THESEGREGATIONERA
excluded them from the formal collective bargaining process.l? Some Af-
rican Christians adopted a different response. They broke away from white
churches and formed religious communities where African leaders acted
without white intervention and where Christianity was adapted to African
culture. 11
The tensions in the system intensified during World War II, when South
Africa participated on the side of Great Britain and its allies, to the dismay
of numerous Afrikaners. Under wartime conditions, the economy ex-
panded and diversified particularly rapidly, drawing more and more Af-
ricans into the urban labor market. Yielding to arguments that migrant
labor, pass.laws, and job color bars were inefficient as well as unjust, the
government bent the job color bar, allowed black wages to rise at a faster
rate than white wages, and temporarily relaxed the pass laws. It also
recognized th'at Africans were a permanent part of the urban population
and toyed with the idea of recognizing African trade unions. In those
circumstances, a radical Afrikaner party managed to mobilize sufficient
ethnic support to win a narrow victory in a general election in 1948.12
White Politics, I9IO-I939
During the years 19 10 to 1939,' the successive South African admin-