SOME EFFECTS OF INDUSTRIALIST I ON ON AFRICAN PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT.

by

S. BIESHEUVEL.

1. THE INEVITABILITY OF CHANGE IN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS.

The effects of industrialisation and other economic

changes on all phases of African community life in.the Union

of South Africa are so pervasive and far-reaching that one can

only hope to deal with one or two of them in the space of one

address. I shall therefore confine myself to a discussion of

personality development, particularly that part which is

commonly referred to as "moral character", for this is likely

to be of particular interest to a conference on Christian

responsibility.

One frequently hears the view that when Africans lose

contact with their own traditions - that is, those current in a

particular tribal society - their conduct in the moral sphere

tends to deteriorate. This view implies that (a) there is

something particularly appropriate to the African mind in their

own codes of conduct and moral values| and (b) that every

effort should be made to retain all those features of the

traditional codes that are not inconsistent with Christian

morality, with education, and with other demands made by

Western civilised life.

We can dispose at once of the notion that there is

some intrinsic connection between traditional African

personality and race. Apart from certain temperamental

affinities in African cultures that may have a racial origin,

personality development is entirely a cultural matter. Each

culture, by virtue of the manner in which children are brought

up, its prevalent social relations, beliefs and values,

produces the kind of personalities most suited to its needs.

And/....

And these needs have little to do with race and are mostly

determined by historical, geographic, economical and social

circumstances. As the latter change, so cultures change,

and with them, the personalities that they produce.

The belief that one can retain particular

attributes of personality, particular habits or values, in

isolation from the culture which gave rise to them, and which

has itself disintegrated, rests on a misunderstanding of how

character development comes about and of how it reflects the

needs and structure of a society.

Traditional African societies were characterised

by elaborate family systems, which prescribed many of the

roles which the individual was to perform, the obligations

between individuals and the rights and satisfactions one

could enjoy. Other roles, equally prescribed, were

determined by political and religious functions. All

individual actions were governed by these relationships,

made real and maintained by systematic and strictly

traditional training, by ceremonies and ritual practices,

including communally enforced sanctions against deviant

conduct.

When the core of this social system, namely the

extended family living in a specific association with other

families within the same subsistence economy, is disturbed,

the elaborate network of reciprocal duties, of restraints

and aspirations, gradually disintegrates with it.

That this kind of disturbance has in fact occurred

on a vast scale is too obvious to require demonstration.

The loss of land, and all that goes with it, the migrant

labour system, the introduction of a money economy, the

settlement in urban areas., the acquisition by both sexes

of new economic roles through participation in work, and

above all, the reduction of the family to little more than

the biological unit, and often not even that, are all changes

thet are sufficiently well known.

No better illustration could be given of the manner

in which previously powerful. social institutions lose theirx

meaning in a new context than was provided by Holleman in

his study of Bantu marriage and the part played by lobolo in

it. In its traditional setting, the function of lobolo -

paid in cattle by the groom's to the bride's family - was to

transfer the right to her person and her children from her

own to her husband's paternal kin group. It sealed a legal

contract by the establishment of reciprocal obligations, in

which gains and losses as between the kinship groups were ■

neatly balanced, the "woman losing party" gaining cattle

whereby they in turn, through a son's marriage, could gain a

woman to procreate children for their line. In this way,

the payment of lobolo also established new and intricate

kinship relations, becoming an essential element in creating

and maintaining an orderly tribal society. Furthermore, the

lobolo herds were a concrete and relatively enduring guarantee

that the reciprocal obligations would be met. Lobolo,

therefore, had significance only in terms of a particular

relationship between family groups. It was not an individualxx

transaction. Holleman points out that "the very absence of

the/....

xJ.F. Holleman; "The Bantu Marriage". Paper read at 8th Annual Conference of the Institute of Administrators of Non-European Affairs, September 3rd, 1959.

xx . .op. cit. p. 1!+.

- If -

the customary lineage structure in present-day urban Bantu

society renders it unsuitable for the continuation of the

traditional concept of Bantu marriage as a transaction between

two kinship groups for the purpose of family procreation ....

With it goes the traditional concept of lobolo, the very

essence of which is rooted in the traditional lineage

structure". Yet lobolo continues to be paid in a large

percentage of urban marriages, but it is a lobolo which has

acquired an entirely different function. "It is against a

background of an emerging individualism born of a crumbling

traditional culture and a largely shattered kinship

structure, of a moral instability partly conditioned by the

grossly unbalanced sex-ratio at the ages of courtship and

marriage, and of severe economic stress - paradoxically

accompanied by a steep cash lobolo - that we have to approach

the new concept of lobolo", says Holleman. It is now a

cash payment, the responsibility of the individual parties

and not of their respective kinship groups. It no longer

serves as an enduring guarantee of marital productivity and

stability, for the money may be spent as soon as it has been

paid over, and it is unlikely to be used by the bride's

family for a similar marital purpose. In fact, much of it

is spent on providing a trousseau and a wedding feast, which

is looked upon as an essential ingredient of a respectable

marriage and which enhances the social status of the

contracting parties. Other elements are the woman's desire

for self-recognition, the lobola being an indication of the

prospective husband's regard for her; a compensation'to the'

parents for the money spent on educating their daughter; and

the provision of some symbolic security for the marriage

bond/....

bond in a society where tradition has lost its meaning and

new social conventions are still in the process of being

established, Holleman also reports a growing tendency for

the bride herself, as a wage earner, to provide part or all

of the lobolo, which is thereupon officially paid by the

groom to her father. By this means, the bride achieves

three purposes; "to attain in proper fashion the enhanced

status of the married woman 5 to fulfil her obligation

towards her own family and so secure her right to fall back

on their support when she needs it; to assert her

independence as a wage-earner, wife and mother, should the*

man fail her as a husband and father of her children".

We here f ind that lobolo has inverted its meaning, for in

this form it may serve to vest parental rights to children

in the mother, and it certainly contributes nothing to

stabilise the marriage bond and to maintain consistent order

in African society.

I have dealt with this phenomenon of change in the

nature and function of the institution of lobolo at some

length, because it demonstrates the futility of the

argument that one should endeavour to retain traditional

institutions that were of positive value in regulating

behaviour in tribal cultures, in the new African societies -

that are evolving today. When the structure of a society

has radically altered its character, its former institutions

may float about for a while as disembodied ghosts; but they

can never be restored to life. They can only serve to

confuse new generations in their search for standards and

values adapted to the new conditions in which they find

themselves. It is from the realities of the present

circumstances/....

3£

circumstances of African urban life that new codes must

spring to life.

2. THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES CN FERSONAIITY DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN AFRICAN COMMUNITIES.

2.1. Tradition-Directed Personalit ies.

From the child-rearing practices in

undisturbed tribal societies, there emerge - if one can

generalise at all - personalities who are tradition-

directed, who are highly sensitive to the conduct

requirements for various roles and life situations as

embodied in the unchanging customs, values and beliefs

of the culture. Such persons express individuality

only in minor everyday relations, but not in so far as

the satisfaction of their instinctive impulses are

concerned, or in the objects which they pursue, or the

social duties which they have to perform. Conformity

is ensured by the fear of incurring public, disapproval.

Actions .are "wrong" only in so far as they are likely to

lead to this result. Because his ideas of self are .

built up almost entirely in terms of social relations,

the African tribesman acquires a personality structure

which is relatively lacking in internalised controls.

His conscience is a public conscience, he is moved by

shame rather than by guilt, and his anxieties, powerful

agents both of social constraint and disruption, are

externalised and projected in the form of actions by

witches and ancestors.

In the urban African townships as they exist

in the Union today - or even in the rural communities -

such personalities can no longer develop, because the

economic basis of the society for which they were

functional, and the kinship relations which were the

core of that society's social order, have been

radically altered.

2 .2. Inner-Directed Personalities.

In the value systems of the Western

communities of the modern world, freedom of the

individual and self-expression have for long been

prominent notions. In these cultures, personality

therefore becomes almost synonymous with individuality.

Personality variations,do, however, occur within a

framework of effective socialisation, the principle of

which is that each individual respects the rights of

others and gives up a portion of his freedom to the

community, in order better to be able to enjoy the

rest. A. code of values, relating- to property, sexual

satisfactions, health, the right to knowledge and many

others, determines the restraints subject to which

freedom is exercised. Though the community has a

number of means at its disposal to enforce compliance

with these restraints, the principal pressure towards^

conformity comes from within the individual himself.

Through the medium of his home environment, principally

the precept, example, approval and disapproval of his

parents, and with the secondary assistance of Church

and school, the required social restraints are at a

very early stage embedded in his personality structure.

Riesman et al, to whom I owe this analysis of social

persona]ity, liken this internal control system to a

psychic/.....

Ri ^ sman5 ° } a z e r 5 and R - Denneys "The Lonely

i S S * Neu ? o r T 1 c f5u?nCh° r B° ° kS’ 41 6 ’ ^ l e d a y & Co.

>

psychic gyroscope, sensitive to signals from parents

and similar authority figures. Once the latter have

directed him on a particular course, the individual will

be kept there with a minimum of external regulation.

The internal regulating mechanism operates through the

medium of guilt, experienced when deviations occur.

The development of this type of character is primarily

dependent, not so much on the acceptance of certain

values by the community, as on the continued existence

of a particular kind of home life, with close and

continuous contact between parents and children during

the early years. The conduct of the parents should

be such as to demand some measure of respect, if not of

admiration, so as to make them suitable subjects for

self-identification. The parent-child relationship

should be one in which discipline is always tempered by

affection. Such inner-directed personalities function

most effectively when the psychic gyroscope is not set

too finely - so as to avoid guilt-ridden personalities -

and when the value-system directing it is broadly based

in the humanism of the West - so as to avoid bigotry,

intolerance or exploitation.

2.3* Other-Directed Personalities.

Signs have of late made their appearance which

suggest that the inner-directed personality is no longer

the most common end-product of the pressures towards

socialisation that operate in Western countries, and that

it has even ceased to be the ideal personality towards

the production of which education is being consciously

directed. There is. a distinct tendency for the

pressure-exerting agency to become once again the social

environment/.t...

_ o _/

environment; but instead of the highly organised, .structured,

finifr-arrd— physically present group of the tribe, it is a

much wider, ill-defined and non-localisable group of the /

cosmopolitan world, .the middle-class, the teen-agers, the /

social set, or similar culture, to which conformity is

demanded. Instead of having an unalterable set of customs,

these groups are strongly influenced in their habits by

changeable fashions. Instead of being limited to face to

face contacts, their communication system relies on mass

media such as the daily press, the international journals,

radio, films, and records, whereby the stimuli towards new

attitudes, tastes and manners can be readily diffused.

Other-directed persona]ities are less reliant on an inner-

code than on an inner mechanism which makes them responsive

to the influences that emanate from the particular social

environment to which they are tuned in. In Riesman's

metaphor, the gyroscope has been replaced by a radar, and

although shame and guilt are still controlling factors,

the other-directed personality is more prone to experience

vague anxiety, lest he should fail to conform to the

changing standards, or to have status in, his particular -

social environment.

Other-direction does not necessarily imply a

deterioration in moral character. If the culture to which

the individual is sensitive is able to maintain socially

constructive values, his basic behaviour need not suffer,

despite superficiality of attitudes and manners. Nor

should it be thought that inner- and other-direction are

mutually exclusive. Much will depend on the balance struck

between parental and group influences, on the particular

social environment that happens to be dominant, and on the

institutions that are effective within it.

Some/

Some frailty may be evident in the teen-ager

culture, because the peer-group in this case has little to

give that is positive and formative, and the symbols that are

available for identification are as immature and

unsubstantial as the teen-agers themselves. Frovided their

social stratum, level of education, and parental sense of

responsibility are good enough, they are eventually swayed

by more solid social influences so that the majority

achieve adequate maturity. It is only under adverse social

circumstances that such personality formations as the

ducktails and the teddy-boys, the beatniks and the blousons

noirs, to name but a few of the local variants, make their

appearance; and although they are characterised by

sensitivity to a group spirit with an international spread,

they are nevertheless only a pathological manifestation of

other-direction, conditioned by a combination of circumstances

in which deterioration of home-life, parental indifference,

lack of discipline, the relative absence of opportunities for

achievement,and adverse stimulation of the imagination by

commercial interests are dominant factors.

3. FERSONAIITY DEVELOPMENT TV URBAN AFRICAN GROUPS.

In speculating on the assimilation of African

cultures to our own, we are inclined to overlook that the

latter is itself in a state of fairly rapid change. Our

digression into the social psychology of personality was

necessary to give some idea of the nature of this evolution,

which may well throw light on the course which African

personality development is likely to take. Our observations

will vary according to the stage of transition in African

societies at which they are made. i

The most important of the transitional groups are

- l i ­

the urban location dwellers, because they are numerous, and

are also most clearly committed to a way of life similar

to our own. They have been drawn fully into our economy,

though they still are only on the threshold of our culture.

Unfortunately the approach has been by way of the back yard,

which has not been conducive to a promising start. Human

relations have tended to become rather untidy, in keeping

with the general state of these places. This is

particularly marked in the case of the urban African family,

which has to take over the child-rearing function from theK

extended tribal kinship group. Holleman has summarised

some recent findings on urban marriage. He notes in the

first place the great disparity in the sex ratio, there\

being approximately two men for every woman in the town

locations. There is also a tendency for black couples to

marry at a later age than they used to, and much later then

whites. Nearly half of the white bridegrooms are under

25, whilst over half of the black grooms are 30 years and

older. As there is little difference in the age of black

and white brides, it would appear that it is particularly

the men who are reluctant to accept the full responsibilities

of marriage. These two factors together have led to a very

high illegitimacy rate, estimated to be between *f0 - 6Ctf of

all births. Most African women in urban areas have one or

more children before marriage, and this is by no means

confined to working-class homes. There is, furthermore,

such confusion in the existing laws as they apply to the

various forms of marriage that do occur, that "among the

emerging class of educated and wage-earning women., ....

there is a strong feeling of social and legal insecurity ... .

and/....

3C

and a growing indifference for a legally sanctioned

marriage as an effective frame within which to raise a x

family". Many unions are therefore irregular or short­

lived, which means that the background for the rearing of

children is unstable and increasingly matrifocal, the

mothers themselves or the maternal grandparents bearing the

responsibility for their upbringing.

What kind of education is being provided in this

location environment? A systematic study of the relations

between parents and children and of the ideas and attitudes

that govern personality development in an urban AfricanXX

community was carried out by Yette Glass, a member of the

staff of the National Institute for Personnel Research, with

the aid of some African field assistants. She studied a

group of 100 families, 23 of them intensively, in

Alexandra Township near Johannesburg. All were of Zulu

origin. Only 7C# of the fathers lived with the family, and

90^ of the mothers were at home and not in any kind of •

employment.

Most of the attention given by the mothers to

their children was of a physical kind. When asked to

describe their maternal duties, the majority referred to

such matters as nursing and washing, and very few mentioned

playing with or talking to the children, telling stories

or having fun, Very little overt affection was apparent

in their relationship even with the youngest children,

though/....

xHolleman, op. cit. p. 2^.

xx ■Unpublished study. This account is based on a personal communication from Mrs. Glass. It was presented in greater detail by the writer in "The Development of Personality in African Cultures", read at a CSA Meeting of Specialists on the Basic - Psychological Structure of African and Madagascan Populations", Tananarive. August, 1959-

though all parents denied that they did not experience

affection. Their attitude was generally neither positive

nor negative; only 1 % spoke of "loving" their children,

Sf of deriving pleasure from them, whilst 15# openly

admitted that they did not like concerning themselves with

their children; the majority just accepted it as a duty,

not a matter of liking or not liking. With the older

children, there was very little personal relationship at

all. The fathers were at home too little to see much of

their children. They rarely held them, or played with

them, and then only when they were very young. When

parents were asked to describe their relationship with their

children, they mostly described it as "friendly", whereby

they did not seem to have anything more intimate than "being

kind to them" in mind. Children are too immature to be

considered "people" or to have a point of view, so that Ii'

nothing is ever discussed with them. /

Of the parents studied, only 2f stated that they

were in love. All others claimed that their relationship

was satisfactory, but at the same time admitted quarrelling

in front of the children. These quarrels, which concerned

money matters, drunkenness and unco-operative behaviour on

the part of the father, involved ill-treatment of the wife

by the husband in as many as h-Ofi of the cases. In view of

the fact that all described their relationship as

satisfactory, it is clear that the system of values was

rather different from that of the average White middle

clfss home. Another difference was apparent in the view

that it would be bad form to show affection, even when

genuinely felt, before the children.

One of the major requirements of child behaviour

was respect towards elders and unquestioning obedience. In

- Ik -

reply to an Incomplete sentence- "A well brought up child

should the major response was* ".... be

respectful". To the phrase; "A good parent should .... ",

the major response was? ".... teach respect", or

".... teach the child to be good". Isolated references

to honesty, obedience, and usefulness occurred. The major

agent for teaching and discipline was the mother. It was

she who punished or rewarded. little attempt was made to

persuade children, to win their co-operation, to create

insight into the reasons for prohibitions or behavioural

requirements. The child was told what was required of it,

but enforcement was mainly by threats or beatings. Threats

referred to Europeans, policemen, occasionally deprivation

of love. Christians also threatened with the wrath of

God in the after-life. References to what other children

would say or think were never used as a restraining device

in controlling a child's behaviour. Half the group stated

that punishment was always physical. In all/the comments on

punishment, there was an undercurrent that the child should

be made to feel bad, that it should realise it had done

wrong. Cases were also observed where a child showed

distress over something it had done, although the parents

had no means of discovering about the misdemeanour. This

indicates that guilt experiences did occur. In fact, as

public opinion was not used much as a deterrent, it would

appear that guilt feelings were more important than shame.

This may be due to the fact that in township life the group

as a meaningful entity has disappeared. There is no real

in-group,to the sanctions of which one is sensitive, and

the family too has become so restricted and unstable that

it cannot be expected to exercise much moral restraint.

In view of the general reliance on physical punishment,

fear rather than guilt was likely to be the dominant

inhibiting factor, however. Rewards, either in the form

of praise or gifts, were occasionally given, but not

necessarily immediately after the event. God was seldom

invoked as a rewarding agent. Rewards also seemed to be

more common as a means of giving pleasure to the parents,

or in order that one's children might compete successfully

with others, than as a means of making them conform.

Aggression among children was disapproved of, but rather

inconsistently, one beat children for fighting, and a child

who dared to hit a parent was mercilessly thrashed.

Despite the emphasis on obedience and respect, one

nevertheless liked a child who was self-reliant, independent,

and who could stand up for itself, provided the

independence did not extend to thought and opinion.

Swearing was considered one of the worst offences a child

could commit. It invariably evoked strong affect.

SteaLing was considered to be wrong only if it involved one's

family in trouble. One should not steal from a neighbour,

for he would most likely find out. But no moral

disapproval attached to successful theft from some stranger

in town. When asked to name the most important moral

attributes in children, there rarely was any mention of

spiritual values, or of internal character qualities.

One taught children to greet people properly, not to look

a person straight in the eyes, to kneel when you talk to

superiors or elders, to cup your hands when receiving a

gift, to be polite in speech and to show humility.

Respectfulness was therefore the most important attribute.

It was not an appreciation of the actual worth of another

individual that was being inculcated, however, but only the

performance of prescribed ceremonial behaviour in relation to

seniority or persons of higher status.

From the circumstances as.described by Mrs. Glass,

it follows that conditions for the replacement of a

tradition-directed by an inner-directed social personality

are most unfavourable in the homes sampled in Alexandra

Township, and this probably applies to a greater or lesser

extent to all urban townships in the Union. Many of the

negative features of traditional child-rearing have remained,

such as the use of threats and corporal punishment as a means

of controlling behaviour, the absence of warmth in parent-

child relations, failure- to create insight into the reasons

for acting in a particular manner, the attachment of greater

importance to the social form than to the inner value, lack

of concern for the inculcation of qualities conducive to/!

s e l f s t e e m . There have been no adequate replacements for

the binding force of kinship relations, for the reciprocitie

they imposed on every-day life and for the prescribed forms

of behaviour attached to traditional roles that have fallen

into disuse. Even in those fairly fortunate cases where

the family unit has remained intact, the parents generally

lack the time^ inclination, or knowledge of the diversified

requirements and value system of Western society, to establish

internalised control. Church and school touch only a small

proportion, and are generally ill-equipped to interpret and

impose the moral codes of the new society.x

I have elsewhere summarised my conclusions on

urban personality development as follows:

"For/....

"Race, Culture and Personality". The Hoernle Memorial Lecture, 1959. S.A. Institute of Race Relations, p. 16.

"For the majority of township dwellers - that is all

those except the middle class, about whom later - it is

therefore true to say that the tradition-directed personality

has disappeared and that inner-direction has failed to appear.

Nor is there a pronounced trend towards other-direction.

For this one needs more than a modicum of civilised life, one

needs a wider range of social and occupational roles, richer

interpersonal relations, more fully developed and utilised

institutions like the schools and the mass media, and better

organised, more meaningful groups. Group formations of the’

gang type there undoubtedly are, but the kind of conformity

which they impose cannot be dignified with the label of

other-direction. They function at too crude and terroristic

a level.

One is therefore forced to conclude that many of

the township dwellers are directed only by impulse and that

such conformity as they display is imposed by the stronger

and more fear-inspiring impulse of others. One is tempted

to coin the term "id-directed" for this type of self, though

it is a contradiction in terms to look upon such a personality

as social or as implying any significant degree of conformity.

Although these location dwellers are not entirely

devoid of culture, they come near to being so, and the

evidence in support of the view that instinctive urges

dominated their behaviour is to be found in the lawlessness

and violence which are prevalent in many urban areas, the

frequency of assaults involving stabbing, the laxity of

sexual morals and the high illegitimacy rate'J

It should not be concluded from this that in the

African urban townships, we have the personality formation

of the "ducktail" type occurring on a huge and generalised

scale. The "id-directed" and the "ducktail" personalities

phenomena of a different sort, the former being the result of

a cultural void and the relative absence of socialisation, the

latter being largely a personality maladjustment, a reaction

against a particular set of cultural circumstances to which

current educational practices and parental attitudes are no

longer applicable. Moreover, the id-directed personalities

are not limited to the youthful "tsotsi" gangs. They

persist into adulthood, unless some other socialising factor

supervenes.

*+• THE SOCIALISING EFFECTS OF THE WORK SITUATION.

Such an alternate socialising factor is in fact

provided by the work situation. Here Africans are subjected

to the discipline of regularity and punctuality. Their fate

depends largely on their own actions. Effort and

responsibility tend to be rewarded by continuity of

employment and higher wages, whereas laziness and

carelessness more frequently end in dismissal. Team spirit

grows among groups of fellow-workers, constructive leadership

may be experienced from the African chargehand, and respect

for authority developed towards supervisors generally.

The result is the emergence in the individual of a

new identity, a sense of self-respect, and with it, a respect

for others. Racial antagonism may frequently cut across this

process, but on the whole one can look upon the work situation

as capable of providing some of the socialisation that

township life has failed to give. Occupational adjustment

studies carried out among African industrial operatives have

clearly demonstrated the development of social attitudes.

Good human relations at work are looked upon as of paramount

importance, at times even outranking wage differences within

a particular range. Frequent references are also made to

the satisfactions to be derived from working under a

considerate management and from competent supervision.

Above all, the urban industrial worker - as distinct from

the rural migrant - craves security and opportunities for

advancement, both indications of a desire for a more settled

urban life, which presupposes a willingness to accept and

contribute to a greater measure of social order. Through

the work situation, we therefore have a great opportunity to

begin the process of social reclamation which the townships

so desperately need.

5. THE URBAN AFRICAN MIDDLE CLASS.

Much of what has been said of townshipslife, and of

the way in which personality develops there, does not apply

to that small proportion of the population who have,

economically and culturally, achieved a middle class position.

These are the clerks, the Government officials, entertainers,

shopkeepers, businessmen and a sprinkling of the higher

professions, particularly teachers, social workers and nurses.

Ey virtue of their education, their more favourable economic

position, their closer contact with V/estern culture, they

have been able to establish within the township a milieu more

favourable to the growth of an integrated and purposeful

personality. Yet even here, the conditions for the growth

of inner-direction are not very favourable.

We have seen that the parents are the principal

agency in bringing about this personality structure. The

parental generation is, however, frequently unable to give

the necessary guidance and moral training, either because

they lack the necessary education or experience of the

requirements of Western civilisation, or because they are

themselves confused and maladjusted. The middle class

group is not sufficiently numerous nor sufficiently

concentrated in homogeneous residential areas, to be able

to provide much mutual assistance. Hence its members are

dependent on their white counterpart to provide a model of

civilised life, its customs and values. This, however, is

not sufficient to provide the internalisation of these codes,

for that requires intimate personal contact at a tender age,

and the availability of authority figures for identification

with which the child has close emotional ties. These

conditions can only rarely be satisfied. The school and the

Church can of course stress the importance of moral values in*

everyday life, but Rae Sherwood, in her important study of

African middle class personalities, has pointed out that their

life experience often contradicts the validity of this

teaching. Only too frequently do they find that adherence

to Western values often brings them less satisfaction and

reward than by conforming to standards of conduct acceptable

to the White group. This applies in particular to their

behaviour at work, where initiative and independence on the

part of the African is often resented by a White supervisor,

who would prefer to see him obedient and respectful. Such

conflicts might not have mattered so much if internal controls

had been established through the medium of parents at an

early age; but it does create confusion and duality of

attitude at a later stage, and it is significant that Rae

Sherwood and other investigators have in fact found a good

deal of anxiety in professional and clerical people. Her

conclusion that the circumstances under which middle class

Africans/....

*Mrs. Rae Sherwood carried out this study at the National Institute for Personnel Research, on behalf of the Council for_Social Research and the Department of Bantu Administration. The report has not yet been completed, but two^papers have been published; "A Comparison of Job Attitudes among African and American Professional Workers", Proc. S.A. Psychol. Assoc., No. 7-8, 1956-57, and "The Bantu ?ola p ̂St^dy of Role Expectations", J. Soc. Psychol.,

Africans grow up in the Union of South Africa favour the

development among them of an other-directed social

personality can be fully endorsed. By conforming to the

requirements of their peer-group, both black and white, will

they be most assured of adjustment, acceptance and

advancement.

6. AFRICAN MORAL LEADERSHIP.

African moral leadership, or the application of the

ethical principles of the West to political, professional,

social affairs will inevitably have to be provided by the

present African middle class. The majority of these leaders

will have other-directed personalities, and although this

does not necessarily mean, as we have seen, that their moral

fibre is less tough than it ought to be, it does demand that

there should be a profound appreciation of the significance of

Western values and an acceptance of their validity at this

level of African society. For if those that are looked-up

to by lesser African groups do conduct themselves in a manner

consistent with these values - helped to do so by the Church,

education, and the White peer-group - their example will tend

to be followed, if not in the spirit at first, then at least

in the letter, which as a useful beginning.

That knowledge and appreciation of Western ethical

codes do in fact exist was shown by a number of moral attitude

studies conducted by the writer about 19 3^, and repeated againx

some twenty years later. An inventory was drawn up containing

forty imaginary conversations between five African men. Each

conversation/....

*S. Biesheuvel. "The Measurement of African Attitudes towards European Ethical Concepts, Customs, Laws and Administration of Justice", J. Nat. Inst. Personnel Res. Vol. 6, No. 1, 1955.In the same journal (Vol. 7, No. 3> 1959)s "Further Studies on the Measurement of Attitudes towards Western Ethical Concepts". In the S.A.J. of Science Vol. 53, No. 12, 1957: "The Influence of Social Circumstances on the Attitudes of Educated Africans".

conversation dealt with some situation involving a problem of

conduct, each speaker giving in one sentence his.opinion why

an African should or should not act in a particular manner in

that situation. The situations dealt with interpersonal

relations, both black and white, with the statutory:- and

customary requirements w^.ich Africans have to observe, and

with matters of belief. Respondents to the inventory were

required to rank the five speakers, in each situation,

according to the wisdom of their opinions. The inventory was

constructed in such a manner that each opinion was

representative of one of eight attitudes, namely ethical,

religious, expediency, tribal traditional, fear, compliance,

non-compliance and pleasure. The ethical attitude was rather

broader than this label implies. Actually it represents a

rational motivation, an acceptance and appreciation of the

ethical principles, legal concepts and scientific ideology

underlying standards of conduct in a Western society. The

religious attitude concerned the precepts of the Bible.

Expediency concerned mainly the motivation of getting along

in the world and avoiding trouble. The fear motive related

to punitive sanctions, especially those exercised by the

courts. The tribal traditional attitude was rather non­

specific, bein£ represented chiefly by such sayings as "We

should not do. this, for it is not in accordance with the

customs of our people". The compliant attitude was similarly

stated, but represented deference to the traditional

requirements of the white group. The non-compliant attitude,

on the other hand, represented an aggressive rejection of

these requirements, in each case with .a detailed reason of

the grounds on which this rejection was based. The pleasure

attitude represented a purely hedonistic motivation, the

justification of action on the grounds of its being enjoyable.

Collection Number: AD1715

SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS (SAIRR), 1892-1974

PUBLISHER: Collection Funder:- Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation

Publisher:- Historical Papers Research Archive

Location:- Johannesburg

©2013

LEGAL NOTICES:

Copyright Notice: All materials on the Historical Papers website are protected by South African copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, or otherwise published in any format, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Disclaimer and Terms of Use: Provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained therein, you may download material (one machine readable copy and one print copy per page) for your personal and/or educational non-commercial use only.

People using these records relating to the archives of Historical Papers, The Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, are reminded that such records sometimes contain material which is uncorroborated, inaccurate, distorted or untrue. While these digital records are true facsimiles of paper documents and the information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be accurate and reliable, Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand has not independently verified their content. Consequently, the University is not responsible for any errors or

omissions and excludes any and all liability for any errors in or omissions from the information on the website or any related information on third party websites accessible from this website.

This document forms part of the archive of the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), held at the Historical

Papers Research Archive at The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.