Olive Schreiner, Race and Black South Africa: #RhodesMustFall and a ‘Prophetic Vision of the Future’

While Schreiner’s anti-imperial, anti-war, anti-capitalist, and pro-women’s rights campaigning are well known, there is arguably less documented or interrogated around her linkages to Black South African representatives and causes. This chapter reviews Schreiner’s mid-to-late life views, networks, associations, and advocacy in relation to race, and explores how she was assessed and claimed by Black South Africans – and others – advocating for rights. The chapter opens with a focus on her changing, ultimately oppositional, relationship with archimperialist Cecil John Rhodes (1853–1902) and resonances between Schreiner’s anti-Rhodes advocacy and decolonial activism in the present (most particularly the #RhodesMustFall movement). The chapter then analyses Schreiner’s energetic post-South-African-War involvement in Black causes, such as the African franchise, campaigning against the 1913 Natives Land Act, and her contribution to the 1911 Universal Races Congress. Drawing from a range of sources, including letters, newspapers, and published writings, this chapter offers an assessment of Schreiner in relation to race and to the complex politics of black South African activism in the face of white settler colonialism and Unionism. While registering complexities, this chapter explores ways in which Schreiner was evoked, applauded, and assessed by Black South Africans at a critical historical juncture for Black rights and representation.