20th century – 20th century
South Africa
The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 established a legal framework for territorial segregation and racial land allocation in South Africa. It reserved most of the country’s land for whites, confined Africans to designated reserves, abolished squatting and share-farming arrangements, and restricted African land purchases outside the reserves. The measure displaced independent African farmers, deepened rural impoverishment and helped create a landless labour force for mines and white-owned farms. It remained substantially unchanged until 1936.
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The Story
The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 was one of the central measures governing land and labour in colonial South Africa. It reserved 88 percent of the country’s land for whites, who constituted only 20 percent of the population, while establishing the remaining 12 percent as a series of reserves for Africans. The legislation therefore formalized a highly unequal territorial order in which political power and productive land were concentrated in white hands.
The Act abolished squatting and the system of farming-on-the-half, through which Africans could cultivate part of a white-owned farm in return for half of their produce. It also prevented Africans from buying land outside the reserves from non-African owners, except in the Cape Province and, in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, through special permission from the governor-general.
The consequences were immediate and extensive. Thousands of independent African pastoral and agricultural farmers were displaced from their homes and traditional lands, while Africans on white-owned farms lost existing forms of agricultural autonomy. The Act transformed many into a landless and exploitable proletariat and helped establish territorial segregation as a defining principle of South African governance.
The legislation remained unaltered until 1936. By 1931, roughly six million Africans occupied reserves totaling only 88,000 square kilometres, whereas 1.8 million Europeans occupied 1,140,000 square kilometres. This imbalance reinforced overcrowding, poverty and migration toward mines, towns and white-controlled farms.
20th century – 20th century
South Africa
The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 established a legal framework for territorial segregation and racial land allocation in South Africa. It reserved most of the country’s land for whites, confined Africans to designated reserves, abolished squatting and share-farming arrangements, and restricted African land purchases outside the reserves. The measure displaced independent African farmers, deepened rural impoverishment and helped create a landless labour force for mines and white-owned farms. It remained substantially unchanged until 1936.
Continue exploring
The Story
The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 was one of the central measures governing land and labour in colonial South Africa. It reserved 88 percent of the country’s land for whites, who constituted only 20 percent of the population, while establishing the remaining 12 percent as a series of reserves for Africans. The legislation therefore formalized a highly unequal territorial order in which political power and productive land were concentrated in white hands.
The Act abolished squatting and the system of farming-on-the-half, through which Africans could cultivate part of a white-owned farm in return for half of their produce. It also prevented Africans from buying land outside the reserves from non-African owners, except in the Cape Province and, in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, through special permission from the governor-general.
The consequences were immediate and extensive. Thousands of independent African pastoral and agricultural farmers were displaced from their homes and traditional lands, while Africans on white-owned farms lost existing forms of agricultural autonomy. The Act transformed many into a landless and exploitable proletariat and helped establish territorial segregation as a defining principle of South African governance.
The legislation remained unaltered until 1936. By 1931, roughly six million Africans occupied reserves totaling only 88,000 square kilometres, whereas 1.8 million Europeans occupied 1,140,000 square kilometres. This imbalance reinforced overcrowding, poverty and migration toward mines, towns and white-controlled farms.
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