Die Slag van Andringastraat: Studente-onluste op Stellenbosch, 1940

Abstract

Afrikaans

Vir baie jare lank was die botsing in Julie 1940 tussen wit studente en bruin inwoners van Stellenbosch die onderwerp van anekdotes en staaltjies wat witmense onder mekaar vertel het. Bruinmense dink egter met skok en verontwaardiging daaraan terug. Hierdie hoogs insiggewende gebeurtenis is nog glad nie deur historici beskryf en ontleed nie. Die artikel beskou die gebeure as ’n “white riot” in die sin wat Sheila Smith McKoy die term in haar boek, When whites riot: Writing race and violence, gebruik. Witmense het geweld gebruik om die punt dat swartmense geen politieke regte het nie, te onderstreep. Die onluste was ’n voorafskaduwing van die strukturele geweld van apartheid wat ’n dekade later sou begin. 

English

The Battle of Andringa Street: A Student Riot at Stellenbosch, 1940

A student riot that took place in July 1940 in the town of Stellenbosch has long been the subject of anecdotes told by white alumni and residents of the town rather than of serious analyses by scholars. Yet the event is of exceptional interest as it represents one of the few cases in South Africa where a white riot can be said to have taken place. White students attacked coloured residents living in the main part of the town, invading their houses, smashing crockery and assaulting occupants. The article argues that the riot occurred in the context of the National Party’s attempt to disenfranchise the coloured voters, Parliament’s decision of 1939 to declare war, and a regulation compelling citizens to hand in arms. The violence of the Andringa Street events foreshadowed the structural violence of apartheid, introduced a decade later.