This paper examines the character and impact of African resistance in the white farming district of Lydenburg from 1930 to 1970. The paper shows that, in the 1930s, African labour tenants faced pressure from white farmers who demanded more labour and offered less land. Tenants successfully defended their land and their free time, which prompted farmers to call in the state. The state was also unable to overcome the fairly widespread African opposition. Much of this resistance was informed by a determination to maintain some African autonomy and avoid wholesale incorporation into ‘the world of the whites’. In the 1940s deteriorating conditions on the white farms caused many young Africans to look for jobs in the urban areas, which led African families to become more flexible about the need for rural autonomy. Access to rural resources nevertheless remained an important objective. Such strategies were continually shaped by struggles within the family. In the 1950s influx control prevented African urbanisation from expanding, and tenants once again focused their efforts on maintaining control over the terms of their employment on white farms. The persistence of this small scale resistance prevented Apartheid labour policies from achieving their objectives. Because of this failure the state then decided to abandon the distribution of labour tenants and to abolish the whole labour tenant system instead. The paper therefore concludes that the transformation of labour practices in white farming districts was crucially affected by African resistance and that this resistance can only be understood adequately through a theoretical perspective that moves away from a narrow class bias.