ABSTRACT
The first wave of South African socialism developed in a society marked by extreme regional parochialism in which national identity was in a state of flux. The African Political Organisation — later renamed the African Peoples Organisation — was formed in 1902. African societies had only been militarily defeated in the interior of the country in the past few decades; the region had been torn apart by the Anglo-Boer War at the turn of the century. The early 1910s saw the sweeping changes in the new Tor whites only Union of South Africa as white supremacy was entrenched both in law and in practice. The South African government's formal declaration of war against Germany and its decision to invade the German colony of South West Africa kindled the alienation of Afrikaner nationalists and led to an aborted rebellion.
