Introduction

At the heart of the Constitutional proposals which South African whites endorsed in 1983 lay an attempt to reconstitute a distinct 'Coloured' identity in South Africa.^[1] The impending changes have fuelled an intense ideological and political conflict over the content of Coloured identity. This passionate debate cannot be divorced from the wider struggle being waged against the South African regime. Indeed, therein lies its particular historical significance. But the conflict over Coloured identity predates the current ideological and political war. For over a hundred years attempts have been made to foster and manipulate Coloured identity and to engineer socially a Coloured political alliance with the ruling white parties. A distinct Coloured identity, I shall show, is the outcome of a history of 'divide and rule' tactics. However, Coloured identity cannot simply be traced to attempts by the ruling class to promote a Coloured buffer group. In part, Coloured identity is the outcome of conflicts within the subordinate classes and of the resistance of sections of the colonized class to their further proletarianization. Coloured identity represents the peculiar historical resolution of a complex and contradictory set of events.