Talk:South African Republic

racism, suffrage, and citizenship

I know far to little to edit the article myself, yet. However, I find it quite odd that there is such an incredibly brief mention of racism, and that section seems to suggest it was principally just against foreigners. In discussing citizenship and voting, it seems to suggest whoever is born there could be citizen. The article should be clear whether blacks were excluded officially by law, or unofficially by practice. So, there's basically nothing about the large majority of the people living in the SAR. Also, the population figure says 120,000. Are those just the white citizens, or everybody? --Rob (talk) 05:08, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

I'm currently researching the history of the ZAR. However, I'm bogged down in trying to establish a constitutional chronology of the Republic. In my research, though, I have found many laws and constitutional articles referencing the exclusion of 'Coloured' people from politics. I'll provide some links to relevant books:

• Select constitutional documents illustrating South African history, 1795-1910
• Selected official documents of the South African republic and Great Britain

--Kirkworld (talk) 00:58, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

I was coming here to make the same point myself, Rob, but you are entirely right. There is very strange here about this article that makes no mention whatsoever of the black majority who lived in this state. Yes, it is correct that only the Boer burghers were allowed to vote and hold office, but surely that is no grounds for excluding the story of the black population. This is rather like writing a history of Ireland that only mentions the Protestant, Unionist minority. Rob's suggestion needs to be taken up. --A.S. Brown (talk) 06:06, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

In my opinion this is unfortunately a common problem in South African history in general and represents a serious problem for Wikipedia. Unfortunately many sources are one-sided and out of date. I think it would be entirely appropriate to include this kind of information - but where to even find it? I know the ZAR did keep some kinds of numbers on its total population - including the black population - but I don't recall where this information might be found. I do have some sources that include this information. A catalogue for the ZAR contribution to the Antwerp World Exhibition in 1893 for example lists the 1893 population of the ZAR as 810,000, of which 135,000 white, and 675,000 black. However, it would be best to find the original sources for this. Also, I don't know how accurate those sources would be. Francoisdjvr (talk) 11:56, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

try : The Mask; by Staurt Cloete 197.184.170.192 (talk) 13:31, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

I'd be curious to see if we can find a good citation for the actual demographics at the time. Sometimes the "mythology" and the "reality" can be counter-intuitive. BoonDock (talk) 16:51, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

One of the issues is that the population grew rapidly, and this growth was fueled by immigration of foreigners (uitlanders) from europe and elsewhere who were mainly white in search of the gold and diamond rush , and the migrant labour which was primarily black.

Some sample figures:

Population figures

Year	Population
1852	30,000
1875	100,000
1890	250,000
1900	500,000

BoonDock (talk) 17:05, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

why is it called "Transvaal Republic?"

why? Person1662626271717 (talk) 07:30, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

That's explained quite well under the section "Name and etymology" in the article. BoonDock (talk) 17:08, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Map in infobox

A map without a key is essentially useless; it's impossible to tell whether the red region is ther Transvaal, or the green region, or both. Can it be replaced? MrDemeanour (talk) 17:42, 3 March 2024 (UTC)