Apartheid: Cui Bono?

Historically, the analysis of the causes of racial discrimination and segregation in South Africa has proceeded along two essentially opposing lines. The first of these has emphasized racial and cultural differences and Afrikaner ideology, shaped on the one hand by conservatism and Old Testament, Calvinist, religious doctrine, and on the other by the very contact with the Africans and the perceived need to expand the Dutch frontier in southern Africa. ¹ The second strand maintains that apartheid is a system which can be explained in economic terms, that certain socioeconomic groups benefit from it, and that these beneficiaries are responsible for maintaining the system. Chronologically, the former explanation takes precedence, but increasingly, the latter has become predominant, in particular after World War II. ²