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20th Century South Africa
The 1940s, economic prosperity
In the 1940s, a massive black migration occurred as thousands of men from the impoverished rural areas throughout South Africa flocked to seek employment in the industrial powerhouse of the region -- Johannesburg. Today, huge mining dumps remain at the edges of the city centre, reflecting the city's late 19th century origins as a gold mining town.
The 1940s brought accelerated economic growth to South Africa. The Second World War had brought about an enormous impact: the country's second industrial revolution. The mining of gold and other minerals had brought on the first wave of industrialisation. Now the second revolution, in manufacturing, was begun. In Britain, resources were channelled away from consumer manufacturing and into the war effort. As a result, South Africa could no longer rely on imported goods but instead had to manufacture its own. At the same time, South Africa was also making its contribution to the allied forces. In all, the growth of a broad manufacturing base was spurred on and Johannesburg was at the centre of these developments.
The urban life in Johannesburg and other South African cities was fast-paced and lively. At the same time, it was strongly influenced by American pop culture -- Gangster movies, jazz and American writers and singers became part of township culture. Unfortunately, South Africa had another thing in common with the US: segregation. As in the States, many facilities such as libraries were closed to blacks and certain jobs were restricted to whites. But the worst differences were in living conditions. Blacks who crowded into the cities discovered that that housing provision was woefully inadequate, leading many of them to defy government orders and build poorly constructed shanty towns using materials such as sacking and old paraffin cans. Even during WWII, although African conscripts joined the Allied war effort, the government was afraid to give them guns.
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