South African Passbook: An Important Instrument of Racialization

In what ways could the South African passbook be considered an important instrument of ‘racialisation’? What does racialisation tell us about the relationship between the individual and the social?
The concept racialization implies separateness. According to Miles 2003, racialization is a dialetical process by which meaning is attributed to particular biological features of human beings, resulting in individuals being assigned to a general category which reproduces itself biologically.
Racilisation gave rise to the passbook system adopted in South Africa during apartied. The passbook legalised racial segregation by ensuring that the white minority were separated from the black majority in South African. The endorsements in each passbook gave the bearer the right to work or live in a particular area. Should a person be found in an area of South Africa without the required stamp, they would be subjected to arrest. The passbook gave the white minorities’ political control through means of social control. Black persons were not allowed in certain urban areas such as Johannesburg unless they had the correct stamp in their passbook. The passbook socially excluded individuals by controlling where they could live, who they could marry and what amounts of alcohol they could buy. Exclusion was necessary to ensure political security, through policing. Africans were however allowed into these areas where there was a need for them. They worked in a domestic capacity or in other low paid employment. All of these restrictions on Africans were so that economic activity in predominantly white controlled areas could flourish and the authority of the white political supremacy would be preserved. Individuals with the work seekers permit were free to look for jobs and reside in a particular are, albeit, temporarily. Black people were not allowed to bring their families to live in the city with them. These limitations ensure that the white could continue to dictate and segregate and control Africans in South Africa, as long as the passbook existed.
The white controlled state used the passbook to protect themselves from crime, through effective policing in their neighbourhoods, whilst in the townships, where the black people lived, crime and criminal activities were not addressed as effectively and many times criminal activity was carried out and the perpetrators went unpunished.
The passbook impose the notion of race on South African society, it contained and described the ethnicity of an individual. There were different distinctions of race outlined in each passbook and stored on the population register. Africans were classed according to their tribes. There are 9 in total. There were also 11 separate categories for individuals who were considered to be coloured. This had the effect of dividing the nation, people in South Africa, began to view themselves as separate ethnic nations as they were from different tribes. This was directing people towards segregation in their own country.
The impact of the passbook on individuals in South Africa is where white South Africans and supporters of apartheid wanted to ensure that they remained in control and had as little contact with black people as possible. The passbook divided the white urban elite from the black migrant population and them from the black rural population. In one of the video extracts contained on the DD308 website, a woman explained how, by not giving birth in a hospital, her child would not be registered and would not be able to carry a passbook in the future if she did not contact the midwife who delivered her baby to confirm this was the case. In the case of Malwsela Selepe, who grew up in the rural areas, he recalled how he barely saw his father as he live in the city and they were in the rural areas and when he did come home the father son relationship was not there. The fact that a man’s family was not able to live with them when they moved to the city highlights the social constraints that the pass place on black South Africans. The sorting and classification side of the pass on the one hand restricted the mobility of black South Africans, however in a society where the pass was construed to be of significant importance, black South Africans who did not carry this pass felt social economically excluded and would take steps to ensure that they could have a pass. The video extract on the man who convinced his friend to use a dead man’s pass is a clear example of the lengths people would have gone to enable them to exist and have opportunities during apartied. Malesela Selepe also indicated that he was “proud” when at 16 his mother took him to be sorted and classified. This suggests that the passbook, though seen by adults as a hindrance was to young men growing up hoping to emulate their fathers, an opportunity, a way to a better life, an escape from poverty. This is a clear indication of a way in which the society by implementing a passbook, influence and shaped individuals lives. As Mr Selepe grew older and no doubt interacted with those who had the pass and realised the implications and restricted imposed on him, for example, he could not buy his own house, he could only live in certain areas and he could not bring his family to live with him. Within the social world of those who loathe the pass, he no doubt learned to loathe the pass as well.
Apartheid and the introduction of the passbook in South Africa create an economic and social divide, even though apartheid has ended, the ramifications still linger. The people still remember the inconvenient searches the men had to endure, the protests that resulted in death. Racialization is still evident in South African society. People continue to attach themselves to the racialised meanings and identities that they were given during the sorting and administration process.
Racialization through the passbook resulted in South Africans viewing themselves as individuals of a particular race. They realised that the distinctions had its advantages and disadvantages. The issue of race is not something they had in their thoughts, it was something given to them by the society they were born into.

Miles, R., 2003. Racism. 2nd ed. London: Routeledge.