Shades

Although the Cape Government officially promoted hard-work and economic enterprise amongst the amaXhosa, this was never to be in opposition to White business.

When in the early 1900s, for example, Black bakers set up shop at East London's East Bank Location - and were able to undercut the prices of the White bakers in the town - the East London Municipality quickly stepped in to close these bakeries down.

In the same way, the Colonial Government would bring pressure to bear on the missionaries not to allow their mission enterprises to grow in opposition to similar White businesses or they too would be closed down.

Nevertheless, the mission stations played a major role in the development of education in the Eastern Cape. This gave rise to an educated Black elite which began to play an increasing role in politics.

This in turn led to the formation of such political groups as the Native Vigilance Associations which were established as watch-dog bodies to protect Black interests against exploitation from White municipalities and the Government.

Newspapers too played a crucial role in the growth of this early political culture. Two newspapers in particular were established to promote the Black point of view.

The first was Imvo Zabantsundu, established in King William's Town under the editorship of John Tengo Jabavu. The second was Izwi Labantu, an East London based paper edited by Alan Kirkland Soga.

The newspapers ran articles both in Xhosa and English, and were read by most of the educated Black people in the Eastern Cape. Articles were submitted by rising Black intellectuals like Benedict Matiwane.

Although Walter Brownlee at one stage claims that he wished he could read Xhosa so that he could read the articles, the newspapers did in fact publish many of their most important stories in English.