Most people believe that black South Africans obtained the vote for the first time in 1994. In fact, for almost a century suitably qualified black people had enjoyed the vote in the Cape and Natal, and in certain constituencies had decided the outcome of parliamentary elections.

Little wonder, then, that when the first South Africa came about in 1910, black people were keen to see the principle of non-racialism entrenched in the constitution that was drawn up for the new Union.

This is the story of that struggle. Its centrepiece is a lively account of the delegation that travelled to London in mid-1909 to lobby for a non-racial constitution. Led by a famous white lawyer and former prime minister of the Cape, Will Schreiner, brother of the novelist Olive Schreiner, it included some of the great African and Coloured leaders of the day, who were perhaps equal in stature to the great black leaders who helped found the second South Africa in 1994.

The story played out in London, Cape Town and Pretoria; but its outcome was the result, too, of protests in India and of debates in England and Australia. Many of the Africans involved in this story went on to found the African National Congress, but there were other participants, including MK Gandhi, whose own fight for the rights of Indian people in South Africa is woven into this story. The book concludes with a discussion of why Gandhi was finally able to leave South Africa in 1914 victorious, while other parties and movements, including the ANC, were unable to resist the tide of white racism.

This is the story of the founding of the first South Africa, with all its promise and despair.

About the Author

Martin Plaut was born in Cape Town and educated at the universities of Cape Town and Warwick. He joined the BBC in 1984 and became Africa editor of the BBC World Service News before retiring in 2013. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London. Among his many publications is the book, co-authored with Paul Holden, Who Rules South Africa?

Promise and Despair – The first struggle for a non-racial South Africa is published by Jacana Media