THE SEGREGATIONERA
from relatives. African women were especially resilient in the respon-
sibilities that were thrust on them.
Second, the chiefs and headmen more or less reluctantly, and more or
less skillfully, adapted to the loss of their autonomy and to their ambiguous
roles in the white state. Third, a small, relatively prosperous educated elite
monopolized the salaried jobs-high
school teachers, ministers in the mis-
sion churches, official interpreters. They tended to accept the premise of
liberal ideology, with its distinction between barbarism and civilization,
and to see themselves as the modernizers of African society. Finally, many
people had a little education but failed to get or to hold salaried jobs. They
were particularly
frustrated,
alienated from traditional
society but ex-
cluded from the benefits of modernization.
Many joined independent
churches and espoused an Africanist ideology, with modern as well as
traditional
elements.
In the reserves, Africans used a variety of stratagems to improve their lot.
William Beinart and Colin Bundy have demonstrated in eight case studies
from the Transkei that "peasants/migrants
were trying to defend their
rights to land, their ownership of cattle and other resources, and their