African Resistance to the 1887 Parliamentary Voters’ Registration Act

Pressure in the Cape Colony parliament for disfranchising policies was primarily instigated by the Afrikaner Bond. The Bond’s initiatives were based on prejudice against Africans and amounted to an attempt at weakening the influence of English-speaking politicians with the belief that many of them were in parliament because Africans voted for them. An attempt was made through the Parliamentary Voters’ Registration Act of 1887, which implicitly imposed a racial qualification based on the premise that most Africans occupied land communally, and therefore communal tenure was excluded as a qualification for the franchise. This article illustrates the fact that, although Africans did not initially take up the opportunity to participate in the franchise en masse, political participation by the 1880 s was deeply valued by the growing number of Africans who actively participated in the franchise. This is demonstrated by the different attempts made by literate and better-off Africans to remain on the voter registration lists. Through the examination of articles and reports on the experiences and opinions of Africans that were published in the press, African resistance to the passage and implementation of the 1887 Parliamentary Voters’ Registration Act is illuminated through examples of their efforts to register as voters, to mobilise in defence of African interests and to participate in Cape Colony politics through the vote.