South Africa's 1940s: Worlds of Possibilities

The 1940s was a turbulent period in the history of South Africa. It opened with parliament’s bitterly contested decision to enter the war; was rocked by political turmoil; and ended with a bang, as well as a whimper, as the National Party captured political power in 1948. Most see it as a decade that led inexorably towards apartheid but the coming of Afrikaner nationalism was only one of several competing visions of the future. The decade was in fact marked by a general sense of expectancy and optimism that the end of the war would usher in a brave new world. New worlds of possibilities were envisioned on all sides. Reform, social and political, was in the air. But in the end it turned out to be a Prague spring, and the kinds of reforms that many envisaged were dealt a death blow, only to be resurrected 40 years later with the demise of Afrikaner nationalism. These worlds of possibilities are explored more fully in this volume.