“THIS IS AFRICA's YEAR”: MACMILLAN and AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE in WHITE SOUTH AFRICAN NEWSPAPERS 1960 by ELEANOR JANET BRON
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“THIS IS AFRICA’S YEAR”: MACMILLAN AND AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE IN WHITE SOUTH AFRICAN NEWSPAPERS 1960 by ELEANOR JANET BRON A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MAGISTER HEREDITATIS CULTURAEQUE SCIENTAE (HISTORY) in the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies in the UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA FACULTY OF HUMANITIES SUPERVISOR: Prof. K.L. Harris August 2015 CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... ii LIST OF DIAGRAMS AND TABLES .......................................................................................... iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE OVERVIEW AND METHODOLOGY...............................................8 2.1 LITERATURE OVERVIEW............................................................................................................ 8 2.2 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................... 20 2.3 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................. 29 CHAPTER 3: MEDIA CONTEXT AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ......................................31 3.1 UNDERSTANDING THE PRESS INDUSTRY ................................................................................. 31 3.2 SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY ...................................................................................................... 42 3.3 THE SOUTH AFRICAN PRESS LANDSCAPE ................................................................................ 51 CHAPTER 4: MACMILLAN IN AFRICA .....................................................................................61 4.1 ANTICIPATING MACMILLAN ................................................................................................... 61 4.2 MACMILLAN IN GHANA .......................................................................................................... 65 4.3 MACMILLAN IN NIGERIA......................................................................................................... 71 4.4 MACMILLAN IN THE FEDERATION OF RHODESIA AND NYASALAND ......................................... 75 CHAPTER 5: MACMILLAN IN SOUTH AFRICA .......................................................................89 5.1 MACMILLAN PRIOR TO THE “WIND OF CHANGE” SPEECH ....................................................... 89 5.2 ARRIVAL AND FIRST DAYS IN THE UNION ................................................................................ 91 5.3 VISITING THE PROTECTORATES: SWAZILAND & BASUTOLAND ................................................ 96 5.4 MACMILLAN’S VISIT TO RURAL AREAS .................................................................................... 97 5.5 THE “TINGED TOUR” AND POLICE PRESENCE ........................................................................ 100 5.6 GENERAL REFLECTION AND INTERACTIONS WITH VERWOERD ............................................. 102 5.7 THE “WIND OF CHANGE” SPEECH ......................................................................................... 106 CHAPTER 6: AFRICA YEAR IN THE MEDIA.......................................................................... 121 6.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 121 6.2 TERMINOLOGY ..................................................................................................................... 123 6.3 PATERNALISM ...................................................................................................................... 128 6.4 SURVIVAL OF THE WHITE MAN ............................................................................................. 132 6.5 SOUTH AFRICA IN THE MIRROR ............................................................................................ 137 6.6 THE FEAR OF THE “KREMLIN CRIMSON” ............................................................................... 142 6.7 “AFRICA YEAR” OVERVIEW ................................................................................................... 144 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 147 8. APPENDIX .......................................................................................................................... 156 9. SOURCE LIST .................................................................................................................... 165 1. PRIMARY SOURCES............................................................................................................... 165 2. SECONDARY SOURCES .......................................................................................................... 181 ABSTRACT British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s “wind of change” speech to both houses of the South African Union parliament acknowledged already at the beginning of 1960 what the rest of “Africa year” would look like. The wind of black nationalism that he was describing stood in stark contrast with the suppression of black nationalism in South Africa by the National Party apartheid government. His speech was rather predictive since he had toured parts of the African continent and was aware of the planned independence of several African countries by the time he delivered the “wind of change” statement. This study seeks to explore how 1960, “Africa year”, was portrayed in selected white South African newspapers. The study follows Macmillan’s trip through Africa and reflects on the newspaper portrayal of these events in Ghana, Nigeria, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and finally the Union of South Africa. Furthermore the analysis considers how the newspapers responded to and portrayed the momentous speech. The newspaper reporting on the coming of independence to African countries during the year 1960 is also examined. A layered model to evaluate the use of newspapers as a historical source was devised. According to this, a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis was applied to interpret how the newspapers portrayed African independence and responded to Macmillan’s tour. The six newspapers, Die Transvaler, Die Vaderland, Die Burger, The Star, Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Times, were selected as being representative of the white minority English and Afrikaans press. Through this analysis, deductions regarding the nature of the white press industry are made and some insights regarding the white minority South African “zeitgeist” are considered. Keywords: African independence; Harold Macmillan; wind of change; South African white English and Afrikaans newspapers; content analysis; white minority. i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ANC – Africa National Congress NP – National Party PAC – Pan Africanist Congress SA – South Africa SAPA – South African Press Association UNESSA – United English Speaking South Africans ii LIST OF DIAGRAMS AND TABLES DIAGRAM 1: Structure of the proposed methodology ...................................................... 22 TABLE 1: List of specific applicable questions for content analysis .................................. 27 TABLE 2: Readership and information for selected newspapers ...................................... 29 TABLE 3: Key segregation and apartheid legislation ........................................................ 45 TABLE 4: Timeline of key events in Africa and South Africa during 1960 ........................ 48 TABLE 5: Terminology used to describe people of African descent during the course of 1960 for Die Transvaler; Die Vaderland; Die Burger; The Star; the Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Times .................. 125 TABLE 6: Analysis of newspaper reports on three key issues .......................................... 140 TABLE 7: African country specific reporting trends during independence days of 1960 ..................................................................................................... 145 iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION On 3 February 1960 the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Harold Macmillan, addressed the South African parliament and announced that the inevitable “wind of change” was sweeping across Africa.1 Macmillan had hoped that this would be the first time he referred to the changes on the African continent in the late 1950’s in this manner, but his tour had taken on a different route than was originally planned.2 However, even though he had used the term “wind of change” during his tour of the African continent,3 the Prime Minister was apparently particularly nervous about delivering this speech to the South African parliament.4 In addressing the South African parliament with the statement that their policies should take into account rising African nationalism, Macmillan was acknowledging the fact that South Africa was standing in political contrast with a large number of countries on the continent. While independence was being attained by several African colonies, South Africa was perpetuating colonialism by clinging to minority white supremacy under the apartheid government of the ruling National Party (NP). Kevin Shillington summarises these events by saying that “1960, the ‘Year