Thesis submitted in partal fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of arts in the department of history, at the University of Natal, Durban, 1988. This thesis attempts to contextualize the emergence and development of South African Marxist studies in terms of political and economic changes in South Africa, the influence of overseas Marxist and related theories and internal and external historiographical developments. The early Marxist approach was constituted by the climate of political repression and economic growth in South Africa during the 1960's by its antagonism to the dominants liberal analyses of the country, and by the presence of indigenous Marxist theories of liberation.