ABSTRACT
In southern Africa, no less than in the rest of the continent, economic development had been overtaken by population increase. The successful ascent of the slippery slope required that all the people should be free. Throughout the twentieth century, the people of southern Africa had increased their numbers very much in line with those of the rest of the continent, with the exception only of the white minority, which grew only half as fast as the rest. Among the earliest victims of African socialism were the trades unions founded on western principles during the later years of the colonial period. John Iliffe's study of the African poor has shown conclusively that the most wretched poverty of post-colonial Africa was concentrated in the peripheral areas of nearly every country, which were also those where the majority of refugees from group violence in neighbouring countries were likely to be found.
