Empire Cricket Booklet

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ORIGINS OF SEGREGATION AT THE CAPE

available economic and social opportunities thrown up by a society undergoing massive economic change. But the practical contradictions of the George Grey approach created major stresses for African mission-school converts. The ideology of progress and improvement required a rejection of African culture, institutions and practices. Mission-school Africans were required to denounce polygamy and other African customs and traditions, and take on European styles of clothing, housing, and food. However, no matter how good mission scholars were at Classics, there were no opportunities for black lawyers, politicians, accountants or administrators, and precious few for African entrepreneurs. The colonial world in southern Africa, as in India and elsewhere, remained a closed shop. Ambitious and

educated Africans were able to carve out careers in limited areas - the church, as mission school teachers or as clerks and interpreters, while others became craftsmen, small traders or transport riders. A gifted few such as the Rev. Elijah Makiwane, first black editor of Isigidimi Sama Xhosa, or John Tengo Jabavu, editor of the long-running and influential Imvo Zabantsundu ('Native Opinion'), developed independent careers which made them leaders of educated African opinion and provided a barometer of African views to the colonial regime. But thousands of mission-school graduates were produced with high expectations and limited pros pects. 16 The mission-school phenomenon was also part of a broader economic restructuring of the landscape as

Nathaniel Cyril Umhalla, a leading figure in cricket over four decades