Constituting Injury
Law, Dispossession and Resistance in South Africa
Colonial Control and Dispossession
South Africa has experienced centuries of violent colonisation through the conquest of the land and people. The process was not linear, and was shaped by resistance, conflict, and changing colonial policy. Maps during the colonial period, such as this map from 1875, provide a static insight into a complex, evolving landscape of colonies, territories, chiefdoms, and settlements. They provide a partial picture of the widespread dispossession caused by Dutch colonialism, British colonialism, and the Boer Republics.
The 1870s marked a new phase of colonial conquest, characterized by aggressive British expansion which concluded with the South African (Boer) War of 1899-1902. Scholars locate this expansion within the wider imperial context of the late nineteenth century, in addition to the first recorded discovery of diamonds (1868) and gold (1884) in South Africa (Magubane, 1996). The colonial conquest of land was consolidated by the Union of South Africa in 1910 which established South Africa as a unified dominion under the British Empire. The Union also entrenched white domination (Magubane, 1996; Worden, 2012).
Colonial Control of Movement: the Pass Laws
The law was a central instrument of colonial control across the colonies and territories of South Africa. Colonisers controlled the movement and labour of “Native” populations through pass laws. Pass laws varied, but as a system prohibited “Native” populations from moving around unless they had received permission, which was documented in a pass. Moving without a pass, or failure to produce a pass, resulted in punishment.
In the Cape of Good Hope, also known as the Cape Colony, pass laws date to 1760 when slaves moving between rural and urban areas were required to carry passes from their masters (Kahn, 1949). Under British colonial rule, the 1806 Caledon Code was the first widespread law requiring passes and the registration of abode to control the movement of workers (Hindson, 1987; Kahn, 1949). Whilst legislation later relaxed these pass requirements, laws continued to control the movement of into and out of the Cape Colony, as documented in the 1867 Act shown here. This Act also supported earlier legislation which required the issuing of certificates of citizenship for certain “Natives” within the Colony.
, which includes the design of the pass on the final page.
Please note that the document contains racist terminology.
This is an example of a certificate issued under Act No. 22 of 1867. Although considered to be a “liberal” system compared to the Boer Republics, the British Cape Colony law meant that certain “Native” populations would need to carry this certificate to avoid the pass laws (see Kahn, 1949).
The certificate confirmed the bearer was an inhabitant of the Colony and should not be “obstructed or impeded by any person, upon the ground or supposition that he is a Native Foreigner without a Pass.” The certificate included details on the individual’s tribe and appearance. On the reverse side (not featured) is the Dutch translation.