The space for colonial industrialisation and the local construction of race and class, East London, c1900–1927

This article draws on an East London case-study to raise problems with a Rand-centric historiography which is dominant in South African studies. I argue that an important comparative literature, drawn from the ‘African waterfront’ more generally, needs to be engaged in exploring the colonial basis of coastal cities in South Africa. The issues of race, class and the space for industrialisation are explored through asserting the much closer local analysis and colonial intersections of these categories. In addition the article demonstrates how and why ‘space’ is a dynamic and necessary element in historical and social analysis.