Finding aid to the Leo Kuper (1908-1994) papers, 1952-1966
Collection Summary
Collection Title: Leo Kuper (1908-1994) papers 1952-1966
Call number/identifier: 4
Origination: Leo Kuper
Extent: 21 boxes
Physical location: Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies
Languages: All materials are in English
Repository: Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies , Evanston, IL
Abstract: South African sociologist; includes correspondence and research materials from 1957-1963 relating to Leo Kuper's study of An African bourgeoisie .
Subjects
Kuper, Leo
Apartheid--South Africa
Middle class--South Africa
Middle class--South Africa--Interviews
South Africa--Social conditions
South Africa--Politics and government
Administrative Information
Abstract: South African sociologist; includes correspondence and research materials from 1957-1963 relating to Leo Kuper's study of An African bourgeoisie .
Biography
Leo Kuper was born November 24, 1908, in Johannesburg, South Africa. After receiving his law degree from Witwatersrand University in 1931, Kuper practiced law until 1940, when he joined the South African Army. He served in the military in Kenya, Egypt, and Italy until 1946 when he returned to South Africa to organize the National War Memorial Health Foundation, which helped to provide health services initially for Africans, Coloureds, and Indians, and which was expanded later to serve whites as well.
In 1947 Kuper attended the University of North Carolina, from which he received an M.A. in sociology. After returning briefly to South Africa, he was appointed Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Birmingham in England. While in Birmingham, Kuper also directed a research project, the purpose of which was to help the city of Coventry recover from the destructive bombing of World War II. This research resulted in the publication of Living in towns (1953), which Kuper edited. After completing his doctorate in sociology at the University of Birmingham in 1952, Kuper returned to South Africa as Professor of Sociology at the University of Natal, where he remained until 1961.
An active member of South Africa's Liberal Party, Kuper published extensively in the field of race relations while at the University of Natal. In addition to a satirical novel on the newly segregated universities, College brew (1960), Kuper published Passive resistance in South Africa (1956), and Durban: a study of racial ecology (1958), with Hilstan Watts and Ronald Davies, while teaching at the university.
In 1961 Kuper was appointed Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he remained until his retirement in 1976. While at U.C.L.A., he served for four years as the Director of the African Studies Center and also as a member of the Board of Directors of the African Studies Association. In 1965 Kuper published An African bourgeoisie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965). Based upon research and interviews conducted in South Africa in the late 1950s and early 1960s, this study of the black professional and mercantile classes won the Melville Herskovits Award. More recently, Kuper edited Pluralism in Africa (1969), and has written Race, class, and power (1974), and The pity of it all (1977).
Scope and Content note
The collection is comprised of one folder of correspondence and 21 boxes of materials relating to the research conducted between 1957 and 1963 for Leo Kuper's study of An African bourgeoisie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965).
Kuper, assisted by two research assistants at the University of Natal, Anthony Ngubo and Bernard Magubane, conducted interviews with more than one hundred members of South Africa's black professional class, including doctors, lawyers, civil servants, teachers, ministers, nurses, and businessmen, whom Kuper identifies as “traders.”
These interviews, and the more general reading notes and newspaper files, comprise the basic document collection upon which Kuper's sociological analysis of South Africa's black middle class rested. The transcriptions of the interviews suggest that Kuper was primarily interested in the issues of mobility, freedom, and perceived social status and the relation of these concepts to South Africa's apartheid racial system. These interviews comprise the most valuable component of the collection.
Organization of the Papers
The collection is arranged primarily by subject, categories which reflect the organization of Kuper's book. Most categories, such as the various occupational groups, contain two basic components: the primary source documentation and the analysis upon which the narrative of his study is based. The primary sources include transcriptions of interviews, reading notes, statistics, and questionnaire responses. The analyses consist of interpretations written primarily by Kuper, although his research assistants examined several topics carefully and provided Kuper with written interpretations for his book. In addition, six boxes of newspaper clippings, dated almost exclusively 1959-1962, on many aspects of South African life have been removed from the primary source materials and arranged alphabetically by subject in boxes 16 through 21.
A number of printed pamphlets and other published material related to apartheid have been separated from the collection.
Container List
Biographical [ Box 1 Folder 1 ]
Correspondence, 1954-1966 [ Box 1 Folder 2 ]
Lectures [ Box 1 Folder 3 ]
Research files
Traders: interviews I [ Box 1 Folder 4 ] Traders: interviews II [ Box 1 Folder 5 ] Traders: African traders course, 1959 [Durban] [ Box 1 Folder 6 ] Traders: report on the African Journal , 1957-1959 [ Box 1 Folder 7 ] Control of trade ; report and analysis, 1959 [ Box 1 Folder 8 ] The Cape trading report, ; 1955 [ Box 2 Folder 1 ] Traders: general files I [ Box 2 Folder 2 ] Traders: general files II [ Box 2 Folder 3 ] Traders: analysis [ Box 2 Folder 4 ] Students: graduate student interviews [ Box 2 Folder 5 ] Students: undergraduates and life histories interviews [ Box 2 Folder 6 ] Students: medical school interviews I [ Box 3 Folder 1 ] Students: medical school interviews and notes II [ Box 3 Folder 2 ] Students: medical school interviews and notes III [ Box 3 Folder 3 ] Students: interviews by Anthony Ngubo [ Box 3 Folder 4 ] Students: notes by Anthony Ngubo I [ Box 3 Folder 5 ] Students: notes by Anthony Ngubo II [ Box 3 Folder 6 ] Problems of the educated: notes and analysis [ Box 3 Folder 7 ] University Education Bill, 1959 [ Box 4 Folder 1 ] Student: misc. Notes and interviews [ Box 4 Folder 2 ] Anthony Ngubo, University students,; I [ Box 4 Folder 3 ] Anthony Ngubo, University students,; II [ Box 4 Folder 4 ] Students: history of the Marian Buildings I [ Box 4 Folder 5 ] Students: history of the Marian Buildings II [ Box 4 Folder 6 ] University apartheid: analysis [ Box 4 Folder 7 ] Students: general analysis [ Box 4 Folder 8 ] Students: analysis [ Box 5 Folder 1 ] Students: analysis [ Box 5 Folder 2 ] Students: analysis [ Box 5 Folder 3 ] Students: analysis [ Box 5 Folder 4 ] Teachers union materials [ Box 5 Folder 5 ] Teachers: Natal African Teachers Union materials [ Box 5 Folder 6 ] Teachers: notes on race relations [ Box 5 Folder 7 ] Teachers: attitudes and religion [ Box 5 Folder 8 ] History of Adams College [ Box 5 Folder 9 ] Interview with Selby Ngubo [ Box 5 Folder 10 ] Teachers: misc. Notes [ Box 5 Folder 11 ] Teachers: analysis I [ Box 6 Folder 1 ] Teachers: analysis II [ Box 6 Folder 2 ] Teachers: analysis III [files, notes, statistics] [ Box 6 Folder 3 ] Teachers: analysis IV [social class, political attitudes] [ Box 6 Folder 4 ] Teachers: analysis V [statistics, social composition] [ Box 6 Folder 5 ] Teachers: analysis VI [statistics] [ Box 6 Folder 6 ] Teachers: analysis VII [statistics] [ Box 6 Folder 7 ] Nurses: King Edward [questionnaire] [ Box 6 Folder 8 ] Nurses: Clairwood [ Box 6 Folder 9 ] Nurses: interviews [ Box 7 Folder 1 ] Nurses: backgrounds [ Box 7 Folder 2 ] Nurses: analysis [ Box 7 Folder 3 ] Ministers: notes and interviews I [ Box 7 Folder 4 ] Ministers: notes and interviews II [ Box 7 Folder 5 ] Doctors: interviews, notes, research materials [ Box 7 Folder 6 ] Lawyers and articled clerks [ Box 8 Folder 1 ] Clerks [ Box 8 Folder 2 ] Civil servants: interviews [ Box 8 Folder 3 ] Journalists and social workers: interviews and notes [ Box 8 Folder 4 ] Authors and health educators [ Box 8 Folder 5 ] Professions [general]: interviews [ Box 8 Folder 6 ] Lamont and Cato Manor: interviews [ Box 8 Folder 7 ] Lamont and Cato Manor: field notes [ Box 8 Folder 8 ] Subjective aspects of social class: interviews and notes [ Box 9 Folder 1 ] Who's Who biographical information [ Box 9 Folder 2 ] Occupations [general]: interviews and notes [ Box 9 Folder 3 ] Professions: general analysis [ Box 9 Folder 4 ] Religion: notes [ Box 9 Folder 5 ] South African religion: notes [ Box 9 Folder 6 ] American Board Material [ Box 9 Folder 7 ] Protestants: notes [ Box 9 folder 8 ] Roman Catholics: notes [ Box 9 Folder 9 ] Race relations: Indians [ Box 10 Folder 1 ] Race relations: general [ Box 10 Folder 2 ] Disturbances I [ Box 10 Folder 3 ] Disturbances II [ Box 10 Folder 4 ] Disturbances III [ Box 10 Folder 5 ] Powers of control: notes [ Box 10 Folder 6 ] Pan African Conference, 1959-1961: notes [ Box 10 Folder 7 ] Politics: notes [ Box 10 Folder 8 ] Advisory boards: interviews and notes [ Box 11 Folder 1 ] Advisory boards: notes and analysis [ Box 11 Folder 2 ] Advisory boards: Lamontville [ Box 11 Folder 3 ] Advisory boards: Chesterville [ Box 11 Folder 4 ] Advisory boards: Tomster [ Box 11 Folder 5 ] Advisory boards: Jacobs [ Box 11 Folder 6 ] Advisory boards: Dalton Road [ Box 11 Folder 7 ] Advisory boards: S.T. Smith [ Box 11 Folder 8 ] Advisory boards: Baumannville [ Box 11 Folder 9 ] Advisory boards: views of members [ Box 11 Folder 10 ] Advisory boards: regulations and minutes [ Box 11 Folder 11 ] Advisory boards: reports on trading file [ Box 11 Folder 12 ] African National Congress: notes [ Box 12 Folder 1 ] African National Congress: Youth League, 1959 [ Box 12 Folder 2 ] African National Congress: minutes, 1960 [ Box 12 Folder 3 ] African National Congress: background of leaders [ Box 12 Folder 4 ] African National Congress: Conference on Tomlinson Commission [ Box 12 Folder 5 ] Tribalism: interviews [ Box 12 Folder 6 ] Tribalism: analysis [ Box 12 Folder 7 ] Bantu laws [ Box 12 Folder 8 ] Bantu education and misc. [ Box 12 Folder 9 ] Voluntary associations [sports]: interviews [ Box 12 Folder 10 ] Sports: associations [ Box 12 Folder 11 ] Sports: Durban and District African Football Association [ Box 13 Folder 1 ] Sports: International Olympic Committee memo, 1961 [ Box 13 Folder 2 ] Sports: other sports [ Box 13 Folder 3 ] Sports: notes [ Box 13 Folder 4 ] Sports: analysis I [ Box 13 Folder 5 ] Sports: analysis II [ Box 13 Folder 6 ] Status of women: notes [ Box 14 Folder 1 ] Development of South African personality [ Box 14 Folder 2 ] Conspicuous consumption: notes and analysis [ Box 14 Folder 3 ] Urban Africa [ Box 14 Folder 4 ] Urban administration [ Box 14 Folder 5 ] Scotch-Gampel Project [ Box 14 Folder 6 ] Colour bar: analysis [ Box 14 Folder 7 ] Durban International Club: general materials [ Box 14 Folder 8 ] South African Native Affairs Commission [ Box 14 Folder 9 ] Conferences: misc. Notes [ Box 14 Folder 10 ] Economic, social and political background materials [ Box 14 Folder 11 ] Hilda Kuper: Natives Mine Wages Commission summary [ Box 15 Folder 1 ] Bernard Magubane: bachelor's thesis [ Box 15 Folder 2 ] Bernard Magubane: master's thesis [ Box 15 Folder 3 ] Leo Kuper: An African bourgeoisie [Typescript draft] [ Box 15 Folder 4 ] African bourgeoisie [Draft] [ Box 15 Folder 5 ] African bourgeoisie [Draft] [ Box 15 Folder 6 ] African bourgeoisie [Draft] [ Box 15 Folder 7 ] African bourgeoisie [Draft] [ Box 15 Folder 8 ] African bourgeoisie [Draft] [ Box 15 Folder 9 ] Clipping files African National Congress [ Box 16 Folder 1 ] African National Congress [ Box 16 Folder 2 ] African National Congress [ Box 16 Folder 3 ] Apartheid [ Box 16 Folder 4 ] Bantustans [ Box 16 Folder 5 ] Bantustans [ Box 16 Folder 6 ] Boycotts (internal) [ Box 16 Folder 7 ] Boycotts (overseas) [ Box 16 Folder 8 ] Disturbances [ Box 17 Folder 1 ] Disturbances [ Box 17 Folder 2 ] Disturbances [ Box 17 Folder 3 ] Disturbances [ Box 17 Folder 4 ] Occupations [ Box 17 Folder 5 ] Politics [ Box 17 Folder 6 ] Powers of control [ Box 18 Folder 1 ] Powers of control [ Box 18 Folder 2 ] Powers of control [ Box 18 Folder 3 ] Race relations [ Box 18 Folder 4 ] Race relations [ Box 18 Folder 5 ] Race relations [ Box 18 Folder 6 ] Religion [ Box 19 Folder 1 ] Sports [ Box 19 Folder 2 ] Sports [ Box 19 Folder 3 ] Sports [ Box 19 Folder 4 ] Sports (colour bar) [ Box 20 Folder 1 ] Status of women [ Box 20 Folder 2 ] Trade unions [ Box 20 Folder 3 ] Universities and university students [ Box 20 Folder 4 ] Urban Africa [ Box 20 Folder 5 ] Miscellaneous [ Box 21 Folder 1 ] Miscellaneous [ Box 21 Folder 2 ] Miscellaneous [ Box 21 Folder 3 ] Oversize charts and tables [ Box 21 Folder 4 ]
