M@ppemonde
Mapping places and people in a settler society:
From discrepancy to good fit over one century of
South African censuses
Frédéric Giraut, Céline Vacchiani-Marcuzzo
Université de Genève, Geography Department
Université de Reims, UMR 8504 Géographie-Cités
Abstract.— The dynamics of population and urbanization in South Africa have been recorded by a
remarkable set of censuses during the 20th century. These censuses indicate a changing hierarchy of
places that is typical of a settler society and of its representations of space and society. Over one
century, the official census places and the pattern of population distribution have shifted from a
selective colonial view of human settlements to an inclusive postcolonial society view closer to the
distribution of the whole population.
South Africa • Apartheid • Demographic history • Census • Census places • Population patterns •
Settlement • Urbanization
Résumé.— Depuis plus d’un siècle, l’Afrique du Sud a connu une remarquable série de recensements.
Ceux-ci enregistrent la dynamique du peuplement dans le cadre de catégories socio-spatiales
changeantes et liées aux représentations et projets successifs : coloniaux, d’apartheid et postapartheid. Les premiers recensements proposaient une hiérarchisation des lieux typiques d’une
colonie de peuplement. Le mouvement d’urbanisation, impliquant les populations non européennes,
s’est traduit par l’évolution de la représentation officielle avec une reconnaissance progressive de
localités autochtones. Sur un siècle, la géographie officielle des lieux de peuplement sud-africains est
passée d’une perspective de société de pionniers à une perspective postcoloniale reconnaissant
l'ensemble des communautés à travers leurs espaces.
Afrique du sud • Apartheid • Démographie historique • Dynamique du peuplement • Localités •
Recensement • Urbanisation • Urbanisation fragmentée
Resumen.— Desde mas de un siglo, Africa del sur ha conocido una destacable serie de censos. Estos
registran la dinámica del poblamiento en el marco de las categorías socio-espaciales ligadas a las
representaciones y a los proyectos sucesivos : coloniales, de apartheid y post-apartheid. Los primeros
censos proponían una jerarquizacion de los lugares típicos de una colonia de poblamiento. El
movimiento de urbanización, integrando a las poblaciones no-europeas, se ha traducido por la
evolución de la representación oficial con un reconocimiento progresivo de las localidades autoctonas.
En un siglo, la geografía oficial de los lugares de poblamiento sur-africanos ha saltado de una
perspectiva de sociedad de pioneros a una perspectiva postcolonial reconociendo el conjunto de las
comunidades a través de sus espacios.
Africa del sur • Apartheid • Demografia historica • Dinamica del poblamiento • Localidades •
Censo • Urbanizacion • Urbanizacion fragmentada
S
outh Africa has a population of more than 50 million inhabitants, more than 60%
of whom were urban residents in 2008. The country has a long-standing
network of metropolitan areas, towns and localities (places). These have
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
1
developed and become hierarchized over the course of a history during which
population settlement and its distribution have been markedly influenced by
colonisation, segregation, industrialisation and globalisation.
An outstanding set of statistics on population distribution dating from the colonial
era at the start of the 20th century is available for South Africa. These data were
compiled and presented in a succession of contexts, each very specific in nature: first,
the Union of the British ex-colonies and the Boer Republics, which is still very colonial
in style, then, the apartheid regime, and finally, post-apartheid South Africa.
Systematising census operations, and the social and spatial classifications upon
which this is based, underpin national control strategies in settler societies (Bouchard,
2000). This has been studied in particular for the United States (Hannah, 2000). More
generally speaking, political geography has used Foucault’s work on
“gouvernementalité” and related technologies (2004a et b) to study the
implementation of “geo-powers” (Toal, 1996; Rose-Redwood, 2006). In the case of
South Africa, this process has been characterised by breaks and marked changes in
the spatial categories used, which reflect the successive political systems and
governing technologies according to the settler society representations of space and
landscape (Mbembe, 2000; Trigger, Griffiths, 2003). The successive periods led to the
creation and redefinition of social categories and spatial frameworks: segregationist
engineering in the territorial, social and political fields, to which statistical data and its
processing were subordinated until the end of the apartheid system; and territorial
reforms aiming to abolish segregationist legal regimes and to reinstate the country
and its cities within the globalisation process. According to evolutive territorial
engineering, the successive censuses implemented a changing hierarchy of places.
We propose here a dynamic cartographic analysis of both the effective distribution
of the population and the evolution and distribution of the official localities. The main
question for each census period is: amongst the whole population distribution pattern,
which settlements are sucessively considered as official localities, and why? The
findings reveal the evolution of representations of space and population in a settler
society and on the related gap with effective population distribution and urbanization.
1. Methodology
The DYSTURB database (Giraut, Vacchiani-Marcuzzo, 2009) used here collates,
harmonises, geo-references and inter-relates in time all political and administrative
maps for districts, urban agglomerations and places as well as the population figures
for all South African entities, both urban and rural, since 1911. This makes it possible
to retrace the history of one century of population and settlement distribution,
urbanisation and territorial engineering in South Africa. The demographic and
administrative datasets according to the entity considered can thus be processed in
the long term and re-aggregated in constant, present or past functional and
administrative spatial frameworks (boxout 1).
Throughout the past century, classic changes in borders and nomenclature were
added to changes in category and distinctions in terms of status that were applied to
entities of the same nature. Paradoxically, distinctions among individuals on the basis
of race and origin, which formed the basis of the racist political order until the end of
apartheid, generate only minor difficulties in statistical follow-up. Indeed, these
distinctions, already present in the colonial era, were maintained, refined and made
2
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
more rigid in the apartheid period. Thus, for the censuses, they were implemented in
a fairly stable manner, although there were some changes in denomination. An underestimation of the black population should be noted at the time of the “grand apartheid”
policy, culminating with the census of 1985, which is not retained in this database for
reasons of data reliability.
The spatial frameworks within which the censuses were compiled are far less
stable. Until 1991, official urban population was given by places, and rural population
was aggregated by magisterial district. Enumerations were conducted within
heterogeneous frames with major changes not only in the delimitation and the number
of entities (places and districts) up until 1970 but also in their nature and status. The
localities or places retained in the censuses underwent considerable changes in
number, name and status. The Dysturb database enables follow-up of localities by
systematically establishing correspondences despite changes in name or status.
According to this database, the animated population map series (figures 1 and 2)
is made with figures aggregated by magisterial district existing for each census, and
the animated map series on census places is made with the georeferenced list of
official census places for each census (boxout 2).
1. Urban agglomerations: what kind of definition?
In Dysturb database, the localities of census are also
gathered by urban area insofar as the double practice
of the intra urban buffer zone and of the projection of
displaced urban areas beyond the borders of the
Bantustans (fig. 4) creates a morphological
discontinuity. It makes a specific South African type of
both functional and morphological urban areas
including large planned buffer zones between core
agglomeration, and projected urban fragments. This
South African type of urban agglomeration is allowed
for the international comparisons based on
morphological definition of urban areas (MoriconiEbrard, 1993 & 1994; StatSA 2001; Bretagnolle,
Pumain & Vacchiani-Marcuzzo, 2009). The authors of
Dysturb have used a first association of the cities and
2. Data and sources
The official general censuses of the South African
population were performed by successive official
bodies (predecessors of the present-day Statistics
South Africa) for the years 1904 (districts and
provinces, no data for localities), 1911, 1921, 1936,
1951, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1985, 1991, 1996 and 2001.
Three censuses were removed from the georeferenced database for reasons of data reliability
(1985), incomplete data (1904 and 1985), and
difficulties in tracing localities longitudinally (1996).
Thus, nine censuses, with inter-census gaps of around
ten years, comprise the geo-referenced base with
longitudinal follow-up over one century of South African
localities (places), urban areas (agglomerations) and
territories. Where demographic data are available in two
modes of enumeration, de jure and de facto, it is systematically the de facto enumeration that is preferred, as
it is closer to the actual distribution of the population.
Complementary sources (censuses and reports
their dependant townships carried out by FrançoisMoriconi in the year 1990, supplemented by the work of
the HRC, The Two South Africas (1992), and a
systematic work (Vacchiani-Marcuzzo, 2005). This last
work also took into account the urban displaced areas
of the bantustans distant from several tens of
kilometers. One can give as an example the town of
Bloemfontein, which forms a continuous urban area
with its township Mangaung but which in the SouthAfrican context must be associated with Botshabelo, a
settlement project at several tens of kilometers within
the policy framework of the forced removals to form
what was initially to be an enclave of Bantustan. The
municipality is today called Mangaung and includes
parts of the agglomeration.
concerning the homelands).
For the year 1991, data concerning the “independent”
homelands of Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Transkei and
Venda (TBVC) are derived from official statistical
sources in these homelands. In addition, several
studies (Graaf, 1986; HRC, 1992; McCarthy, Bernstein,
1998) were used for the former homelands and
townships, in particular for the identification of urban
agglomerations.
Finally, the reports issued by Statistics South Africa, the
South African Institute of Race Relations and the Urban
Foundation constitute valuable sources on issues of
socio-spatial segregation and habitat that conditioned
the distribution of the South African population on
various scales.
Additionally, Raper (2004) was the main source of the
names of localities, the years of their creation and
when they obtained local government status
(municipality, different local government councils…).
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
3
1. Evolution of the population, 1911 - 2001
[http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/a
rt12201a.html/giraut_F1.swf]
2. The administrative grid, 1911 - 2001
[http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art
12201a.html/giraut_F2.swf]
The dynamic cartography was developed by Stéphanie Guislain (Cartographic Unit–IRD)
2. The dynamics of population distribution patterns from the
colonial divide to the new metropolitan South Africa with its
bantustan inheritance
At the beginning of the 20th century, population distribution in South Africa reflected
the rural population of Bantu origin (almost 70% of the 6 million inhabitants in 1911,
first general census of the Union of South Africa and only secondarily the distribution
of the population of European origin).This mostly rural population was numerous in
the eastern part of the Cape of Good Hope province and in Natal and Transvaal. Their
distribution constituted a long, broad peripheral belt including the northwest, north and
east of the country, where the native reserves set aside for that population by the
colonial rule were situated. Except for a few urban districts, the most populated
districts were those in the belt made up of native reserves like Zoutpansberg in
Northern Transvaal, Umtata in Eastern Cape or Ixopo in central Natal.
Other communities, all linked to past waves of settlers in the Union from Europe
(Afrikaaners and English), Asia (Indian and Malay) and Southern Africa (Khoïkhoï and
San), settled in the less densely populated areas of the country. These communities
accounted for one-third of the inhabitants and formed the majority of the urban
population. While the English and Indian populations were urban for a large majority
and sometimes rural in Natal, the Afrikaners and Coloureds were spread across
different environments: cities, small towns and farms distinct from native reserves in
former Cape Province, Orange Free State and Transvaal. The three largest urban
agglomerations (inner cities, suburbs and locations) were already populated by the
different South African communities: the administrative and business city of Cape
4
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
Town (85,000 Europeans or Whites and 75,000 Coloureds); the newly booming
mining and business city of Johannesburg (120,000 Europeans or Whites, 100,000
Bantus and 15,000 Coloureds and Asians); the industrial and harbour city of Durban
(35,000 European or Whites, 35,000 Asians, 20,000 Bantus).
The population distribution map evolves throughout the century under the influence
of two processes: a differential growth of populations and massive urbanisation. Over
the twentieth century, the differential growth of populations, with different migratory
and natural balances according to regions and communities, increased the contrasts
between the dense rural areas, the former native reserves, and the rural areas that
were managed according to patterns of colonial origin. Despite the demographic
pressure, the area of the native reserves remained throughout the century at 13% of
the total South African territory, meaning that the land allocated to the African
population in collective tenure was under pressure without any scope for extending
the cultivated areas and grazing land to accommodate the dramatic increase in rural
population density. This fuelled the growing flow of migrant workers and the resulting
dependency of the African population on this external income.
The ‘‘grand apartheid’’ period of the 1970s introduced major changes in the
settlement patterns. The bantustan or Homeland policy was dedicated to a so-called
internal decolonisation with new countries for Black people where they could exercise
civil rights. It was also a rationalization of the exploitation pattern at the nation scale
with new border industrial developments (Christopher, 2001). In this new pattern, the
booming places where located at the margin of the new bantustans close to the South
African cities and/or to the new industrial developments. Broadly, the forced removals
of population and the restrictions on residential movement imposed on populations of
African origin contributed to reinforcing the demographic weight of the former reserves
that had become part of the bantustans. Despite these restrictive policies, massive
urbanisation is reflected in the growth of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban and
in the emergence of new urban and industrial basins in the mining and industrial north
of Natal, the northwest of Orange Free State and in Eastern Cape, with the formation
of a conurbation (East London-King William’s Town), which extensively overlaps the
homeland of Ciskei. This illustrates the continuing boom of urban growth with the new
inclusions of suburban settlements located in the bantustans (Ramutsindela,
Donaldson, 2001).
Between 1911 and 2001, South Africa underwent a long phase of intense urban
growth. The populations of urban areas of more than 5,000 inhabitants effectively
agglomerated. They were officially split into different census places according to the
racial classification of their inhabitants and the exclusion of the black townships
from the official jurisdictions of the cities, growing by 3.6% on average per year during
this period.
The map series clearly shows both a densification of the areas of the former
reserves and bantustans and a concentration in the main metropolitan areas. With
just a few former reserves and urban areas, the former Orange Free State gathered
10% of the South African population in 1911 but only 6% at the end of the twentieth
century. In the same period, the former Natal province still represented 20% of the
total population, while the north of South Africa, namely, the former Transvaal, with its
large former reserves and metropolitan areas, accounted for more than 45% of the 45
million South African inhabitants in 2001 compared to 25% of the 6 million in 1911.
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
5
3. Census places: from colonial settlements to all localities
Up until the 1970s, the map showing localities (census places) corresponds to the
local government grid, i.e. to communities that had a recognized right to organize
themselves and hence a degree of autonomy. The rural settlements and suburbs
enable the identification a few additional places (in particular in the census of 1921)
which were subsequently promoted to the status of seats of local government by the
presence of a community of European origin. A few places of African origin were
recognized as seats of local government in the Transkeian territories and also in
Zululand; they were administered as colonial government seats with small colonies of
colonial staff warranting their recognition as official places (boxout 3).
The increasing number of census places (figure 3) over one century clearly shows
the post-Apartheid swing in the 1990s when the black settlements were counted as
individual census places and not as parts of rural populations in each census district.
Before that, the logarithmic graph shows slight increases corresponding first to the
creation of new European settlements and second in the Apartheid era to the
promotion of a few townships as census places differentiated from the cities with
which they formed agglomerations.
Number of census places per census
20 000
15 000
10 000
5 000
0
1911
1921 1936 1951 1960 1970 1980 1991
1996 2001
3. Number of census places per census
©Mappemonde 2012 (GS)
From 1980, the townships, provided with their own specific administrative
structures, and the new places promoted in the bantustans formed a new generation
of places that were granted recognition within the “grand Apartheid” strategies. In
1991, the separate censuses of the independent bantustans (Transkei,
Bophuthatswana, Venda, Ciskei) brought about the systematic identification of places
of African rural settlement and urban agglomerations as census places. In this sense,
they prefigure the generalization of the census enumerations in the rural areas from
1996 and the 2001 census. Thus, a certain consistency between the distribution of
localities and that of population densities finally appears. However, the scatter of dots
in urban areas is proportional to the number of suburbs that include the former
townships, squatter camps and other agglomerated settlements. Hence, the very high
densities of the metropolitan areas are not highlighted in comparison with the high
densities of the dense rural areas in former bantustans, which by then were well
recognized as made up of numerous small settlements, now full and official localities.
6
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
3. Historical official census places making off in South Africa
Until 1991, the localities used in the censuses
correspond to the official definition of the urban object.
That is, the official list of localities was drawn up in
accordance with the status of these localities, which
was linked to the origin of the locality and its racial
composition more than to its dimensions. The
existence of a local government council was the urban
definition criterion until 1970.
Localities with a local government body from the 1921
to 1951 census:
A. Municipalities (including Boroughs in Natal and Town
and City Councils in Transvaal);
B. Village Management Boards in the Cape provinces
and the Orange Free State; Village Councils in
Transvaal; Town Boards in Natal;
C. Health Committees in Natal and Transvaal: Local
Boards in Cape Town;
D. Local Areas in Cape Town and Transvaal; Public
Health Areas in Natal.
The table provided in the CD-ROM annexes entitled
“Administrative status and functions of localities” gives
dates of creation and allocation of functions through the
year 2000 for all localities that were local government
seats and/or possessed local government status, even
if only elementary (non-urban).
A certain number of localities disappear as places in
the course of the period: these are colonial settlement
villages or missionary centers which were first identified
as fully-fledged places; later, their populations of
European origin declined (the case with certain
missions), or they were integrated into neighboring
municipalities or wider suburbs.
Among the new places appearing before 1970 were
villages or suburbs where the growth of the population
of European origin led to their local government status
and therefore urban status for the censuses. The
increase in the number of urban places was thus
considerable between 1931 and 1951 (rising from 492
to 722, an increase of around 50%).
The censuses also make it possible to identify a certain
number of localities that have no official status as an
urban place but that are included in the Dysturb
database (table 1). Indeed, the first censuses (1911
and 1921) included lists of towns, villages and rural
settlements. In addition, up to 1960, the censuses
provide lists of suburbs that are not urban localities but
a breakdown of the main metropolitan areas. Finally,
retrospective tables enable access to data for places
appearing at a later date. In the Dysturb database,
localities of this sort (non-official in statistical terms,
since only urban places are taken into account) are
identified as settlements. Their populations are also
included in the total for rural areas in the district to
which they belong, which gathers all populations
outside urban places.
From 1980, the main Black, Colored or Indian
townships not possessing an elected council but
recognized as urban localities were also considered as
official census localities (urban places). This was in no
way a concession to democracy on the part of the
Apartheid regime but a mere accounting strategy for
the black urban areas liable to be involved in forced
removals toward homelands within the ‘grand
apartheid’ policy. Thus, more than 350 Black townships
appear as urban places in the 1980 census.
In 1991, two so-called “independent” homelands,
Bophuthatswana and Transkei performed an
exhaustive enumeration of places in their census, i.e.
all populations in each district were allocated to a
certain place. Thus, for these homelands, there was no
longer a non-differentiated “rural” category gathering all
the populations that were not considered to belong to
an urban place. This precedes the post-Apartheid
practices present in the 1996 census where an
exhaustive grid of more than 12,000 places was used
and the census of 2001 where 2,674 main places were
determined and delineated, subdivided into 15,966
subplaces (Vacchiani-Marcuzzo, 2004). The new
administrative organization is indeed based on seven
geographical scales, and the new subdivisions cover
the entire South African territory.
For the database, the correspondences between
places of 1991 and prior and those of 2001 were first
systematically sought in the subplaces and then for
remaining localities among the main places. 0f some
4,000 localities (3,923) enumerated in 1991 or before,
around 1,430 are presented in the database but have
no correspondence with a main place or subplace in
2001 and no geo-referencing. For the most part (1,306
of these 1,430), they are localities noted in Transkei
and Bophuthatswana in 1991 alone.
Table 1. Number of census places and subplaces 1911-2001
Census Places
Settlements, suburbs
(1911 à 1960) ou
Subplaces (1996 et 2000)
Number of places
1911
1921
1936
1951
1960
8
241
16
74
105
366
610
508
796
863
358
369
492
722
758
1970
874
874
1980
1108
1108
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
1991
3706
3706
1996
2001
12851
15966
12851
15966
855
2674
7
4. Political and historical perspectives on the evolution of
territorial engineering: From colonial order to the post-Apartheid
new dispensation
The dynamics of the map of official census places over the 20th century reflect a
history of antagonism between places of colonial settlement and the actual distribution
of the population. The dense, rural African population in the reserves was, for a long
period, not differentiated from the population of rural districts according to the South
African colonial pattern. It distinguishes a few colonial places allocated to citizens and
to the native reservations; these places were the places of residence of people
collectively subjected to community leaders and a regime of common property
(Christopher, 1976; Mamdani, 1996; Schmidt, 1996; Houssay-Holzschuch, 1996;
Giraut et al., 2005; Giraut, 2005). The urbanization of the period 1970 to 1991, which
includes the emergence of the urban townships as census places, the structuring of
the bantustans, and the end of apartheid in 1991, which eventually led to the
recognition of localities in which the population was of African origin as places. Thus,
the map for 2001 shows a scatter of dots corresponding to places with actual
population densities outside the metropolitan zones.
The 20th century dynamics of population distribution and the distribution of official
places and cities can be seen as a settler society experiencing a postcolonial swing:
the progressive involvement and recognition of people of non-European origin in the
urbanization process. In the specific case of South Africa, the Apartheid regime, along
with the growth of urbanization, allowed the progressive incorporation of some African
settlements as census places in order to classify some of the large townships that had
developed on the peripheries of all South African cities as urban. However, they were
counted separately from the official city as separate municipal bodies, thus prolonging
the fragmented spatial structure of the apartheid city (Davies, 1981; Lemon, 1991;
Gervais-Lambony, 1997; Christopher, 2001). Townships remained outside of the
official city jurisdiction; in addition, the forced removals relegated new urban
fragments beyond the homelands borders (figure 4), creating remote but dependant
new urban settlements (MacCarthy & Berstein, 1998) with a complex system of pass.
The census and territorial engineering of the Apartheid era must be seen as an
improvement and an adaptation of the colonial pattern of locations and reserves, for
an optimal use of labor without ensuring its reproduction costs. This is O’Meara’s
(1983) neomarxist economy oriented rationale approach of the historical and cultural
experience of Apartheid. Posel (1997) considered Apartheid as a combination of an
ideological plan, a capitalist rationale and a contingent process. However, some
authors insist on the essentially ethnocentric and cultural dimension of the ideology of
Apartheid. Thiven Reddy (2000) connects it to the colonial cultural work of hegemony
(defined by Antonio Gramsci) in shaping the Other, and Giliomee (2003) believes that
the foundations of the ideology proceed from a missionary discourse. Schmidt (1996)
magistrally demonstrates how Apartheid was replaced as a specific sequence on
long-term history of a settler society.
In the apartheid order, the official Apartheid cartography ignores most of the black
urban settlements (Stickler, 1990) which were not visible as localities in the census
gazettes. This was what the HRC called “shadow South Africa” (1992). Some
academics attempted to tackle the officially invisible urban African settlements in a
8
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
critical way. Their approaches ranged from identifying and enumerating the forced
removals (Platsky, Walker, 1985) and all black urban settlements (Graaf, 1986) to
discussing their real functions (Mabin, 1988). Others were involved in urban prospects
for optimizing the South African development policies that included the black
population (Simkins, 1983, 1986; Urban Foundation, 1990) or in assessing suitable
locations for the different urban settlements (Geyer 1989, 2003).
Today in post-Apartheid South Africa, in order to erase the legacy of the official
colonial and Apartheid geography and toponymy, there is an ongoing but controversial
process to change place names (Giraut et al., 2008; Guyot, Seethal, 2007; Jenkins,
2007). A dictionary of South African place names (Raper, 2004) opens widely to
African toponymy, integrating numerous allonyms; however, it continues to ignore part
of the former “shadow South Africa:” distant townships, townships or concentrations
in the bantustans, peripheries, and squatter camps. Thus, certain major urban areas
do not appear, including Ozizweni, Ezikhaweni, Esikhaweni, Kwa Msane, Wembezi,
Ezakheni, Emondlo, Kayaletu, and Ga Luka. If Bushbuckridge is mentioned (a vast
concentration of African population in an area of ex-bantustans), it is always under the
denomination of a small mountain range that gives its name to a village, Bosbokrand.
From a post-settler society perspective, the post-Apartheid censuses aimed to
consider all South African settlements as census places and the aggregation of all
separate parts of cities as urban areas (figure 5). This evolution is part of a larger
process aiming to build new inclusive local government dispensation (Cameron, 1999;
Giraut, Maharaj, 2002; Ramutsindela, 2001; Sutcliffe, 2002; South African Cities
Network 2004; Maharaj, Narsiah, 2005; Houssay-Holzschulch, Vacchiani-Marcuzzo,
2009) and to re-hierarchize places and communities from geographical representations
of settlements using cartography, census data, toponymy and so forth. In short, it
attempts to produce a new geography against social and political representations in
a divided society as well as symbolic and social resistances and inertia.
A- The city of apartheid
B- Municipality of apartheid
Red dotted line= bantoustan boundary
Green dotted line=municipal perimeter
©Mappemonde 2012 (GS)
Réalisation: Giraut, 2005
4. The splitting of the apartheid cities into separate settlements (A) and the selective status of
census places according to the area of the urban municipality (B). (Giraut, 2005) [CBD : Central
Business District ; BZ : Buffer Zone]
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
9
5. A sketch of the contrasted South African landscapes and settlement
types at the end of the Apartheid era (Urban Foundation, 1994)
Conclusion
The successive South African censuses, according to their related territorial
engineering and ideologies, implement a changing hierarchy of place that is typical of
a settler society and of its evolving representations of space and society. The
fundamental distinction between the localities founded by people of European origin
and the places where people of African origin were living resulted in a shadow South
Africa that was made invisible in both the political sphere of local government and the
official representation of the distribution of places. The dynamics of urbanization in
non-European populations over time led to changes in official representations and the
hierarchy of place, with a gradual and partial recognition of the indigenous
communities within the highly segregative pattern of the apartheid urbanization. The
subsequent end of the apartheid era has led to an inclusive official pattern of
10
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
settlements including African villages, compounds, townships and former border
bantustan settlements. Over one century, the official census places and the pattern of
population distribution have shifted from a settler society view of human settlements
to a postcolonial society view including the space and places of the whole former
subaltern part of the inherited colonial society.
Bibliographie
BOUCHARD G. (2000). Genèse des nations et cultures du Nouveau Monde. Essai
d’histoire comparée. Québec: Boréal, 503 p. ISBN: 2-7646-0035-6
BRETAGNOLLE A., PUMAIN D., VACCHIANI-MARCUZZO C. (2009). ‘‘The Organization of
Urban Systems’’. In COURGEAU D., FRANCK R., LANE D., PUMAIN D., VAN DER
LEEUW S., WEST G., eds, Complexity Perspectives in Innovation and Social
Change. Dordrecht: Springer, coll. ‘‘Methods Series, Methodological Prospects
in
the
Social
Science’’,
492
p.
ISBN:
978-1-402-09663-1
http://www.springerlink.com/content/v158q7kn88880420/fulltext.pdf
CAMERON R.G., ed. (1999). The democratisation of South African local government.
A tale of three cities. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers, 345 p. ISBN: 9780627024238
CHRISTOPHER A.J. (1976). Southern Africa (Studies in historical geography).
Folkestone: Dawson, coll. ‘‘Studies in historical geography’’, 292 p. ISBN: 07129-0694-0
CHRISTOPHER A.J. (2001). The Atlas of Changing South Africa. London: Routledge,
272 p. ISBN: 0415211786
DAVIES R.J. (1981). ‘‘The Spatial Formation of the South African City’’. GeoJournal, 2:
59-72.
FOUCAULT (2004a). Naissance de la biopolitique: cours au Collège de France (19781979). Paris: Gallimard, 355 p. ISBN: 2020324016
FOUCAULT (2004b). Sécurité, territoire, population: cours au Collège de France (19771978). Paris: Gallimard, 432 p. ISBN: 2020307995
GERVAIS-LAMBONY P. (1997). L’Afrique du Sud et les États voisins. Paris: Armand
Colin, coll. ‘‘U. Série Géographie’’, 253 p. ISBN: 2-200-01771-5
GEYER H.S. (1989). ‘‘Differential Urbanisation in South Africa and its consequences
for spatial developpement Policy’’. African Urban Quarterly, 5: 275-292.
GEYER
H.S. (2003). ‘‘Differential Urbanisation in South Africa A Further Exploration’’. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 94
(1): 89-99.
GILIOMEE H., (2003). ‘‘The Making of the Apartheid Plan’’. Journal of Southern African
Studies, 29 (2): 373-392.
GIRAUT F. (2005). Fabriquer des territoires. Utopies, modèles et projets. Paris:
Université de Panthéon-Sorbonne, habilitation à direiger des recherches, 308 p.
GIRAUT F., MAHARAJ B. (2002). ‘‘Contested terrains. Cities and towns in postApartheid boundaries delimitations’’. Geojournal, 57 (1/2): 15-27.
GIRAUT F., GUYOT S., HOUSSAY-HOLZSCHUCH M., (2005). ‘‘La nature, les territoires et
le politique en Afrique du Sud’’. Annales HSS, 60 (4): 695-717.
GIRAUT F., GUYOT S., HOUSSAY-HOLZSCHUCH M. (2008). «Enjeux de mots : les
changements toponymiques sud-africains». Espace géographique, 2: 131-150.
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
11
GIRAUT F., VACCHIANI-MARCUZZO C. (2009). Territories and Urbanisation in South
Africa. Atlas and geo-historical information system (DYSTURB). Paris: IRD
Editions, coll. ‘‘Cartes et Notices’’, CD-ROM. ISBN: 978-2-7099-1674-5
GRAAF J.F. de V. (1986). The present state of urbanisation in the South African
Homelands and some future scenario’s. University of Stellenbosch-Dpt of
Sociology, 11.
GUYOT S., SEETHAL C. (2007). ‘‘Identity of place, places of identities: Change of Place
names in Post-Apartheid South Africa’’. The South African Geographical Journal,
89 (1): 55-63.
HANNAH M.G. (2000). Governmentality and the Mastery of Territory in NineteenthCentury America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
HOUSSAY-HOLZSCHUCH M. (1996). Mythologies territoriales en Afrique du Sud, un
essai de géographie culturelle. Paris: Éditions du CNRS.
HOUSSAY-HOLZSCHUCH M., VACCHIANI-MARCUZZO C. (2009). ‘‘Un morceau de
territoire en quête de référence: le centre commercial dans les aires
métropolitaines en Afrique du Sud’’. In BOUJROUF S., ANTHEAUME B., GIRAUT F.,
LANDEL P.-A., eds., Les territoires à l’épreuve des normes: référents et
innovations. Contributions croisées sud-africaines, françaises et marocaines.
Marrakech, Grenoble: LERMA, Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines, Revue
Montagnes Méditerranéennes, 528 p. ISBN: 978-9981-916-31-5
HRC - Human Rights Commission (1992). The two South Africas. A people’s
geography. Johannesburg: HRC.
JENKINS E. (2007). Falling into Place: The Story of Modern South African Place
Names. Cape Town: David Philip Publisher, 228 p. ISBN: 978-0-86486-689-9
LEMON A., dir. (1991). Homes apart: South Africa’s Segregated Cities. London:
Chapman Bloomington, 256 p. ISBN: 978-185396-117-5
MABIN A. (1988). «Households, history and black urbanisation: Response to Graaf».
Development Southern Africa, 5 (3): 393-402.
MAC CARTHY J., BERNSTEIN A. (1998). South Africa’s ‘‘Discarded people’’ : Survival ;
adaptation and current challenges. Johannesburg: Centre for Development and
Enterprise, CDE research 9, 36 p.
MAHARAJ B., NARSIAH S. (2005). ‘‘La nouvelle géographie régionale de l’Afrique du
Sud post-Apartheid’’. In ANTHEAUME B., GIRAUT F., eds., Le territoire est mort,
vive les territoires! Paris: IRD Editions, 384 p. ISBN: 2-7099-1574-X
MAMDANI M. (1996). Citizen and Subject. Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late
Colonialism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 353 p. ISBN: 0-691-02793-5
MBEMBE A. (2000). ‘‘At the Edge of the World: Boundaries, Territoriality and
Sovereignty in Africa’’. Public Culture, 12 (1): 259-284.
MORICONI-EBRARD F. (1994). Geopolis, Pour comparer les villes du monde. Paris :
Anthropos, coll. ‘‘Villes’’, 246 p. ISBN: 2-7178-2721-8
MORICONI-EBRARD F. (1993). L’Urbanisation du monde depuis 1950. Paris :
Anthropos, coll. ‘‘Villes’’, 372 p. ISBN: 2-7178-2559-2
O’MEARA D. (1983). Volkskapitalism: class, capital and ideology in the development
of Afrikaner nationalism, 1934-1948. Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 281 p. ISBN:
0869751530
PLATZKY L., WALKER C. (1985). The Surplus People: Forced Removals in South
Africa. Johannesburg: Ravan, 446 p. ISBN: 0-86975-255-3
12
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
POSEL D. (1997). The Making of Apartheid. 1948-1961: conflict and compromise,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, coll. ‘‘Oxford studies in African affairs’’, 297 p. ISBN:
0-19-571515-2
RAMUTSINDELA M., DONALDSON R., dir. (2001). ‘‘The Imprint of Bantustans and
Transformation’’. The South African Geographical Journal, 83 (1).
RAMUTSINDELA M. (2001). Unfrozen Ground: South Africa’s Contested Spaces.
Aldershot: Burlington USA ; Singapore: Ashgate, 102 p. ISBN: 0-7546-1453-0
RAPER P.E. (2004). New Dictionary of South African Place Names. Johannesburg:
Jonathan Ball Publishers, 421 p.
REDDY T. (2000). Hegemony and Resistance: Contesting identities in South Africa.
Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate, 256 p. ISBN 978-0-7546-1205-6
ROSE-REDWOOD R.S. (2006). ‘‘Governmentality, Geography, and the Geo-Coded
World’’. Progress in Human Geography, 30 (4): p. 469-486.
SCHMIDT B. (1996). Creating order. Culture as Politics in 19th and 20th Century South
Africa. Den Haag: CIP-Gegevens koninklijke Bibliotheek, 350 p. ISBN: 9072639-49-9
SIMKINS C. E. W. (1983). Four Essays on the past, present and possible future of the
distribution of the black population of South Africa. Cape Town: Southern Africa
Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town, 187 p.
SIMKINS C.E.W. (1986). ‘‘Patterns of Urbanisation in South Africa: Past, Present and
Possible Future’’. Economics Learning Resource, n° 7, University of Cape Town.
SOUTH AFRICAN CITIES NETWORK (2004). State of the Cities Report.
STATISTICS SOUTH AFRICA (2001). Investigation into appropriate definitions of urban
and rural areas for South Africa, Discussion Document.
STICKLER P.J. (1990). ‘‘Invisible towns: a case study in the Cartography of South
Africa’’. GeoJournal, 22 (3): p. 329-333.
SUTCLIFFE M. (2003). ‘‘Creating cities of Hope’’. In ANTHEAUME B., GIRAUT F.,
MAHARAJ B., dir., Recompositions territoriales, confronter et innover. Actes des
rencontres scientifiques franco-sud africaines de l’innovation territoriale.
http://iga.ujf-grenoble.fr/teo/Innovation/introduction.htm
TOAL G. (1996). Critical geopolitics: the politics of writing global space. Minneapolis :
University of Minnesota Press, 328 p. ISBN : 978-0816626038
TRIGGER D., GRIFFITHS G., eds (2003). Disputed Territories. Land, Culture and
Identity in Settler Societies. Honk Kong : Hong Kong University Press, 326 p.
ISBN : 978-9622096486
URBAN FOUNDATION (1990). Population Trends: demographic projections model,
Braamfontein.
URBAN FOUNDATION (1994). Urban debate 2010: policies for a new urban future:
population trends, Johannesburg.
VACCHIANI-MARCUZZO C. (2004). ‘‘Le deuxième recensement de la population de
l’Afrique du Sud post-Apartheid. L’urbanisation cernée, l’informel masqué’’.
Cybergeo, n° 276. http://cybergeo.revues.org/2455 ; DOI: 10.4000/cybergeo.2455
VACCHIANI-MARCUZZO C. (2005). Mondialisation et système de villes: les entreprises
étrangères et l’évolution des agglomérations sud-africaines. Paris: Université
Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, thèse de doctorat, 306 p.
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html
13
Addresses of authors
Frédéric Giraut, University of Geneva, Geography Department. E-mail: [email protected]
Céline Vacchiani-Marcuzzo,
[email protected]
14
University
of
Reims,
UMR
Géographie-Cités.
E-mail:
M@ppemonde 106 (2012.2) http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num34/articles/art12201b.html