Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free. Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains - whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains.

In the story of colonial settlements in Africa and America, only the Spanish and German rivals wallowed in blood, while the English overcame challenges of nature and man. Even in the story of the slave trade, the English, with their antislavery legal enactments, emerged as the heroes of the abolition movement and not the villains of its earlier expansion.

The story of black businesses in South Africa remains underwritten. This book profiles the biographies of black people and communities who demonstrated impressive entrepreneurial and trading abilities both in the pre-colonial period and during the most difficult times of colonialism and apartheid.

Bundy’s research notes that the suppression of the black commercial agriculture went beyond the raid on the land. Custom duties were stacked against black farmers, thus reducing the margin on their earnings. Purchase of land by black people was also made to be very difficult. But did these black commercial farmers have names and who were they? The rest of this chapter selects some individuals to provide visibility to those who prospered during changing socio-economic circumstances.

Regardless of how liquid a black man was, the discriminatory laws made it difficult for him to purchase land freely. A laborious bureaucratic process had to be followed and permission sought, as natives were not allowed freely to acquire property in certain areas. This was due to the segregationist Native Trust and Land Act of 1936. In crude terms what this meant was that natives had to get the permission of a white man on how to spend their hard-owned pounds. Wealth did not equate to freedom.