THE DEFAQNE - SOCIO-MILITARY REVOLUTION AND DEMOGRAPHIC DETERMINANT

Abstract

Of all the factors which have in some way or another influenced the distribution of mankind on the surface of the earth, his physical environment must surely be regarded as one of the most dominant. However, despite the fact that they encompass some of the most arable and mineral rich areas to be found in the subcontinent, the shattered and periferal nature of South Africa's Black National States suggest that something radically more dramatic than a benevolent clime was responsible for this pattern. Lying as they do, like so many land locked islands of humanity, scattered around the perimeter of a strongly depopulated hinterland, they create the impression of having being cast there by the shock waves of some cataclysmic human upheaval which must have occured at some time in their past. Any attempt to explain the causation of this demographic phenomenon historically must, however, surely be preceded, by a precise definition of one's point of departure in terms of both time and circumstances. Thus, before attributing the present situation to the events of the past, it becomes necessary to first examine the beginning.