Ethnic pride and racial prejudice in Victorian Cape Town
Subtitle: group identity and social practice, 1875-1902
By: Vivian Bickford-Smith.
Series: African studies series ;; 81
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
Subjects: Racism -- South Africa -- Cape Town -- History; Cape Town (South Africa) -- Social life and customs; Cape Town (South Africa) -- History
Description: Nineteenth-century Cape Town, the capital of the British Cape Colony, was conventionally regarded as a liberal oasis in an otherwise racist South Africa. Longstanding British influence was thought to mitigate the racism of the Dutch settlers and foster the development of a sophisticated and colour-blind English merchant class.

Vivian Bickford-Smith skilfully interweaves political, economic and social analysis to show that the English merchant class, far from being liberal, were generally as racist as Afrikaner farmers. Theirs was, however, a peculiarly English discourse of race, mobilised around a 'Clean Party' obsessed with sanitation and the dangers posed by 'un-English' Capetonians in a period of rapid urbanisation brought about by the discovery of diamonds and gold in the interior.

. This original contribution to South African urban history draws on comparative material from other colonial port towns and on relevant studies of the Victorian city.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-271) and index.