid.
86. Ibid.
87. Ibid.
88. Ibid.
89. The picture was used to illustrate an article on the centenary festivities written by Johanna Cornelius ('Eeufees', Die Klerewerker (December 1938), p. 1).
90. Cited in Die Klerewerker (October 1938), p. 9 (translation).
91. The Garment Worker (November 1938), p. 9.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid.
94. Die Klerewerker (November 1938), p. 5 (translation).
95. Ibid.
96. Hyslop, 'White Working-Class Women', p. 80.
97. Hyslop, 'White Working-Class Women', p. 60.
98. Elsabe Brink, 'Man-made Women: Gender, Class and the Ideology of the Volksmoeder', in Walker (ed), Women and Gender, pp. 273-292.
99. Bozzoli, Class, Community and Conflict, p. 21.