THE 1947 ROYAL TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA: A POLITICAL-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

In 1947, the British royal family of King George VI. Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, embarked on an extensive six-month royal tour of South Africa. This tour, scheduled shortly after the Second World War, was not without political significance on both international and domestic levels. It was of paramount importance to calve out a new structure and role for the declining British Empire and its transformation from an empire to a commonwealth of nations. The political situation in South Africa after the war was also changing. Political power was slowly ebbing away from General Jan Smuts' ruling United Party towards the Reformed National Party of Dr DF Malan. Prime Minister Smuts had to face rising Afrikaner nationalism and a host of pressing political and economic challenges on the domestic front. The beleaguered Smuts hoped that the political capital that could be gained from the English-speaking community as a result of the royal tour would be sufficient to bolster his political support in the following election (1948). This article evaluates the political and cultural undertones and related impact of the 1947 royal tour to South Africa to determine if this tour, wedged between the two Afrikaner festivals of 1938 and 1949, produced political and cultural dividends similar to those generated by these Afrikaner festivals.