In-between black and white: Defining racial boundaries in colonial Natal at the turn of the twentieth century – Part one

• Citation: (2022) 28(2) Fundamina 43
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v28/i2a2
• Published date: 17 April 2023
• Pages: 43-72
• Author: Peté, S.A.
• Date: 17 April 2023

43

https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v28/i2a2

ARTICLES

IN-BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE:

DEFINING RACIAL BOUNDARIES

IN COLONIAL NATAL AT THE TURN

OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY –

PART ONE

Stephen Allister Peté*

Paul Swanepoel**

ABSTRACT

Mahmood Mamdani has argued that a system of “dene and rule” lay

at the heart of a revamped system of British colonial rule – indirect

as opposed to direct rule – which developed from the middle of the

nineteenth century onwards. In analysing parliamentary discussions

and case law concerning denitions of “race” dating from the turn

of the twentieth century in the colony of Natal, as well as examining

* BA LLB (University of Natal) LLM (University of Cape Town) MPhil

(University of Cambridge) PhD (University of KwaZulu-Natal). Associate

Professor, School of Law, University of KwaZulu-Natal. E-mail: PETE@

ukzn.ac.za

** MA (Hons) (University of St Andrews) LLB (University of Natal) MSc PhD

(University of Edinburgh). Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of

KwaZulu-Natal. E-mail: Swanepoelp@ukzn.ac.za

(2022) 28(2) Fundamina 43

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

STEPHEN ALLISTER PETÉ / PAUL SWANEPOEL

44

https://doi.org/10.47348/FUND/v28/i2a2

concerns amongst the colonists at that time about the matter of racially

mixed marriages, this contribution supports Mamdani’s general thesis

and provides examples of the practical and ideological difculties that

arose in the process of attempting to dene people according to “race”

and “tribe”. It is the contention of this contribution that Mamdani is

correct in his assessment that “dene and rule” lay at the heart of the

British colonial project, particularly in Africa. This contribution asserts,

however, that the process of denition was messy, ambiguous,

contradictory and never fully resolved in practice. Certain individuals

and groups tended to fall between broad denitions of “race” and

“tribe”, both of which illustrated the ideological fault lines inherent in

a system based upon racial categorisation, giving rise to practical

problems of law and governance. The contribution looks at a number

of different themes that all relate to the above general issue. First,

it discusses a number of judgments of the Supreme Court of Natal

during that period that concerned various individuals and groups who

did not neatly t into any of the formal denitions of race in use at the

time. Secondly, it examines a fairly extensive debate that took place

in the Legislative Assembly of the colony of Natal in 1905 regarding

the Native Denition Bill. Thirdly, it examines the related theme of

mixed marriages, of which a number were reported in the colony’s

newspapers around that time. Even though there may have been

relatively few individuals who fell “in-between” the generally accepted

racial and tribal divisions, the fact that there was uncertainty about

where such persons tted within the system was profoundly unsettling

to the colonial authorities, since it suggested that the entire structure

of colonial society was not based on a secure ideological footing.

Keywords: Colony of Natal; race; racism; racial categories; white supre-

macy; Native Denition Bill; mixed marriages

1 Introduction

Falling in-between racial and tribal categories is a tricky business

within a political economy based upon a system of coercive labour

relations and structured in accordance with a strict racial hierarchy.

At the turn of the twentieth century, social, political and economic

relations within the colony of Natal were determined by the

particular racial categories into which the inhabitants of the colony

were divided.1 Although a person’s race was central in determining

every aspect of that person’s life in the colony, racial categories

1 Swanepoel & Peté 2019: 171.

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