Poverty, War, and Violence in South Africa

by Clifton Crais

Poverty and violence are issues of global importance. In Poverty, War, and Violence in South Africa, Clifton Crais explores the relationship between colonial conquest and the making of South Africa's rural poor. Based on a wealth of archival sources, this detailed history changes our understanding of the origins of the gut-wrenching poverty that characterizes rural areas today. Crais shifts attention away from general models of economic change and focuses on the enduring implications of violence in shaping South Africa's past and present. Crais details the devastation wrought by European forces and their African auxiliaries. Their violence led to wanton bloodshed, large-scale destruction of property, and famine. Crais explores how the survivors struggled to remake their lives, including the adoption of new crops, and the world of inequality and vulnerability colonial violence bequeathed. He concludes with a discussion of contemporary challenges and the threats to democracy in South Africa. Written for general readers and specialists alike, this book overturns conventional wisdom and offers new ways of understanding violence and poverty in the modern world.

Genres: History

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 2011

Reviews

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently worked at a club on Cape Cod where there were a lot of South African immigrant workers. One in particular loved to stop and chat with me on my breaks, and - having just finished a history class titled "Poverty, War, and Violence in South Africa" - I was very interested in what this white South African man had to say about his country.

What did I find?

Racism.

Like a southern Republican in the US, I heard tale after tale about how the South African government was making life incredibly difficult for white South Africans. I heard about how it was impossible to run a business if you were white, how 'the blacks' were taking all the jobs while simultaneously sitting on their asses and collecting social welfare services. I heard about how whites were looked down on and condemned by the international community and their countrymen at home, and how their wealth had been stolen by 'the [monolithic] blacks'.

What I didn't hear is any of what I had learned about South Africa. Neither their history nor their current situation seemed to line up with what I was hearing. Then I realized the similarities with the GOP in my own country. He refuses to see the racism, the war, the exploitation, and the desperation brought by European invaders to South Africa. Maybe he should read some of Clifton Crais.

This book was fantastic. I loved how meticulously Crais scoured the record books for data, eyewitness accounts, reports by the authorities and third parties, and how he tied them all together in one compelling message: "South African history has been awful, and the most awful parts have been caused directly by imperialism." And he proves it.

Recommend.

[Natalie G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clifton Crais' analysis of the developing poverty in South Africa along with the subsequent violence is thoroughly discussed using a variety of evidence from scientific, political, and personal sources from the time period. Along with his inclusion of critiques of the relevant arguments of other historians in the field help to place his argument squarely within the framework of violence that led to Apartheid in what is now known as South Africa.