A consistent theme of South African history is that the Bantu-speaking Africans were always a majority of the population. Most lived in the rural sections of the country in the past and throughout the first half of the 20th century. To them, land was very important. Many Africans traditionally had access to land because they were members of their societies. This ideal remained alive after whites invaded the interior of South Africa, but, beginning in the later 19th century and moving into the 20th century, a few individuals, a small number of traditional leaders, and a larger number of groups of partners decided that ownership following the European system with title deeds and the registration of transfers of land better protected their land rights. Thousands of Africans, perhaps tens of thousands, became owners between the late 19th century and 1948. They showed initiative and determination in buying hundreds of farms or portions of farms and thousands of lots, in paying for their purchases, and in retaining their land, which most owners did until 1948. Professor D. D. T. Jabavu reminded his listeners that ‘the land question overshadowed all other questions’, and Meshach Pelem, representing the Bantu Union, testified, about ‘the extreme urgency, gravity and undeniable need for more land for Natives’ occupation’. But, being either a black or white farmer in South Africa was not easy during the first half of the 20th century because of weather related problems as well as cattle and crop diseases. Environmental degradation also undermined agricultural productivity. Yet, African owners persisted, and prospective buyers were still looking for land into the 1940s. The ideal of land ownership remained an important value among the many Africans who purchased 212,474 morgen in the northern areas of the Transvaal between 1937 and the end of 1947. Yet, among politicians, administrators and many white farmers, territorial segregation in rural areas was an ideal to be pursued, even if progress between 1910 and 1948 was limited. Thus, the history of rural South Africa before apartheid was much more complicated than historians have realised.