User:AedanHopper/Natives Land Act, 1913/Rileybuus Peer Review

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AedanHopper
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 * User:AedanHopper/Natives Land Act, 1913
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INTRO SECTION

Natives Land Act, 1913 (subsequently renamed Bantu Land Act, 1913 and Black Land Act, 1913; Act No. 27 of 1913) was an Act of the Parliament of South Africa that was aimed at regulating the acquisition of land. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica: "The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 defined less than one-tenth of South Africa as Black “reserves” and prohibited any purchase or lease of land by Blacks outside the reserves. The law also restricted the terms of tenure under which Blacks could live on white-owned farms."

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica: ↵"The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 defined less than one-tenth of South Africa as Black “reserves” and prohibited any purchase or lease of land by Blacks outside the reserves. The law also restricted the terms of tenure under which Blacks could live on white-owned farms."

- I would take out the according to part and just leave it as a citation at the end

- also may want to add a little more in the intro section as more of a vague overview of what is to come

OVERVIEW

The Natives Land Act of 1913 was the first major piece of segregation legislation passed by the Union Parliament. It was replaced in 1991. The act decreed that natives were not allowed to buy land from whites and vice versa. Exceptions had to be approved by the Governor-General. The native areas left initially totaled less than 10% of the entire land mass of the Union, which was later expanded to 13%.

The Act further prohibited the practice of serfdom or sharecropping. It also protected existing agreements or arrangement of land hired or leased by both parties. [5]

This land was in "native reserve" areas, which meant it was under "communal" tenure vested in African chiefs: it could not be bought, sold or used as surety. Outside such areas, perhaps of even greater significance for black farming was that the Act forbade black tenant farming on white-owned land. Since so many black farmers were sharecroppers or labour tenants that had a devastating effect, but its full implementation was not immediate. The Act strengthened the chiefs, who were part of the state administration, but it forced many blacks in the "white" areas into wage labour.

It is crucial to note that majority of the damage was done prior to the Natives Land Act being passed. The dispossession of Natives in this land started when the European colonists entered the land and started to expand their territory. They used many tactics such as annexation, warfare and the purchase of land. Oftentimes Native leaders would accept these annexations and purchases because they realized they were militarily outnumbered and warfare would not be beneficial to either party ( Reference 2, Add More).

- you could consider combining this into the intro paragraph as it is basically the same thing

- further elaborate on how serfdom/sharecropping was important/existent before the act

- further elaborate or put a link to the importance of the chiefs

- the last part about how damage was done prior to the act being passed should be moved to the beginning to make more chronological sense

SOCIAL/ECONOMIC

The land act had set aside 13% of agricultural land for the natives. However, initially they were only given about 7%. It took them 23 years of fighting to receive the other 6%. Prior to the act the natives of South Africa had owned majority of the farm land that had been given to the white people (Reference 1). This act was an assertion of power within the new government but the dispossession of natives had been happening many years prior (Reference 10). These injustices lead the the socio-economic struggles of the natives living in South Africa. The government claim that the aim of the Natives Land Act was to control and redistribute farmland in South Africa in hope to remove poverty and benefit all. Despite this it result in a massive increase of poverty for natives. Prior to the implementation of the act there were relatively low rates of poverty for everyone in South Africa. However, with the dispossession of land combined with the forbidding of share cropping and free leasing/selling of land, the act was beginning of a long history of poverty for natives (Reference 8). According to the paragraph 'The impact of the Land Act', in this reference: "Perhaps the most visible impact of the Act was that it denied Africans access to land which they owned or had been leasing from White farmers." The natives land act not only stole land but almost all their possessions including cattle, crops and their homes. They were also forced into becoming laborers for the European settlers and were treated poorly (Reference 3) .As outlined in the account of the deputation made to the then Minister of Justice of South Africa, Jacobus Wilhelmus Sauer, in the paragraph 'Responses to the Land Act' of the same reference: "Also in May 1913 the SANNC sent a deputation to Jacobus Wilhelmus Sauer to persuade him to not proceed with the bill which would make Africans squatters and render them homeless . "

- take out the part that says "according to the paragraph _____" and instead just cite it at the end of the quote rather than having that was a lead in

- other than that I think this is a solid paragraph

RESPONSES

- consider moving this to right after you write out the contents of the act (before social/economic impact)

- take out the lead ins to the references and say something along the lines of "as stated in ___" quote

POLITICAL IRONYS

- this paragraph is a little lacking

- i would personally either take it out or combine it with the response or overview paragraph