Friends of the Natives: The Inconvenient Past of South African Liberalism

A critical attempt to understand liberalisms' encounter with South Africa - its evolution, intellectual history, and internal dynamics. Liberalism entered South Africa's political landscape in the 19th century. It arose and evolved as an ideology of colonial conquest and control, not as a product of the anti-colonial struggle: in the process producing not just political parties but also pressure groups and think-tanks. Throughout its existence South African liberalism has been an adventure of a handful of whites who are determined to protect white minority interests in a colonial and post-colonial setting. First generation liberals were known as Friends of the Natives because they had positioned themselves as paternalistic protectors of supposedly helpless African people. This book builds on the literature that tries to critically understand liberalisms encounter with South Africa - its evolution, intellectual history and internal dynamics - in order to challenge the monopoly that South African liberalism enjoys in constructing a narrative about its past, present and future. See more