ABSTRACT
The 1902 Native Reserve Locations Act, amended in 1905, failed to solve the problem—as perceived by the colonial government—of containing the African population at new Brighton and controlling what blacks could and could not do in the town. Although for many Africans the site of the struggle shifted to New Brighton, the question remained for the black residents of how much control the government would exercise over their social, economic, and political lives. Between 1903 and 1910, when formal residential segregation was in its early stages, it is noteworthy that for Western-educated Christians and members of the aspirant black middle class the conflict at New Brighton continued to be rooted in African demands for land, property ownership, and civil rights. New Brighton consisted of seven wards, each intended to house about four hundred residents. In later years rent strikes would become part of the pattern of African protest against segregation and apartheid in the urban townships.
