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Steensland MA Thesis Final 12.03 Pathologizing the Bywoner: The Carnegie Commission Report’s Diagnosis of “Poor White Disease” in South Africa (1932) A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at George Mason University by Ann M. Steensland Bachelor of Arts Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts, 1993 Director: Benedict Carton, Professor Department of History Fall Semester 2013 George Mason University Fairfax, VA This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noderivs 3.0 unported license. ii DEDICATION In memory of my grandmother, Dorothy Eastman Steensland (1914-1988). A professional librarian and gifted researcher, she would have loved this project; I dedicate it to her. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I entered George Mason University as a history student; with the guidance and encouragement of my thesis advisor, Dr. Benedict Carton, I graduate as a scholar. I am grateful for Ben’s enthusiasm for this project and for leading me evermore deeply into the historiographies that brought my archival research to life. My experience at George Mason was enriched by members of the History faculty who encouraged me to apply insights and perspectives from my African studies to a wide variety of places and time periods. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Stamatina McGrath (the Crusades), Dr. Randolph Scully (Slavery, Race, and the American Founding), and Dr. Cemil Aydin (Politics of Historical Memory). I am indebted to Andries du Toit, director, and Ruth Hall, lead researcher, of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape for their insights into the social and economic ramifications of the capitalization of agriculture on small scale farmers and laborers. Dr. Milla Mclachlan, director of the Research and Information Division of Human Nutrition at Stellenbosch University, encouraged me to consider the implications of the Carnegie Commission’s groundbreaking nutrition study. I was privileged to participate in the early stages of an oral history project on the “History of AIDS” conducted by the Sinomlando Centre for Oral History and Memory at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Pietermaritzburg. Thank you to Professor Philippe Denis, director of Sinomlando, for his suggestions for the archival research for this thesis. I am also grateful for the friendship and support I received from Sinomlando colleagues Radikobo Ntsimane, Nokhaya Makiwane, and Scott Houser. Marie-Chantal Peters generously hosted me during my time in PMB. Thank you to the staff of the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C., for helping me identify people who were referenced in the Carnegie Commission’s files and for granting me access to a very fragile copy of the 1908 Transvaal Indigency Commission Report. A portion of this thesis was written in the beautiful surrounds of the Africa and Middle East Reading Room; the hospitality I received during those months was fantastic. I am obliged to the staff of the National Agricultural Library in College Park, Maryland, for making available documents on South African agriculture from the collections of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. iv To Ruth and Bernard Dudley of Cape Town, thank you for more than a decade of friendship, and especially for hosting me during my Cape Town research. Meredith Hawson provided me with a much-needed respite after my week in the National Archives Repository in Pretoria. Ruth, Bernard, and Meredith shared with me their personal reflections on my research, as well as their homes and hospitality. I have been fortunate to be able to connect my historical research to my professional endeavors in the fields of agricultural development and nutrition, first as the chief of staff for the Alliance to End Hunger and now as a senior policy associate at the Global Harvest Initiative. The patience and encouragement of my colleagues buoyed me as I juggled the demands of a full time job with my academics. Thank you to Ambassador Tony P. Hall and Max Finberg for giving me leave to conduct my archival and field research, and to Dr. Margaret Zeigler for giving me time, encouragement, and feedback during the writing process. I am deeply indebted to Melissa Ericksen for her close and careful reading of this thesis and to Nicole Washington for assisting me with the footnotes. Finally, I am humbled by the enthusiastic and unwavering support of my parents, Susan and Evan Steensland, and the entire Steensland-Grygiel clan in Washington State. Special recognition goes to Nora, Tyler, Abby, and Sophie who, during my graduate studies, had to be satisfied with postcards from Africa, rather than visits from their aunt. I am continually grateful to Mary and Michael McConnell of Brookline, Massachusetts, for being my home-away-from-home for more than twenty years. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii List of Equations ................................................................................................................. x List of Abbreviations and Symbols .................................................................................... xi Referencing and Citing the Carnegie Commission ........................................................... xii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ xiii Introduction: The Skeleton in the Cupboard ....................................................................... 1 1. Carnegie Comes To Cape Town ................................................................................... 23 2. Searching for a Poor White Symbiosis ......................................................................... 49 3. Frontiers of Rural Decline ............................................................................................ 72 4. “A Boil upon the Body” .............................................................................................. 102 5. “Maladapted” Mothers ................................................................................................ 137 Conclusion: Environmental Etiologies, Individual Pathologies ..................................... 167 Appendix A: Joint Board of Control ............................................................................... 183 Appendix B: Mitchell's Circular ..................................................................................... 194 Appendix C: Research Plans ........................................................................................... 203 Appendix D: Tentative Hypotheses ................................................................................ 216 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 231 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1. Carnegie Corporation Grants to South Africa, 1927-1928 ................................. 46 Table 2. Joint Board of Control for the Carnegie Commission ........................................ 57 Table 3. Living Conditions and Educational Levels of Poor Whites ............................. 160 Table 4. Classifications of “Culpability” for Poor Whites ............................................. 162 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1. Urbanization in the Union of South Africa, 1911 to 1921 .................................. 5 Figure 2. A bywoner from the Carnegie Commission Report .......................................... 14 Figure 3. A bywoner tending a flock of sheep .................................................................. 17 Figure 4. "Coloured" children at a Dutch Reformed Church School ............................... 33 Figure 5. Home of a "prosperous settler" at the Kakamas labor camp ............................. 50 Figure 6. First cabinet of the Union of South Africa (1910) ............................................ 52 Figure 7. Letter from J. A. Mitchell, Secretary of Public Health, to Dr. W. A. Murray, researcher for the Health Report ....................................................................................... 63 Figure 8. Letter from Frederick Keppel, president of Carnegie Corporation, regarding the Sociological Report ........................................................................................................... 71 Figure 9. Stylized map charting the movement of Voortrekkers in the Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State ....................................................................................................... 75 Figure 10. The Trekkers' Road by Col. C. C. Mitchell ..................................................... 79 Figure 11. "Proposed Itinerary" for field research ............................................................ 91 Figure 12. Dr. J. F. W. Grosskopf interviews a poor white .............................................. 94 Figure 13. “Estimation of Malnutrition in Children” ...................................................... 113 Figure 14. Malnourished school children wait to receive food ...................................... 126 Figure 15. A malnourished boy (age unknown) ............................................................. 128 Figure 16. Diagram of “A Good Dairy Cow” ................................................................
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