Small talk is a well mannered dialog about trivial matters that often do not embody much controversy. Sol Plaatjie was referring to the Native Land Act which prohibited all black from shopping for or leasing any land outside designated territories often called the ‘Reserves’. As indicated above with the passages of so many draconian laws, Africans were henceforth forbidden to settle in areas marked for Whites; they might stay there only as laborers, although more than 1,000,000 of them had been working as productive tenant farmers and sharecroppers.
The rampant, day by day protests by communities are, for me, signs of the unravelling of the liberation movement’s hegemony. Fortunately for the ANC, prior to now few years protesting residents haven’t essentially changed their political allegiance and nonetheless choose to vote for the party at election time. The upcoming elections will point out whether or not this pattern has modified.
Compared with the Namibian experience (see Searchlight South Africa No.4 and …