Reply #27: The odd thing is that people like Milner didn't really get their way until later [View All]

[HamdenRice]

One of the oddities of SA history is that around this time, the liberal "humanitarians" had a lot of influence over South Africa policy (at the time, British South Africa was just the Cape).

The British, especially the missionaries, humanitarians and anti-slavery lobbies, wanted to encourage Africans to become "Black Englishmen." If an African became a Christian, acquired land and made a certain amount of money, he could vote, and several districts of parliament became black majority districts represented by liberal white politicians.

So the irony is that contrary to the popular picture of SA history, blacks had the vote from the 1870s, and it was systematically reduced, limited and finally taken away in the 20th century.

It was a big issue and was called the "Cape African Vote" issue.

That's why Africans actually sided enthusiastically with the British Empire during the 2nd Boer War. They thought the Cape African vote would be extended to the whole country if Britain won.

It's amazing that South Africa flirted with something like majority rule in 1902 -- and history would have been remarkably different.