Comparative methodology and the meaning of segregation: South Africa, Rhodesia and Kenya in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Racial segregation in Africa is associated first and foremost with the apartheid regime of South Africa. After achieving independence from Britain in 1910, the Union of South Africa began instituting a policy which essentially legalized racial discrimination against Africans (and Asians and Coloureds) culminating in the violence of the apartheid years after 1948. Yet it is also widely known that segregation was part and parcel of the two British settler colonies north of the Limpopo: Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Kenya While there have been several studies comparing U.S. segregation with South Africa’s, African scholars are in the dark when it comes to the parallels among the three countries examined here. In order to understand the connections and essence of segregation, and how the political trajectories of each country differed, some thought must be given to the best way of employing comparative methodology. This paper offers some guidance.